The advent of the Web and the possibility of selling goods online and linking to suppliers via the Internet has led companies to embrace a new round of process reengineering. This round, driven by fears that companies that don't adapt to the Internet will disappear, seems likely to embrace more radical changes than companies were willing to contemplate in the 1990s. One wag has termed the return of BPR as "BPR on steroids"!

BPR for e-business has emphasized reorienting business processes to facilitate marketing and sales over the Web. Product manufacturing is often being redesigned to support tailoring products for customers. At the same time, everything possible is being done to cut costs, since the Web clearly will allow customers to compare prices and features in ways never before possible, bringing many companies under intense pressure to reduce prices.

Equally important, this round of process reengineering is extending the concept of a business process beyond the boundaries of the company in a major way. To support tailoring and rapid response times, companies are integrating their processes with other companies' processes in ways unimaginable just a few years ago. This supply chain integration not only automates the ordering and shipping of parts but also integrates billing and payment systems in many cases.

In effect, e-business reengineering is finally leading companies to consider the deep and radical redesigns that Hammer and other BPR gurus first advocated in the early 1990s. What was too radical then is simply necessary to...