Business process reengineering and workflow automation: a technology transfer experience

In the last few years many public and private organizations have been changing the way of thinking their business processes to improve the quality of delivered services while achieving better efficiency and efficacy. This paper presents results and lessons learned from an on-going technology-transfer research project aimed at introducing service and technology innovation within a peripheral public administration while transferring enabling workflow methodologies and technologies to local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). We discuss a process reverse engineering approach and its application in the technology transfer project. We also discuss an approach for evaluation and assessment of workflow technology and present a prototype implementation for a selected process of the subject organization. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.