The New Branch Columbus project at Royal Bank of Scotland: The implementation of large-scale business process re-engineering

The paper examines the findings from a longitudinal case study on the implementation of a large scale business process re-engineering (BPR) project at the Royal Bank of Scotland. The New Branch Columbus project was conceived to radically restructure the traditional branch banking system. It represented a major organizational, managerial and technical challenge. The research found important barriers impeding BPR at the bank. Many originated with the development and implementation of critical information technologies underpinning the project. The structural separation of the business units and IT division engendered disagreements amongst senior managers and IT staff about the key strategic and operational aims of the Columbus project. Project managers were faced with a control problem in managing permanent and contract technical staff working with the latest client server technology. Senior business and IT managers tended to under-estimate the technical difficulties of interfacing PC based client server technology with the mainframe system. Faced with these challenges, efforts to implement large-scale BPR became diluted in practice.