Intranet technology as an enabler of BPR: AN exploratory study in public healthcare

The growth and popularity of e-commerce has both challenged and enabled public sector organisations to redefine their levels of service. In the early 1990’s BPR was proposed as a mechanism for change. However, after reports of successive BPR failures the momentum for BPR abated. This paper explores the relationship between Intranet Technology and BPR and, by means of case studies conducted in two organisations in the Irish public sector, investigates the potential of Intranet Technology to become an enabling technology for BPR.. The paper uses the Venkatraman framework for IT enabled change as the framework for the investigation. The paper demonstrates that in accordance with the framework BPR can be approached by top down strategic or bottom up evolutionary methodology. The main finding is that although each organisation took alternative approaches neither actually achieved BPR due to lack of open senior management commitment but that Intranet Technology was considered a key enabler of BPR.