What is process mining?

Before we dive any deeper, let’s look at what process mining is. In simple words, it’s a technique that allows you to see every step and action taken in a business process by examining event log data (a record of events or activities that occur within a system, network, application or device) stored in information systems.

It involves extracting raw data stored in event logs and transforming it into knowledge to understand how processes are executed, to discover patterns, identify deviations, and optimise workflows.

In some cases, the process may not involve some manual aspects, such as work done outside of IT systems, which do not end up in the event log. Such situations need appropriate management.

Why is process mining important?

The most important reason for why process mining is so crucial is that it helps businesses understand more about their processes.

By visualising them, companies can identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement to make their operations smoother and more effective.

Essentially, process mining is like putting on a detective hat to uncover how things happen behind the scenes in a business.

Read more about processes, strategy, and ways to improve them in your organisation:

• Budgeting your digital transformation strategy
• IT strategic planning: roadmap from vision to execution
• What is data discovery & why it matters?

What problems does process mining solve?

Process mining addresses a range of challenges that organisations face in understanding, analysing, and optimising their business processes.

One of the primary issues it tackles is the lack of transparency and visibility into how processes are actually executed within a business.

Many times, processes are documented theoretically or based on assumptions, but the reality of how they unfold in practice can be quite different. Process mining provides a way to bridge this gap by analysing event logs and data from information systems to reveal the true sequence of activities, decisions, and interactions that occur during process execution.

This helps organisations gain a comprehensive understanding of their processes, uncovering inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and variations that may exist.

Furthermore, process mining aids in ensuring compliance with regulations, standards, and internal policies.

By analysing event data, companies can detect instances of non-compliance and take corrective actions to address them. This is crucial for industries with strict regulatory requirements, such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, where compliance failures can result in significant legal and financial consequences.

Additionally, process mining facilitates process optimisation by identifying opportunities for streamlining workflows, reducing costs, and improving efficiency.

By visualising process flows and analysing performance metrics, organisations can pinpoint areas where improvements can be made to enhance productivity and customer satisfaction.

Process mining also enables root cause analysis, allowing businesses to identify the underlying factors contributing to process inefficiencies or errors. By tracing back through event logs, organisations can determine when and where problems occur, enabling them to address the root causes and prevent recurrence.

Moreover, process mining supports performance monitoring by providing real-time insights into process execution and key performance indicators (KPIs), allowing businesses to re-examine their operational inefficiencies, e.g., reduce a patient’s treatment processing time.

This enables organisations to track performance metrics, monitor process compliance, and identify deviations from expected behaviour. With this information, businesses can make data-driven decisions, allocate resources more effectively, and continuously improve their processes to achieve operational excellence.

Key benefits of implementing process mining in business processes

Implementing process mining in business processes offers several key benefits:

• Driving efficiency: by analysing event logs and process data, organisations can streamline processes, reduce cycle times, and eliminate unnecessary steps, leading to increased efficiency and productivity.
• Enhancing transparency: by visualising process flows and analysing data, stakeholders gain a clear understanding of process performance, deviations, and variations, fostering accountability and alignment across departments. According to HFS, over 77% of leaders pinpoint transparency as the top value brought by process mining. Transparency brings significant cost optimisations, e.g., by managing material shortages in the supply chain.
• Accelerating decision making: by monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) and detecting deviations from expected behaviour, decision-makers can identify opportunities for improvement and take timely actions to address issues.
• Improving compliance: by analysing event logs and identifying instances of non-compliance, organisations can take corrective actions to mitigate risks and ensure adherence to regulatory requirements, reducing the potential for fines or legal issues.
• Facilitating continuous improvement: by analysing historical data and tracking performance metrics over time, organisations can monitor the impact of process changes, implement best practices, and drive ongoing optimisation efforts.
• Optimising resource allocation: by analysing process data and identifying opportunities to streamline workflows, organisations can optimise resource allocation to support business objectives and improve overall productivity, e.g., by eliminating duplicate payments in accounts payable. In the survey by HFS, 56% of respondents said process mining gave them tangible process optimisation insights and measures.
• Reducing costs: by identifying inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and resource redundancies within processes, process mining enables organisations to streamline operations, optimise resource allocation, and eliminate unnecessary expenditures.

Process mining use cases

Process mining offers a wide range of application across various industries.

In financial services, it is utilised to:

• analyse transaction processes,
• identify inefficiencies,
• and enhance compliance with regulatory requirements.

This ultimately improves operational efficiency and risk management.

In insurance, it helps in:

• optimising claims processing workflows,
• detecting fraudulent activities,
• and improving customer satisfaction by streamlining the claims handling process and reducing processing time.

In healthcare, process mining is employed to:

• analyse patient treatment pathways,
• identify bottlenecks in healthcare delivery,
• and improve patient outcomes by optimising resource allocation and streamlining care processes.

What are the 4 types of process mining techniques?

There are four techniques of process mining – let’s look at them in more detail:

Process discovery

Process discovery involves automatically constructing a process model based on event logs or data recorded during the execution of business processes.

It aims to uncover the actual flow of activities, decisions, and interactions that occur within a process, providing insights into how processes are executed in reality.

This process in some cases might require engaging a Data Analyst who can analyse the event logs and extract from them data that is needed.

Conformance checking

Conformance checking compares the observed behaviour of a process, as captured in event logs, with the expected or modeled behaviour of the process.

It identifies discrepancies or deviations between the actual execution of a process and its intended or documented behaviour, highlighting areas where the process may not be followed as expected.

Enhancement or process reengineering

This technique focuses on improving existing processes based on insights gained from process mining. It involves analysing process models and event data to identify opportunities for optimisation, redesign, or automation.

By leveraging process mining insights, organisations can reengineer their processes to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve overall performance.

As part of optimisation, it is worth conducting various simulations and prioritise improvements based on them.

Operational support

Operational support involves using process mining techniques to provide real-time monitoring, analysis, and decision support for ongoing process execution.

It enables organisations to detect and respond to process deviations, bottlenecks, or performance issues in real-time, allowing for proactive management and intervention to ensure smooth and efficient process execution.

The core components of process mining: tools and technologies

To help you get around the process mining, here’s a quick overview of some popular tools and process mining software options that facilitate the extraction, analysis, and visualisation of data related to business processes:

1. Celonis – a leading process mining platform that offers a range of features for process discovery, conformance checking, and performance analysis. It provides intuitive visualisation capabilities, advanced analytics, and AI-powered insights to help organisations improve their processes and drive operational excellence.
2. Fluxicon Disco – a user-friendly, lightweight process mining tool that enables organisations to visualise, analyse, and optimise their business processes. It offers interactive process maps, customisable dashboards, and powerful analysis capabilities to support process improvement initiatives.
3. UiPath Business Automation Platform –a user friendly platform allowing to perform all required actions. It offers a highly effective AI-powered business automation tool to bring forth the next big leap on AI-powered automation.

These are just three examples – before using any of them it’s worth looking at different options to check which one will be most convenient for your business and needs.

How to implement process mining in your organisation with help of Future Processing?

When thinking about implementing process mining within your organisation, consider collaboration with Future Processing.

With a vast experience in the field, we know exactly how to assess your current processes, how to prepare data for the analysis and how to analyse the prepared data to discover, visualise and optimise your business processes. We will work with you to ensure continuous improvement and will provide you with the right support to ensure you use process mining effectively in your core business activities.

Throughout the whole engagement, we will collaborate closely with your organisation to ensure that the process mining solutions meet your specific needs and objectives, deliver actionable insights and drives tangible business outcomes. Just get in touch with us today and we will take it from there!