How to drive efficiency and growth with business process reengineering

For enterprise leaders, the limits of incremental change are clear. As priorities shift faster and the pressure to deliver measurable outcomes grows, outdated systems and siloed ways of working slow teams down and inflate costs.

Business process reengineering (BPR) offers a more decisive path forward. It helps organizations eliminate inefficiencies, align operations with strategic goals, and build the structure to scale with precision. With AI accelerating this shift, leaders can surface gaps sooner, automate manual tasks, and lead change that drives real impact.

With the right platform, these changes don’t stall out in planning. This article breaks down how BPR works, when to use it, and how to lead transformation that delivers results at scale using platforms like monday work management.

Get Started

What is business process reengineering?

Business process reengineering (BPR) is a method for rebuilding key business processes from the ground up to eliminate inefficiencies, drive better results, and better support enterprise goals.

Unlike continuous improvement, which makes incremental changes, BPR focuses on full-scale reinvention. It examines how work moves across departments and rebuilds those models to better serve the organization.

That level of change often calls for new technologies, new roles, and new methods of collaboration. It’s most effective with executive sponsorship, defined objectives, and full visibility into progress.

A brief history of business process reengineering

BPR first gained traction in the early 1990s, when former MIT professor Michael Hammer published his landmark article “Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate” in the Harvard Business Review. His core argument was that most business activities weren’t creating value, and automating them simply sped up inefficiency.

Hammer urged organizations to stop automating outdated processes and instead rethink how work should happen from the ground up. He advocated for a holistic, customer-centered redesign of operations, emphasizing that scaling broken systems only deepens complexity.

That mindset quickly took hold. BPR became a foundational concept in business management, shaping how organizations approached operational change, process innovation, and competitive advantage.

Today, those principles are just as relevant, especially as technology, customer demands, and organizational goals evolve rapidly.

So, how does BPR actually work in practice? Let’s break it down.

How BPR works and how to implement it

The goal of business process reengineering is to deconstruct and rebuild how work gets done, removing outdated practices and replacing them with smarter, more connected approaches. Today, AI plays a growing role in accelerating this shift, helping teams analyze, redesign, and implement change with greater speed and accuracy.

The 4 key phases of BPR

While every initiative is different, most BPR efforts follow a similar cycle:

1. Identify and prioritize the right processes: Start by pinpointing workflows that are misaligned with business goals or consistently underperforming. AI tools can support this step by analyzing operational data and highlighting friction points that may be overlooked in manual reviews.
2. Analyze the current state (“as-is”): Map how the process works today across systems and teams. Use AI-powered process mining or pattern recognition to surface inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and outliers across datasets and execution logs.
3. Design the future state (“to-be”): Redesign the process to eliminate unnecessary steps, clarify roles, and better support strategic objectives. AI can help simulate outcomes, test process logic, and even recommend optimizations based on historical data or current usage patterns.
4. Test and implement: Roll out the new model in phases, monitor performance, and adjust based on real-time feedback. AI-enhanced monitoring can detect anomalies early and help teams refine workflows faster.

When done right, BPR leads to measurable gains across productivity, cost, quality, and time to value. But sustainable change starts with the right foundation.

Things to keep in mind for BPR success

Once you understand the cycle, here’s what makes BPR initiatives more likely to succeed.

• Select the right team: Build a cross-functional group with the authority, domain knowledge, and data access to lead transformation.
• Set clear goals: Define success metrics such as time to completion, cost per process, customer satisfaction, or system utilization. Use AI dashboards to track these key performance indicators (KPIs) and help quantify whether the redesigned process is delivering value.
• Plan for change management: New processes often require new skills or role changes. Communicate early and prepare teams to adopt new ways of working. AI-driven training tools and knowledge bases can help streamline onboarding.
• Use the right tools: Look for platforms that support process mapping, data integrity, audit readiness, and AI capabilities. In regulated industries, ensure role-based access and compliance frameworks like SOC 2 or HIPAA are supported.
• Commit to continuous improvement: Reengineering isn’t one-and-done. AI can help organizations continuously surface new improvement opportunities by analyzing performance patterns and identifying areas where effort isn’t translating into impact.

What to expect from a BPR initiative

BPR timelines vary. Department-level transformations may take a few weeks, while enterprise-wide efforts can span several months. Unlike business process management (BPM), which focuses on gradual optimization, BPR requires a deeper upfront investment with longer-term returns.

To reduce risk, many organizations start by prototyping new approaches in select teams or regions before scaling more broadly. AI can help streamline this process by reducing manual edits during rollout, spotting gaps earlier, and making real-time recommendations as teams test and iterate.

