The role of streamlining in digitalising business processes

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has brought about digitalisation, which has impacted how we run business operations. It has created a radical change in conventional processes. Business leaders and professionals use digital technologies to enhance business processes and achieve higher efficiency. However, much focus is placed on the introduction of technology rather than on how it improves the existing business and delivers efficiency. The literature reports a controversial application of streamlining and digitalisation that has led to divergent views on business process improvement. Some authors believe there must be a sequential approach before introducing digitalisation, while others argue it depends on the opportunity to digitalise. This study explores the perspectives of South African business leaders on optimising and digitalising processes that seek higher efficiency. Thus, the conceptual framework is based on the principle of good operations, which promotes streamlining using techniques such as Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and Lean thinking before digitalisation with the Digital Assessment Tool (DAS) model. Nine business professionals were contacted via LinkedIn and interviewed in a one-on-one session using the interview guide in MS Teams. Specific questions were asked about their experiences in business processes, streamlining, digitalisation, and how they achieved efficiency.

The findings show that streamlining is how the As-Is business process can be improved in a non-sequential manner using management techniques (BPR and Lean) and digitalisation, which depends on the opportunities and requirements. Business leaders typically evaluate the outcome against the defined performance objectives, such as project deliverables, customer satisfaction, turnaround times, and other relevant goals to prove efficiency. The key message of this study is that streamlining is valuable in enhancing business processes, and efficiency is achieved when the business objectives are clearly defined and assessed. The study contributes to knowledge by clarifyingthe understanding of streamlining and recommending an assessment tool to iii guide business leaders' decision-making that looks at the efficiency impact to add value to the business