The Power of Data: Four Ways Process Mining Can Save Your Business Businesses today are not reaping the benefits of what we call 'process mining', instead relying on human instinct as a metric of process efficiency
By Gero Decker •
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Every process within your business leaves behind a digital imprint. No matter how granular this data is, it can reveal the inner workings of your organisation from habits and behaviours right through to risks and variances. This data is essential to transforming your business as it provides factual insights that drive effective process innovation.
Unknowingly, many businesses are not reaping the benefits of what we call "process mining', instead relying on human instinct as a metric of process efficiency. The issue is, far-reaching hunches are not grounded in evidence - they can be corrupted by all sorts of unconscious biases and missed datapoints.
Alternatively, using data to track and trace workflows gives a comprehensive and true depiction of process through discovery, visualisation and analyses. The technology penetrates the right data to reveal root problems, inefficiencies and variants to halt the cycle of business failure. The benefits will save your business - here are four ways how:
1. Transformation done right
You can't transform and scale your business without understanding what processes need to change first. In fact, a lack of information about existing processes kills 70 per cent of large scale transformation projects, and 50 per cent of robotic process automation programs.
Measuring your current state processes against how they were intended to work allows you to neaten up redundant, outdated workflows and prioritise areas that need immediate attention. Future state processes are measured against existing workflows so a roadmap can be built out to determine the best path to optimisation.
When you identify variances and optimise data collected through process mining, the result is a blueprint of what makes your business tick - both good and bad. Identifying this before implementing large transformation projects builds solid foundations for growth.
2. Understanding and collaboration
Automation anxiety can spread fast and wide when your business looks to transform. That's why the process mining stage is a great time to get your team onboard with your business' broader ambitions.
Process mining identifies variances, then optimises data to produce intuitive dashboards and investigative interfaces. These are digestible, trackable visualisations of core process metrics and KPIs. Boost confidence in your team by teaching them how to access, analyse, compare and identify problems using these dashboards, then seek their feedback on process models.
This ensures your employees understand the "why' behind process mining rather than feeling like they're being replaced.
3. Results-based decision making
Data-driven insights lead to smarter, faster decision-making. The quicker you can identify performance bottlenecks and inefficiencies that are slowing your business down, the faster you can improve workflows and processes. Actionable data insights ensure optimisation is done correctly by targeting the right area for improvement swiftly, rather than overhauling an entire process from the ground up.
Evidence gathered from process mining can be used to communicate tangible results to key stakeholders, management and employees. This means data can be used to justify projects and programs as well as leverage workflows. The more your business understands about their own processes, the better equipped they'll be to transform them.
4. Peak performance management
Once you begin monitoring and measuring process performance, you won't look back. Process mining solutions are designed to ensure your business' daily processes are operating at their peak while regularly monitoring for inefficiencies.
Process mining can also be used to safeguard against risk by ensuring your business is one step ahead of the information needed to identify and act on areas for improvement. It gives you a headstart in alerting risk managers of issues such as potential breaches, before they impact your business and its wider community.
