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Chapter 13 Building Information Systems 523

person takes it to the checkout counter and pays for it via credit card, cash, or
check. If the customer is unable to locate the book, he or she must ask a book-
store clerk to search the shelves or check the bookstore’s inventory records to
see if it is in stock. If the clerk finds the book, the customer purchases it and
leaves. If the book is not available locally, the clerk inquires about ordering it
for the customer, from the bookstore’s warehouse or from the book’s distribu-
tor or publisher. Once the ordered book arrives at the bookstore, a bookstore
employee telephones the customer with this information. The customer would
have to go to the bookstore again to pick up the book and pay for it. If the book-
store is unable to order the book for the customer, the customer would have to
try another bookstore. You can see that this process has many steps and might
require the customer to make multiple trips to the bookstore.
3. Design the new process: Once the existing process is mapped and
measured in terms of time and cost, the process design team will try to
improve the process by designing a new one. A new streamlined “to-be” pro-
cess will be documented and modeled for comparison with the old process.

Figure 13.3 illustrates how the book-purchasing process can be redesigned by
taking advantage of the Internet. The customer accesses an online bookstore
over the Internet from his or her computer. He or she searches the bookstore’s
online catalog for the book he or she wants. If the book is available, the customer
orders the book online, supplying credit card and shipping address information,
and the book is delivered to the customer’s home. If the online bookstore does
not carry the book, the customer selects another online bookstore and searches
for the book again. This process has far fewer steps than that for purchasing
the book in a physical bookstore, requires much less effort on the part of the
customer, and requires less sales staff for customer service. The new process is
therefore much more efficient and time-saving.
The new process design needs to be justified by showing how much it
reduces time and cost or enhances customer service and value. Management
first measures the time and cost of the existing process as a baseline. In our
example, the time required for purchasing a book from a physical bookstore
might range from 15 minutes (if the customer immediately finds what he or
she wants) to 30 minutes if the book is in stock but has to be located by sales
staff. If the book has to be ordered from another source, the process might

FIGURE 13.3 REDESIGNED PROCESS FOR PURCHASING A BOOK ONLINE

Using Internet technology makes it possible to redesign the process for purchasing a book so that it requires fewer steps and
consumes fewer resources.

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