This is the On-line companion to my monthly column in Enterprise Reengineering The National Publication for BPR

From the February 1996 issue:
Welcome to "BPR-Internet; Making the Connection

Many organizations have extensive BPR initiatives to improve their effectiveness. Many of these same organizations are also acquiring access to the Internet. Unfortunately, very few organizations recognize the synergies between these two activities.

My goal with this column is to introduce you to the many ways that the Internet can directly assist and impact your BPR initiatives. There are several main themes I will discuss including:

1) Use of the Internet's information resources and collaborative mechanisms to serve as a reference resource for your BPR initiative. I will show you how to locate other practitioners in the field who will share their advice and experience with you. I will also identify all the vendor information that is online to help implement specific solutions.

2) How the Internet's technology (i.e. client-server applications) are readily available for you to use within your organization. There are many times when these open solutions can meet your needs, at a fraction of the cost of a proprietary system. We will also examine how proprietary systems are adding internet capabilities into their systems.

3) Expanding your BPR activities beyond the boundaries of your enterprise. Too many BPR initiatives are focused within the organization's boundaries. I will highlight the many opportunities to reengineer the information flows that cross over your boundaries and how the Internet is the key element for Inter-Business Process Reengineering. It is in this third theme where the Internet is especially positioned to provide significant benefit to an organization.

I would like to begin by reengineering our own ("author-reader") interaction process. I invite you to extend our relationship via the internet. My web site now has a section dedicated to BPR and this column. These pages will be updated regularly to contain hotlinks for ALL online resources referenced in this column.

You are also invited to participate in a "reader-reader" interaction by joining the BPR email list. To join this mailing list, send an email message to: majordomo@quality.org In the body of the message, include just the following text: subscribe BPR-iac. I consider mailing lists and discussion groups to be among the most powerful resources on the Internet, because this is where you can get current, practical information from other professionals in your field. I suspect the content of this column will be influenced by the issues and concerns being discussed in the BPR email list.

A little bit about my background. I am an Internet consultant and instructor who helps organizations gain the most benefit from the Internet. I speak about the Internet at many occasions (like NBPR `95 and CSPAN), and am the author of a CD-ROM tutorial about the Internet.

More importantly, I have also served as a BPR facilitator, working with process management teams. I know from personal experience the challenges of introducing change into an organization. I will try to keep this column focused on serving the needs of you - the reader. Feel free to contact me to let me know how I am doing.

Russ Haynal

Please be sure to visit my Archive of BPR articles.