Accelerating change: financial industry experiences with BPR Available to Purchase

Presents an empirical stuFinancial institutions are accelerating change by seeking radical improvements in processes such as credit approval, new product development, claims processing and insurance underwriting. Describes an investigation of recent business process redesign (BPR) projects in North American and international institutions ‐ including banks, insurance companies and brokerages. Considers improvements in customer service quality, cycle‐time, head‐count, and cost measures. Develops and tests propositions about the organizational, technological and environmental factors which determine success or failure of BPR projects. Executive interviews and a mail survey revealed the importance of strategic planning practice, project organization, team organization, new technology and benchmarking. Different success factors were found to be associated with different types of BPR projects. Although the results of BPR are frequently less dramatic than claimed by its advocates, well‐conceived and managed projects can help the firm on a path of corporate transformation.