THE REALITY OF BUSINESS REENGINEERING - PACIFIC-BELL CENTREX PROVISIONING PROCESS

Business process reengineering (BPR), a recently popularized managemen t change strategy, promises radical improvements in the business proce sses of an organization. This article describes and analyzes one of Pa cific Bell's successful reengineering initiatives, the Centrex reengin eering project. It suggests that successful reengineering implementati on does not necessarily meet the popular assumptions underlying BPR. R eengineering designs tend to be radical and assume change to be clean slate, process-based, top-down directed, and information technology en abled. By contrast, reengineering implementation tends to involve impr ovements that are incremental, rather than radical. The key to impleme ntation appears to be a continual involvement of front-line employees and managers.