| Author: | Cham, Shek-yuen |
| Title: | Reengineering of payment and costing process in a financial institute : a case study of a Hong Kong insurance company |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Subject: | CMG Asia Limited -- Management Financial institutions -- China -- Hong Kong -- Management -- Case studies Insurance companies -- China -- Hong Kong -- Management -- Case studies Reengineering (Management) -- China -- Hong Kong -- Case studies Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Multi-disciplinary Studies Department of Accountancy |
| Pages: | ix, 92 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1990s, there is increasing trend of adopting Business Process Reengineering (BPR) to strengthen organisations' competitive advantages. BPR refers to the radical change of critical business processes in the hope of achieving dramatic improvement of performance in terms of cost reduction, efficiency and decision effectiveness. A number of surveys show that BPR applicants overwhelmingly favour accounting as their top priority. The prevalence of ageing accounting systems and close relationship between business processes and availability of accounting information are the main causes for such desire. Academics believe that there is no obvious difference in the implementation of BPR between sectors in terms of the concept applied, the methods employed and the result achieved. Hammer (1990) has also established 7 principles of successful reengineering to support its generic application to all organizations. In fact, studies have shown that the failure rate of the implementation of BPR is very high because BPR normally involves the shift of organization culture and change of power structure. Similar to the implementation of Activity Based Costing (ABC), it not only requires a number of decision-making before implementing the BPR, but also a thorough and detailed planning in the reengineering process so that it is tailor made for the organization. This research aims at evaluating the applicability of the implementation framework and principles of BPR as defined by previous academic studies. It also tries to examine those factors that affect the application decisions involved in BPR and the related implementation issues in the finance and accounting functions. It is done by conducting a case study in a Hong Kong insurance-based financial institute -CMG Asia Limited - which has successfully implemented BPR in its payment and costing process. The findings display that the successful implementation of BPR depends not only on its good planning in all technical aspect, but also the ability of the management and project team in managing the changes resulted from BPR. This supports the view that leverage among technology, process, structure and culture are the key factors leading to the success of BPR, and its implementation should be tailored to meet the organizational needs and environmental factors. The experience as documented in this research has enriched the knowledge in the practical implementation of BPR and is valuable for other implementers. Moreover, it shares the implementation experience of ABC project for reviewing BPR's implementation that has provided a different perspective for studying BPR and suggested a new research arena. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b15353667.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.82 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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