According to Celonis, 71% of companies use ten or more applications to run a single process. Yet despite having powerful data collection and analytics technologies, only 16% say they have full process visibility and only 7% say they have full real-time visibility. A reality that translates into inefficiencies and execution gaps that slow down the proper functioning of companies at all levels.
To precisely have more visibility and improve their digital transformation processes, more and more companies rely on what is called “process mining”a technology based on Artificial Intelligence and Big Data that analyzes data from the processes being executed in real time to understand, optimize and automate them.
Obtaining and analyzing the fingerprint of the different systems, this technology can identify the points in which the performance could improve to find the way to make them more efficient. Entelgy tells us how this technology works in four simple steps.
Process Discovery
The first step is to understand how the processes are developed and discover what is happening in the performance of the company’s business activities. For this, the collection of data in the organization’s systems is essential. Digitization allows companies to obtain a large amount of data, which becomes very valuable information with which to make decisions.
Process Mining uses discovery algorithms to automatically generate an exact schematic of the process. By collecting data from all the existing cases in the process in real time, it provides various views of the same reality at different levels of abstraction.
Process adequacy
With this scheme of the process created thanks to the analysis of the data, other techniques begin to be applied to analyze other variables that are part of the process. It is not only about the process being as fast and efficient as possible, it also has to comply with other premises that are generally proposed by the same company.
Generally, mining technology uses the adaptation phase of the process with the aim of maximizing benefits, that is, comparing different models of a process, checking its operation in other circumstances or checking if a new technology is supported by the process.
However, in some cases, this part of the process verifies, for example, if the processes are executed within the limits established by the organization, governments or any of the interested parties, a technology that also works as an anti-fraud guarantee.
Process performance
By analyzing data in real time from all the company’s processes, Process Mining technology allows you to easily measure a multitude of KPIs beyond the typical metrics of time, cost and quality. For each of these performance dimensions, different key performance indicators can be defined. The average execution time of a set of cases, waiting time or blockages, inefficiencies, bottlenecks that slow down the process, are just a few examples.
With these first three steps, the system manages to understand how the process is currently, what results it is giving and how it should be. This way we can start the last step: optimization.
process improvement
Once the mining process is complete, the improvements that can be applied begin to be designed. The solutions found by this technology could be classified into four types: harmonization, redesign, automation and artificial intelligence.
In some cases, the improvement of the process is simply to adapt the processes to save us those that may be running separately despite being very similar or eliminate those tasks that are only delaying our processes. In other cases, the solution will be somewhat more technical and will require the application of automation technologies, for repetitive and low-value tasks, or Machine Learning and the creation of learning algorithms.
