Blockchain and Principles of Business Process Re-Engineering for Process Innovation

TL;DR

This paper explores how blockchain technology and smart contracts can enable process innovation by applying the principles of business process re-engineering, emphasizing their potential for transformational redesign within organizational ecosystems.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of applying BPR principles to blockchain solutions, highlighting their applicability and potential for process innovation.

Findings

BPR principles are applicable to blockchain-based solutions.

Blockchain enables transformational process redesign.

Smart contracts are central to blockchain-powered ecosystems.

Abstract

Blockchain has emerged as one of the most promising and revolutionary technologies in the past years. Companies are exploring implementation of use cases in hope of significant gains in efficiencies. However, to achieve the impact hoped for, it is not sufficient to merely replace existing technologies. The current business processes must also be redesigned and innovated to enable realization of hoped for benefits. This conceptual paper provides a theoretical contribution on how blockchain technology and smart contracts potentially can, within the framework of the seven principles of business process re-engineering (BPR), enable process innovations. In this paper, we analyze the BPR principles in light of their applicability to blockchain-based solutions. We find these principles to be applicable and helpful in understanding how blockchain technology could enable transformational redesign of current processes. However, the viewpoint taken, should be expanded from intra- to inter-organizational processes operating within an ecosystem of separate organizational entities. In such a blockchain powered ecosystem, smart contracts take on a pivotal role, both as repositories of data and executioner of activities.