For example, SPH Media centralized campaign operations across 40+ media brands using BPR software, cutting through siloed communication and manual workflows to drive coordinated execution across teams. With the right framework in place, BPR can run in parallel with daily delivery, helping teams test, learn, and scale without major disruption.

How BPR compares to other improvement approaches

When should you consider implementing BPR?

Business process reengineering isn’t an everyday initiative. It’s a high-value move that helps leaders address operational breakdowns and lay the foundation for more consistent delivery.

Here are common signs it’s time to reengineer how your teams operate:

Your business goals stall at the planning stage

When priorities are obvious but outcomes fall short, the issue often lies in how work is structured. Disconnected systems, unclear ownership, and inefficient handoffs make following through on business-critical initiatives challenging.

You’re navigating post-merger complexity

M&A can accelerate growth, but also bring overlapping operations, duplicated roles, and conflicting systems. Reengineering helps streamline functions and align new teams around shared systems.

Cross-functional collaboration feels fragmented

If work slows down at handoffs or decisions stall waiting on other teams, your operations likely weren’t built for scale. Addressing these inefficiencies system-wide removes friction and builds trust across departments.

Digital transformation initiatives are stalling

Rolling out new tools without rethinking the processes behind them leads to confusion. BPR ensures operations evolve alongside your systems, not behind them.

Once you’ve identified the need, assessing where and how to apply BPR effectively is equally important.

Common enterprise use cases for business process reengineering

Business process reengineering is most effective when applied to areas that directly impact delivery speed, cost reductions, and long-term resilience. These systems often shape organizational culture, influence strategic goals, or offer the most visible improvement opportunities.

• Operations: Optimize production timelines, reduce lead times, and eliminate waste in resource-heavy workflows. Country Road Group transformed its retail planning process by moving from disconnected spreadsheets to a work management platform, improving efficiency by 25% across 150+ active projects.
• IT: Consolidate legacy systems, standardize data pipelines, and reduce friction between platforms. These efforts often unlock new quality management capabilities and reduce operational costs.
• Customer service: Improve ticket resolution times, simplify escalation paths, and ensure customers move through support systems with less friction. Reengineering here can deliver measurable gains in both service quality and employee efficiency.
• HR: Streamline hiring, onboarding, and mobility workflows to support a more agile, engaged workforce. Simplified setups also contribute to a stronger organizational culture and better employee experience.
• Finance: Accelerate approvals, lower procurement risk, and build consistent forecasting models. Finance teams often see substantial cost savings and fewer delays through better-aligned financial operations.

When applied intentionally, these initiatives deliver measurable business value.and create a competitive advantage. By focusing on high-impact systems, organizations position themselves to adapt quickly and scale smarter.

Key benefits of BPR and what’s at stake without it

Business process reengineering helps lay the foundation for faster, smarter work, so your teams can adapt quickly, operate more efficiently, and support evolving strategic goals.

Whether you’re launching a new project, scaling cross-functional teams, or navigating market uncertainty, BPR provides the structure to act decisively and sustain momentum.

Here’s what changes when you take a proactive approach to reengineering:

What organizations gain when they invest in reengineering

When business process reengineering is done right, the impact is far-reaching. From everyday efficiency to long-term scalability, here’s what organizations can expect to gain:

• Clearer alignment: Cross-functional work becomes easier to manage when ownership, processes, and goals are defined and connected. Teams stay focused on work that drives impact.
• Lower operating costs: Outdated systems lead to resource waste, whether it’s time, budget, or talent. BPR helps eliminate unnecessary steps and optimize what’s already available.
• Improved scalability: Growth can expose gaps in informal systems. Reengineering helps standardize and replicate what works. At Software AG, BPR helped unify campaign planning across regions, boosting efficiency by 66% and improving collaboration by 71%.
• Faster follow-through and adaptability: Rebuilt operations support faster decisions, quicker approvals, and better visibility — all of which help your organization respond to change without losing momentum.
• More room for automation: Once a process is rebuilt with a focused structure, it becomes easier to automate repetitive tasks, freeing teams to focus on high-impact work.

Choosing not to reengineer where it’s needed slows progress and limits insight into what’s working, where resources go, and how efforts connect to outcomes. Most enterprise leaders can’t afford to take that risk.

Challenges of business process reengineering and how to overcome them

Even with a strong vision, reengineering can introduce complexity. The larger the organization, the harder it is to shift how work happens across multiple teams. That’s why successful BPR efforts start with more than intent. They begin with a clear view of the road ahead.

