For many companies, business process reengineering is just part of the "life cycle" of a competitive group: as veterans of nearly any industry can tell you, there are up times and down times. Where these experts might differ is in describing the causes of their fluctuation. Some say there's nothing to be done when a competitor seems to have the edge. Others rely on tools and strategies including business process reengineering services and solutions for getting back up on top again.

A business manager who wants to use business process reengineering options may be looking for convenient ways to "evangelize" this critical resource to their staff. If this is the way your business is going, check out these handy resources for getting your crew instructed on how to earn back that gain by drastic revision of business as usual. Business leaders can find diverse kinds of training and consulting online, including:

1. On-site help from qualified instructors on how to "take back" a company's edge with business process engineering software, tools, tactics and concepts.

2. Online business process engineer training for working these processes into a fixed schedule.

3. Workshops and seminars for quick business process reengineering training through "immersion."

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Find consulting shops for on-site help with business process reengineering

Maybe you want help right away: if so, find out how to get expert evaluation and assistance into your workplace with website offers from companies using the direct approach for teaching business principles to clients.

I recommend: Get consulting and training options from Wizdom Systems: find out about current offerings plus client history and more online. Find more training and consulting for business process reengineering to give your group the edge it needs at Digital Consulting, a provider with a detailed website offering specific solutions.

Find online business process reengineering training options

For those who can't schedule on-site trainings or collect all of their top lieutenants into one room, online BPR options are available to help. Get everyone on the same page for an extreme shop makeover to regain the upper hand through process renovations.

I recommend: Find diverse business process reengineering or "business process map" training solutions over the web at the Prosci Online Training Center. For some dynamic online training initiatives covering business process reengineering, six sigma and more, check out the website of Alabama based Mountain Home Training & Consulting.

Look for business process reengineering training workshops and seminars

For others, a one-shot solution is best. Short 3 to 4 day instruction programs can do a lot for a business; besides educating on critical business principles, they can energize a staff to go for the gusto and take on big challenges as the business morphs for competitive renovation.

I recommend: Save up to 40% on business process reengineering workshops from the Learning Tree: check out supported schedules and locations online. Find more seminars and workshops as training for business process reengineering and other tools at Object Knowledge.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When looking for BPR training options, have your own basic road map in place: network with consultants to figure out what is the general path you want to be on, then pursue training as a means to getting those changes in place.

BPR experts define business process reengineering as the radical redesign of organizational processes to achieve drastic improvement in current performance. If your company needs to drastically improve performance in one or more areas, business process reengineering training can have a huge impact on your company's bottom line.

The following signs signal your company's need for a few new business process reengineering tools:

1. The competition consistently outperforms your company

2. Much internal conflict plagues the organization

3. Meetings to address company issues are uncharacteristically frequent for your industry

4. Use of non-structured methods of communication, such as e-mail or memos, is excessive

5. Incremental improvements made continuously over time would be impossible or impractical

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Understand business process reengineering basics to determine whether BPR is viable for your company

A number of websites offer informative explanations of the principles of the business reengineering process. Many also provide pointers on how to assess your company's needs and how to best implement your business process reengineering program should you determine that redesign would benefit your business.

I recommend: Value Based Management presents Davenport's 5-step approach to the Business Process Reengineering Model, as well as general advice on when BPR should be used. BRINT Institute dispels some BPR myths, provides a chart illustrating the difference between BPR and TQM (Total Quality Management) and explains the relationship between BPR and IT (Information Technology).

Study the business reengineering process in greater detail to prepare for implementation

Many companies offer various types of business process reengineering training, which provides the knowledge you need to become your own business process engineer and implement your own strategic business process redesign.

I recommend: Some companies offering BPR training are iSixSigma, Object Discovery, LearningTree International and Business Enterprise Mapping. These 4 companies offer business process redesign training of various types, including online tutorials, on-site training, distance learning and workshops held in various U.S. cities.

Find the business process reengineering software that's most appropriate for your needs

Various companies feature business process engineering software that can handle business process modeling, business process map creation and ongoing business process management. This software can play an important role in your business process reengineering program. Many of these companies also offer, along with their software, BPR consulting services, demos, tours, tutorials, webinars, newsletters and more.

I recommend: Visual Paradigm provides business process modeling software, and inProcess features business process mapping software. Active Endpoints and SmartDraw each provide its own version of business process engineering software.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Business process reengineering is a huge step for any company, though one that can bring equally significant rewards when properly implemented. Be sure to think your decision through thoroughly and proceed only after you've done sufficient research.
• •  Should you decide to act as your own business process engineer, realize that you'll need adequate BPR training and excellent business process engineering software to successfully pull it off. You'll need to develop the skills necessary for creating a business process map redesign that not only meets your company's unique needs, but also adequately addresses your prior business process problems.

