SAP and business process re‐engineering

To remain competitive many businesses in the 1990s have undertaken business process re‐engineering (BPR) projects re‐organizing and re‐structuring their business operations. At the same time the need for an IT business solution has enabled integrated business packages such as SAP’s R/2 and R/3 to quietly dominate the IT systems industry. Although the successes and benefits of SAP have been widely published, there is little literature on the problems associated with embracing such an integrated and unique system. The paper results from a case study of the evaluation and implementation of SAP by a very large US multinational corporation in its European, Australian and New Zealand businesses. The different approaches to the installation of an integrated core system and BPR are explored. Problems and lessons that can be learnt from the company’s experiences are also highlighted in this paper.