Business Process Re‑engineering

Business process re‑engineering is a means of improving the effectiveness of public services as public needs and expectations change over time, and as innovation in process and technology provides opportunities for changing the way services are delivered.

Re‑engineering involves rethinking and redesigning of the processes being used to deliver a service in order to achieve the underlying objectives more effectively. At its heart, re‑engineering involves stepping outside existing organisational boundaries and seeing the service process and its objectives as a whole, so that opportunity to deliver the service in ways that achieve better outcomes can be found.

To help government agencies – whether individual departments or several departments under one or more policy bureaux – undertake business process re‑engineering, we can offer a range of support, including:

Consultancy study

It helps to identify underlying issues and problems and develop practical solutions, whether through the adoption of new technology or new service practices.

Implementation

The best recommendations are of no value unless successfully implemented. We can work together with departments to implement recommendations from consultancy studies in a project management or project advisory role, in detailed planning or in system development. We can also assist in the important step of post-implementation review, to help capture learning that can be applied to further improve services.

Some examples of business process re-engineering are:

Business Process Re‑engineering Study on Postal Clearance System of the Customs and Excise Department

To support the work of the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) in safeguarding Hong Kong against smuggling through the postal channel, we assisted the department and the Hongkong Post to review and re-design the business processes of postal clearance as an integral part of the planned development of a new postal clearance system.

Whereas the current mode of operations relies heavily on manual processes, the re-designed business flow is enabled by the wider application of automation and technology. With the support of a risk profiling tool, more effective identification of suspicious postal items and institution of enforcement actions can be achieved in the new processes. The laborious process involved in conveying postal items in mail centres can also be eliminated through the use of automated machinery, bringing greater efficiency and more economical use of resources for the departments.

Implementation of e-Service for Permit Application System (ePAS) of the Transport Department

The Transport Department (TD) planned to implement e-Service for application for permits for bus lane, closed road, prohibited zone and restricted zone. We worked with TD to redesign the business process to improve user experience and enhance operational efficiency.

With the wider adoption of I&T and redesigned business process, applicants will enjoy a more convenient and user-friendly online service. They will be able to input application data, make renewal applications and submit supporting documents more easily. They can also check the application status online. For TD colleagues, ePAS can create cases automatically, help validate the application data, and assign cases to respective subject officers in district offices according to locations applied. The new process will improve the efficiency of handling permit applications.