A Simple Guide to Process Mining

Optimized processes are the goals of all businesses. As enterprises are making efforts to automate repetitive tasks with Robotics Process Automation (RPA) and leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to aid decision-making steps, the demand for Process Mining is also on the rise. According to IDG, more than 90% of German enterprises consider Process Mining an important digitization step. What is Process Mining and why does it play such an important role? Here is the answer.

What is Process Mining and How does it work?

The term is self-explanatory: Process Mining basically involves mining into the process to get in-depth knowledge, revealing the inefficiencies and improvement opportunities. According to Gartner, Process Mining is “a technique designed to discover, monitor and improve real processes (i.e., not assumed processes) by extracting readily available knowledge from the event logs of information systems.” 

Simply explained, Process Mining leverages the data available in business systems, such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management), and visually maps the real process, helping businesses streamline the entire business operations.

Process Mining provides a holistic view of business processes (Source: media.baamboozle.com)

Key capabilities of Process Mining 

Gartner listed some critical capabilities of Process Mining as follows:

• Automatedly discover process (extracting process models from an event log)
• Check conformance (monitoring deviations by comparing model and log)
• Perform social network/organizational mining
• Automatedly construct simulation models
• Extend model
• Repair model
• Predict case
• Give history-based recommendations

Why businesses should apply Process Mining 

If people see all their process variants with Process Mining, and know what’s actually going on, it feels like they are seeing snow for the first time. They are completely amazed. 

Wil van der Aalst – The God Father of Process Mining

“They can’t fix what they can’t see”, people says. While process optimization is much desired by all businesses, there is a big problem that most of them are having, according to Prof. Wil van der Aalst, is a lack of awareness: they don’t know what’s going wrong in their workflow. Most enterprises outline how processes should run, but only in the ideal world.  Soroco reveals that, in fact, up to 75% of business processes are based on unstructured interactions. On the other hand, some businesses highly focus on improving the “to be” processes and invest little in exploring the process as it is, basically because they can’t see the difference between the two. Therefore, they often miss out on valuable optimization opportunities.

Read more: The Perfect Match of RPA and Process Mining

How enterprises can benefit from Process Mining 

Process Mining helps provide accurate and in-depth knowledge of the process as it is. This valuable understanding is considered the foundation for all optimization efforts of any businesses. In specific, Process Mining enables:

• Standardized processes and streamlined business outcomes: Process Mining reveals the most accurate picture of how processes are performed, which can be translated into inefficiencies detection and optimization opportunities. Thanks to Process Mining, businesses can implement a leaner and more effective operation.  
• Improved performance, time, and cost efficiency: Process Mining is capable of creating event logs where who did the task, and how long it takes are detailed. The technology, therefore, helps businesses better visualize what an ideal process looks like and adjust the current one accordingly for maximum productivity and resource optimization.
• Technology application opportunity identification: Just like a medical check-up for the processes, Process Mining reveals which part of the workflow is repetitive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive for automation. From this knowledge, businesses can know exactly where automation delivers the highest value and if the integration of RPA with other intelligent technologies is crucial. Also, Process Mining helps create an error-free base for automation
• “Shift-left”: Shift-left is familiar in the IT world, especially in testing, indicating the early improvement and problem-solving in the process. With Process Mining makes it possible for businesses to identify all the flaws in their workflow, it allows early actions to minimize risks and increase product quality.
• Optimized use of data: Process Mining helps businesses go beyond data storage and analytics. It turns data into action by digging deeply into the current “as is” process and providing detailed insights for efficiency enhancement.

akaBot proudly partners up with Soroco, the leading Process Mining solution provider headquartered in the US, to deliver comprehensive automation solutions of world-class quality to clients. Explore our solution now!

Source:

1. 11 Benefits of Process Mining in 2022
2. Definition of Process Mining
3. What Process Mining Is, and Why Companies Should Do It
4. Process Mining

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