Determinants of business process reengineering project success in Kenya: A case study of selected companies in Nairobi

Abstract

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) has been touted in the literature as a dramatic improvement necessary for organization competitiveness, but in practice there are many unsuccessful cases. Thus, the need for a more systematic and rigorous assessment of the factors deemed important to project success. The main objective was to examine this Issue. The study adopted descriptive and diagnostic research design in collection and recording of primary data so as to facilitate and in depth analysis of the research variables Thiswas a study of 90 managers, three from each of the 30 organizations in Kenya that have conducted BPR projects in the last five years. The managers were purposively chosen and screening criteria adopted in order to only capture those who had been with the company during the last five years and had participated in the implementation of the BPR projects. Questionnaire survey instrument was used in data collection. Data emanating from the study was analyzed using arithmetic mean, standard deviations and frequencies. The data was further analysed using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, stepwise multivariate regression analysis, factor analysis. Factor analysis using Varimax rotation was done to reduce the separate success factors subgroups in Section C. Slightly more than half (63%) of the study respondents wtre males while the rest (32%) were females. Majority of respondents (79.3%) are aged between 31 and 50 years of age while 17.5% are below 30 years of age and only 3.2% above 50 years. The level of education of the respondents indicated that majority of those interviewed were either gradates or post-graduates (93%) while 5% and 2% respectively hold tertiary and secondary level education. The professional background of the respondents indicated that a majority of respondents (75.1%) are computer science and engineering professionals while the rest are accountants (14.3%), lawyers (11.1%), economists (6.3%) and business professionals (2%). As evidenced, majority of respondents (74.6%) have between 11-30 years of work experience while 17.5% and 7.9% respectively have less than 10 years more than 30 years of work experience. Majority (93.7%) of firms listed in the NSE which have implemented BPR projects in the last five years are in industrial and allied, finance and investments and commercial and services sectors. Majority indicated that product and service development processes, customer related process and inventory processes were reengineered. The factor analysis has thus found that cross-functionality of the project team, process used by the project team to implement the BPR project, the expertise available to the project team regarding the processes being reengineered, the quality of the IT support extended to the project; and the project leadership and motivation are the Success Factors of implementing BPR in Kenyan firms listed on the bourse. A wide ranging implementation difficulties were experienced and these included strong commitment to existing process, resistance to change within the ranks of the organization while others that the process was too much consultant led and dominated. In general, the findings indicate that BPR projects implemented in Kenya are not emphasizing some of the most important activities and tasks recommended in BPR literature, such as changes to customer and market-related business processes, the value added element of every business activity and applying the right innovative technology. In view of the results, implementation of BPR projects in Kenya going forward should focus attention and resources on factors important to BPR project success. It thus behooves top management of companies not to engage in BPR before ensuring the presence of the success factors found to be important in this research.