Whether you realize it or not, there are hundreds if not thousands of processes that are used by your company every single day and could be plotted on a business process map. These may be processes as simple as how to create a pot of coffee in your breakroom or how to copy flyers on the copy machine. But they may also be complex processes like receiving new goods into your warehouse or building a product on your assembly line.

No matter how smoothly your company runs, it's almost guaranteed that a business process engineer could find a way to make it more efficient. A good business process consultant, though, can bring very high fees. Instead, it may be a good option to go through business process reengineering training yourself to better your company. Business process reengineering education and training can come in a variety of ways, including:

1. Learning more about process design at a graduate level.

2. Using online continuing education options for further education.

3. Attending seminars that cover various aspects of business process reengineering.

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Learn more about business process reengineering through graduate programs

Once you reach the graduate level, you can often find certificates and programs specific to business process reengineering. If you're looking to just learn more to help your own company, a certificate program would probably suit your needs. If you're wanting to grow your own knowledge and resume at the same time, a full graduate degree with a specific concentration may be a better fit.

I recommend: Stevens Institute of Technology offers a graduate certificate in business process management through their online program. DePaul University has a concentration in business process reengineering as part of their graduate business degree.

Find continuing education in business process reengineering

If you already have a degree and don't want to obtain another one in your quest to make your business more efficient, there are a wide variety of online training materials available to you. These can help you better understand how to apply the principles of business process engineering to your business.

I recommend: Prosci's BPR Online Learning Center offers a wide variety of materials to help you learn more about business process reengineering from the comfort of your office. Intalio offers online training both on the general principles of business process reengineering and their specific software.

Utilize seminar attendance to effectively learn business process reengineering

By attending the right seminars, you can greatly increase your knowledge of business process reengineering. Some seminars are general in topic, while others cover specific business process engineering software programs. Regardless, these seminars allow you to both learn and network at the same time.

I recommend: Learning Tree International hosts seminars in business process reengineering at multiple locations throughout the country. Wizdom Systems offers seminars in business process reengineering using their software.

Business process reengineering is a methodology that is used by organizations to improve productivity and performance. The earliest type of business process reengineering was used by the Japanese and became well known in the U.S. as many companies struggled to stay competitive in a global economy. Most businesses today utilize some type of business process reengineering to improve performance. As you explore this topic it would be useful to know some of terms you may run across.

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Kaizen

Kaizen is Japanese for improvement and is a philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement in all functions of a business from manufacturing to management. The focus of Kaizen is to improve the standardized processes and activities so that waste can be eliminated. Business process reengineering is an offshoot of Kaizen.

I recommend: World Class Manufacturing discusses this term.

Continuous improvement process

Continuous improvement process (CIP) is the evaluation and management of processes so as to determine their effectiveness, efficiency and flexibility. The purpose of CIP is the identification and elimination of inefficient processes. It is usually an ongoing process that is used in business process reengineering and in which feedback from customers is evaluated against organizational goals.

I recommend: See CBS Interactive for a definition of CIP.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a strategy that was first implemented by Motorola and seeks to improve the quality of manufacturing and business processes by identifying and eliminating errors. There are a set of quality management methods that are applied to projects and which follow a well defined sequence of steps that have quantified financial targets which will either reduce costs or increase profits. Six Sigma is usually included in any business process reengineering effort that is implemented within an organization.

I recommend: TechTarget has a description of this term.

Flowchart

A flowchart is a type of chart that represents a process and which shows steps as boxes of various kinds and their order by connecting them with arrows. Flowcharts are used to design, analyze, document or manage a process and are commonly used in business process reengineering projects.

I recommend: iSixSigma explains this term and has a graphic showing what a typical flowchart looks like.

Activity-based costing

Activity-based costing (ABC) is a costing model that is used to identify activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity resource to all the products and services that each requires. Once this is done, an organization can find out what they true cost of its services or products are and can then eliminate those which are unprofitable. Business process reengineering includes activity-based costing as part of its steps.

I recommend: Rockford Consulting does a good job of explaining this term in detail.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is used in business process reengineering and refers to the process of comparing the quality, cycle time, cost or productivity of a process or method to another that is considered to be a best practice or industry standard.

I recommend: Go to BusinessDictionary.com for another definition.