Here’s how it could play out:

• Lack of executive alignment: BPR requires top-level sponsorship. Without it, initiatives lose momentum and clarity. Assign clear ownership across teams and ensure buy-in early.
• Team resistance to change: Radical change can feel disruptive. Bring employees into the process early, communicate often, and share small wins to maintain engagement.
• Weak data foundations: Basing reengineering efforts on assumptions rather than real data increases risk. Use process mining tools, AI-powered insights, and real-time dashboards to uncover how work actually happens and where improvements will matter most.
• Overanalysis and slow execution: Spending too long designing the perfect solution delays its impact. Avoid this by piloting small changes, testing in real conditions, and iterating quickly.
• Disjointed ownership: When no one is accountable for cross-functional decisions, reengineering stalls. Assign leadership, often through a transformation office or operations lead, and empower them to move change forward.
• Tooling gaps and outdated systems: Disconnected tools make it hard to see what’s working. Use centralized, audit-ready platforms that offer full transparency, governance, and scalability.

The good news is that these pitfalls are avoidable. When BPR is grounded in business alignment, backed by accurate data, and supported by the right systems and leadership, the risks shrink and the benefits accelerate.

A strong foundation makes it easier to launch changes with confidence, maintain team engagement, and adapt as your organization grows. Many organizations reduce disruption by rolling out updates in phases or piloting small changes before scaling.

When should you skip BPR and improve your current process management instead?

Reengineering creates impact, but it’s not always the right fit. In many cases, refining what already works is more effective than rebuilding from scratch.

If a process is stable and produces consistent results, incremental optimization may be more valuable. Replacing a working system can introduce unnecessary risk.

The same goes for areas with low business impact. If a process doesn’t affect customer satisfaction, revenue, or delivery speed, it’s likely not worth reengineering.

Resource availability is another key factor. If your teams are already stretched thin or you lack strong executive sponsorship, BPM-style updates may offer quicker, more manageable wins. These smaller improvements can reduce friction and optimize performance without a full redesign.

And when timelines are tight, smaller process enhancements can help you move faster while setting the stage for future operational shifts.

Ultimately, the decision comes down to impact. If a process is broken and central to business-critical goals, reengineering is often the right call. But when the opportunity lies in refining something that already works, process management is usually the better choice.

Most organizations benefit from both. BPR helps reset what’s outdated, while BPM keeps high-performing operations evolving.

Once you’ve decided to reengineer, the next question is how to do it with speed, oversight, and structure.

Get Started

How business process reengineering comes to life with monday work management

Reengineering is more than fixing what’s broken — it’s enabling scale, clarity, and continuous growth. That’s where monday work management fits in. It provides that foundation with the structure and intelligence to power transformation across your most critical operations.

Whether you’re redesigning a key process or leading cross-functional change, the platform helps teams stay aligned, informed, and equipped to deliver results at scale.

Alignment around business priorities

High-impact work starts with clarity: on goals, ownership, and how each initiative contributes to broader outcomes. With monday work management, it’s easy to connect day-to-day work to strategic direction in one shared system.

• Link OKRs (objectives and key results) directly to project boards so everyone works toward the same targets.
• Track progress through executive dashboards with built-in AI-generated summaries that surface key milestones and delays.
• Assign clear ownership at every level to drive follow-through and maintain accountability.

AI adds value here by analyzing patterns across projects to recommend task prioritization and flag misaligned goals before they slow down progress.

Visibility and control across the organization

Reengineering depends on seeing the full picture. Leaders need a real-time view of how work moves across teams, without chasing updates or piecing together data.

• Access a live view of portfolio health and detailed project status.
• Uncover blockers and dependencies early using AI-powered alerts that surface risks based on historical trends.
• Maintain a single source of truth with structured data sharing and centralized governance controls.

AI also supports process mining capabilities so teams can automatically analyze how processes run across departments, identify performance gaps, and pinpoint where time or resources are being lost. These capabilities foster trust, reduce duplication, and speed up business-critical coordination.

Efficiency at scale, powered by structure and intelligence

Rolling out change shouldn’t add complexity. Teams can make change happen faster with flexible templates that adapt as needs evolve. With monday work management’s AI capabilities, teams can launch, test, and adapt reengineered processes quickly.

• Start with flexible templates or build from scratch to match your exact process needs.
• Use AI to detect inefficiencies and recommend streamlined steps based on actual usage.
• Automate repetitive tasks with intelligent triggers and smart AI workflows.

Playtech, for example, used Monday to reengineer its delivery process, improving efficiency by 26% and saving three hours per person each week. AI was a key part of that success, helping the team eliminate unnecessary steps and maintain momentum.

Lead with confidence across your most critical operations

Business process reengineering isn’t about change for its own sake. It’s about ensuring your people, tools, and processes are built to support what matters most — today and as your business grows.

monday work management helps you close the gap between plans and outcomes. From setting priority-level goals to managing complex transformations, you’ll have the tools to drive meaningful change.

Try monday work management to reengineer your most critical operations and deliver with confidence.

Get Started