CONTACT:
Harvey Watson, Ph.D.
Business Process
   Reengineering
(210) 522-2668
E-mail: Harvey Watson

KEY TERMS:
business process
reengineering
information system 
testing
changing business
needs
information 
technology

Medical Systems Concepts and Architectures Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

Over the course of time, it is common for an organization's business processes and the information technology used to support them to evolve and diverge. Business process reengineering (BPR) seeks to evaluate how well business process and supporting infrastructure accommodate maturing and ever-changing business needs.

BPR is ultimately a process of discovery. Frequently, an organization's original business process designers are no longer available, and insight they possessed has long since been widely dispersed. Reengineers aggregate and reassemble the steps in a business process like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that have been shuffled and distributed throughout an organization.

Reengineers employ a set of investigative tools supplemented by a keen understanding of organizational behavior and habits. These behaviors and habits, also known as "processes" (both formal and informal) are what make an organization tick. Reconstructing pertinent process steps involves finding and assembling pieces of the process puzzle.

Reengineers seek not only to determine solely how existing business process steps can be accomplished faster, better, and cheaper, but to question why the steps are accomplished at all. Once the "why" is understood, BPR sets its sites on exploiting business process and information technology advances that can be brought to bear on the current validated need.

During the course of investigation, reengineers must separate key pieces of process information from diversions (i.e., separate the "can'ts" from the "won'ts"). For this reason, discretion and impartiality are of paramount importance when pursuing reengineering. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has developed significant experience in business process analysis, definition, and improvement throughout industry and at the state and national levels of government.

For more information on business process reengineering capabilities at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) or how to contract with SwRI, please contact Harvey D. Watson, Ph.D. at hwatson@swri.org or (210) 522-2668, or Waring Worsham at wworsham@swri.org or (210) 522-3759. We offer you the best approach for addressing your medical systems needs.

Medical Systems Department
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Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is a multidisciplinary, independent, nonprofit, applied engineering and physical sciences research and development organization with 11 technical divisions.