The Role of Process Standardization in Achieving IT Business Value

We empirically investigate the interplay and impact of process standardization and IT intensity on business process performance in terms of efficiency, quality, control, and processing time. To this aim we surveyed the retail advisory operations of Germany's largest banks. We find that standardization enhances efficiency, quality and control of the advisory process. Additionally, IT intensity on its own shows positive effects on efficiency and quality as well, while it leads to more customer facing time needed for a single customer. Also, the interaction effect with process standardization is relevant. We conclude that IT creates business value through facilitating process standardization and process control. Our results strongly indicate that managers have to look carefully at the type of the processes before standardizing it.