Abstract:

Changes in organisations due to various factors such as technological advancements or competition may bring the effect of change to certain business processes. This in turn invokes business process re-engineering (BPR) and causes a re-look and restructuring of an organisation’s strategy. The first decade of South Africa’s democracy saw extensive restructuring of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) through mergers. HEIs were combined into two, three or more campuses that were previously stand alone universities to form one university. The effects of these mergers on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) side of the MHEIs saw the restructuring and redirecting of previously individual ICT infrastructures to combined and larger ones. This paper discusses mergers of South African HEIs as an application of BPR and assesses its impact on strategy. It also positions SDMs as  artefacts that can assist during this process.  The study was of a qualitative nature and employed the interviewing survey technique as the data gathering strategy.