This document discusses how companies can successfully reengineer using information technology. It states that companies cannot reengineer if they only see technology as automation or look for problems first before considering technology solutions. To reengineer, a company must think inductively and use technology to simplify processes and do new things. The document provides examples of "old rules" disrupted by new technologies that created new opportunities, such as shared databases allowing information to be available in many places simultaneously. It emphasizes that leveraging new technologies to dramatically change business processes through reengineering must be an ongoing effort for companies.

1. Chapter VII
Information Technology
&
Reengineering

2. •WHICH ALL COMPANIES CANNOT
REENGINEER?
•A company that cannot change the way
it thinks about information Technology
cannot reengineer.
•A company that equates technology
with automation cannot reengineer.

3. •A company that looks for problems first &
then seeks technology solutions for them
cannot reengineer.
•A company which applies Information
Technology to support process cannot
reengineer.

4. Which all companies can
reengineer?
•A company which thinks inductively.
•A company which applies Information
Technology not to support the process but
to simplify it.
•A company which uses information
technology not for automation, but for doing
things that they were not doing till now.

5. A company commits a fundamental
error when it asks itself “How can it use
the technological capabilities to
enhance or streamline or improve what
we are already doing?” The company
can do better by asking itself “How can
we use technology to allow us to do
things that we are already not doing?”

6. Reengineering unlike automation, is
about innovation.
It is about exploiting the latest capabilities
of technology to achieve entirely new
goals.
One of the hardest part of reengineering
lies in recognizing the new, unfamiliar
capabilities of technology instead of its
familiar ones.

7. Old Rule: Information can appear only one place
at one time.
Disruptive technology: Shared database.
New rule: Information can appear
simultaneously in as many places as it is needed.
Old Rule: Only experts can perform complex
task.
Disruptive technology: Expert system
New Rule: A generalist can do the work of an
expert.

8. Old Rule: Business must choose between
centralization and decentralization.
Disruptive Technology: Telecommunication
network.
New Rule: Business can simultaneously reap
the benefits of centralization & decentralization
Old Rule: Managers make all decisions
Disruptive Technology: Decision support
tools (database access, modeling software).
New Rule: Decision-making is part of
everyone’s job.

9. Old Rule: Field personnel need offices where they
can receive, store, retrieve, and transmit
information.
Disruptive technology: Wireless data
communication and portable computers.
New Rule: Field personnel can send and receive
information wherever they are.
Old Rule: The best contact with a potential buyer
is personal contact.
Disruptive technology: Interactive videodisk
New Rule: The best contact with a potential buyer

10. Old Rule: You have to find out where things are
Disruptive technology: Automatic identification
and tracking technology
New Rule: Things tell you where they are.
‘
Old Rule: Plans get revised periodically.
Disruptive technology: High performance
computing.
New Rule: Plans get revised instantaneously

11. Exploiting the potential of technologies to
change a company’s business processes and
move it dramatically ahead of its competitors is
not a one-time event. Nor it is something that
the companies can do occasionally.
On the contrary, staying on the top of new
technology and learning how to recognize and
incorporate it into an organization must be an
ongoing effort.