You Only Have to Dig a Little for Process Mining Gold

Process Mining doesn’t have to be a huge archeological excavation. You can get surprisingly good results with just a shovel.

Process Mining – what we know

We’ve published several blogs recently on Process Mining, and we’ll take the opportunity to link some of them in this article. But for now, let’s quickly summarize what we know and have shared:

• Process Mining is a technique designed to discover, monitor and improve your business processes – fast
• Process Mining identifies process inefficiencies by following a digital trail of data
• Your workforce, customers, vendors, and others generate this digital trail when using your internal systems like ERPs, CRMs, databases, log files, audit tables, Excel documents and others
• Process Mining is based on real data – not opinions and assumptions from time-consuming process mapping exercises
• Process Mining applies equally well to any business in any industry
• Process Mining applies equally well at any point and level: a process, an operation, or end-to-end through an organization

How deep does this mining have to go?

Many clients have asked us about Process Mining – with some angst – in terms of it being a major undertaking. We think a lot of this worry is a hangover from their experiences with process mapping – the endless meetings, the sticky note flowcharting, defensive co-workers, assumptions not backed by data, and lengthy action plans that were never implemented.

However, we admit that we may have caused some of this concern ourselves. In our enthusiasm over the many (many) benefits of Process Mining, we’ve written, “… Process Mining can support your entire digital transformation strategy – it allows you to track and measure whether your digital transformation initiatives are working as planned…” While true, it’s also just as important to realize that a Process Mining project doesn’t have to be about your entire digital overhaul.

We like the analogy of the “busted pipe” versus the “leaky faucet.” A busted pipe is a big project that definitely gets your attention, you realize it needs to be fixed immediately to stop the loss. The leaky faucet is small. You may not know it’s happening or don’t really pay much attention to it. However, your water bill is higher than it should be, month after month after month. Leaky faucets need to be fixed too. 

[For complete information, check out this definitive guide to process mining we put together.]

“Any point and level”

So, it’s that last bullet point from above that we’d like to address now: “Process Mining applies equally well at any point and level.” You’ll get surprisingly good results from smaller scope projects. This will get you comfortable with how Process Mining works, and you’ll be able to see how the benefits are directly identified, measured and supported. Here are just a few examples:

• A business was incurring contractual penalties and extra fees because they were missing deadlines on vendor payments. They used Process Mining to find bottlenecks and breakdowns in accounts payable procedures. With some refresher training, fees and penalties became rare.
• A financial institution used Process Mining to analyze its HELOC document production process. It identified time wasted on transferring data fields between applications and documents – a potential savings of up to 33 percent.
• A healthcare company applied Process Mining to identify how and why supplies were being transferred between its branches. This led to optimizing purchasing and reducing costs.

So, think about that one workflow that doesn’t seem to go quite right or that department that’s always a little over budget each month. Find the leaky faucets – big benefits can come from small Process Mining projects.  

Talk with us

You have a vision for your organization – don’t let your technology slow you down. Our Process Mining solutions and experience will get you there. Sit down with us – let’s talk about your challenges, review and reevaluate your plans and get you started where it makes the most sense. Vision to Value. Faster. It’s not just our tagline, it’s what drives us. It’s how we deliver solutions and services. It’s our commitment to you – and it’s needed today more than ever. Visit www.prolifics.com or email solutions@prolifics.com.

For a larger conversation about Process Mining, watch Innovation Sandbox Episode 1:3 – Process Mining with Anant Gupta, Global Head of Digital Automation and Cloud Solutions with Prolifics.