The impact of electronic data interchange implementation with business process reengineering

The employment of electronic data interchange (EDI) is growing increasingly quickly and is expanding internationally, since certain types of benefits are expected from the adoption of EDI. However, it is found that not all companies can obtain all the benefits as expected. Some studies suggested that EDI should be implemented with business process reengineering (BPR) in order to gain the full potential benefits. In view of that, the research is proposed to better understand how the ways of EDI implementation will affect the benefits gained, so as to reduce the risk of EDI adoption. Specifically, this research combines qualitative case analysis methods with process modeling techniques to study the relationship between EDI and BPR. Case analysis is used to examine EDI implementation (e.g., motivation, approach, and level of integration) and its subsequent effects. Process modeling (mapping & simulation), on the other hand, is used to study the potential effects of BPR.