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Chapter 2 • Systems Integration 41

to a shortsighted view of improving the division or department rather than the entire organiza-
tion. This causes intraorganizational friction and is counterproductive toward an organization’s
8
overall goals. Business process focus led by such management gurus as Peter Drucker and
9
Hammer and Champy reoriented management on improving an organization’s efficiency and
effectiveness by focusing on business processes (e.g., product development and order process-
ing). The business process provides an alternative view of grouping people and resources focus-
ing on an organization’s activity, even if it means cutting across the traditional functional areas
(e.g., order processing), which involves interactions between sales, warehousing, and accounting
functional areas as the work progresses from initial sales order to collection of payment from the
client. The cross-functional business process can involve people and resources from various
functional departments working together, sharing information, if necessary, at any level of
the organization. This business process focus has moved management thinking away from
a functional department to business process view. The business process view flattens the
organizational structure from a hierarchy to a matrix where people and resources from multiple
functional units collaborated on such projects as new product development, procurement, or
order processing in order to serve the external entities of the organizations better and quicker.
The cross-functional organizational structure breaks the traditional functional silos of an
organization opening up the informational flows from one department to another. This opened
the doors for more organizational changes because some organizations are moving from process
orientation to customer orientation. A customer-centric organization focuses all its business
processes around improving the relationship with its customers. For example, Dell Computers
does not preassemble its computers for its customers; instead, Dell provides the configuration
options to its customers via the Dell.com Web site. The customer designs the computer configu-
ration based on his or her needs and then transmits the order to Dell. Dell then processes the
order and ships it to the customer within two weeks. This customer-centric approach allows Dell
to communicate and interact better with its customers and let them drive the organization’s
processes. Business process and BPR will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 9. This organi-
zational evolution from functional silos to business process and customer-centric approaches has
had a big impact on the evolution of information systems, as you will see in the next section.

Strategic
Management

Tactical Management

Functional Operations

H-R Accounting Finance Marketing Manufacturing MIS

FIGURE 2-3 Matrix Structure of Organization

8 Drucker, P. (1995). Managing in a Time of Great Change. New York: Truman Talley Books/Dutton.
9 Hammer, M., and Champy, J. (1993). Reengineering the Corporation. New York: Harper Business Press.