Business Process Redesign Heuristics in The Context of Blockchain-Based Solutions

Abstract

The blockchain technology was introduced with a promise to deliver ground-breaking changes to the world. Thus, the businesses are looking for opportunities to implement the technology and exploit suggested benefits. Nevertheless, mere substitution of ex-isting technologies with a more innovative one does not guarantee a radical improvement. To achieve the desired outcome, existing business processes need to be redesigned with the consideration of the new technology specifics. This paper contributes to the “how-to” aspect of redesigning business processes to implement blockchain technology. Best practices of business process redesign are analysed in the context of blockchain technology and adapted into redesign heuristics. The applicability of the proposed heuristics is evaluated with a case study. The proposed heuristics are considered to be applicable as guidelines by the practitioners when redesigning processes for blockchain. The paper describes 4 essential focus areas for the redesign: (i) using the blockchain for shared data storage among different counterparts and hence change the scope of the process from within organization to larger scale inter-organizational processes; (ii) exploiting the potential of smart contracts for data storage, task completion and linking sub-processes; (iii) transferring data via blockchain; and (iv) exploiting tokens for asset management. The paper is concluded with the review of potential limitations to the adapted approach, along with potential opportunities for further research.