Breaking the rules: success and failure in groupware-supported business process reengineering

In the information economy, businesses are changing more often and more rapidly than ever before. The lessons learned from a decade of business process reengineering (BPR) research may provide insights to researchers and managers trying to understand and successfully navigate these changes. This paper examines the successes and failures of groupware-supported BPR processes in four organizations. Two were successful and two were failures. Groupware allowed certain tasks to be performed faster, added structure to the BPR process and facilitated participation by more people. The key difference between the successful and the unsuccessful cases was when and how senior management was involved. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.