Intelligent automation (IA) is like a library of technology solutions. IA’s system is a centralized repository for gathering and utilizing information. In automation, your books are the tasks and processes that make your business function.

IA involves robotic process automation (RPA), business process management (BPM) and artificial intelligence (AI). But let’s look more into process mining, since that’s what you came here for.

Process mining helps you categorize your tasks like a librarian might organize books by their genre. Task mining delves deeper, looking into each page and chapter to identify the individual components within. When you intelligently automate your library of processes, it’s like you’re digitizing your books – so instead of scouring titles for hours in search of the relevant topics, you can type in a simple search and have the information at your fingertips in seconds.

Building a business case for process mining is one of the first steps in your automation journey. Process mining software helps you quickly discover how your business processes run, where bottlenecks exist and how you can optimize them. Sounds pretty good, right? Of course, it takes some setup and planning to ensure the technology works with your current infrastructure and helps you glean useful results.

Hence, your business case. That’s how you’re going to explain to business leaders, stakeholders, IT and other people within the business how process mining can help your business improve. Once you’ve convinced them, that’s what we call ‘buy-in’.

What Is Process Mining?

Process mining, in simple terms, tells you what a business process looks like from start to finish. In technical terms, it’s a method of analyzing business processes based on event logs generated by ERP systems, for example. It uses algorithms to visualize and analyze the actual processes, helping identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies and deviations from the ideal process. Essentially, it’s the glossary at the start of your book telling you which chapters are on which pages – with the added bonus that it’ll tell you if any pages are missing.

Process mining bridges the gap between traditional model-based process analysis and data-oriented analysis techniques. It provides insights into how processes are actually executed, as opposed to how they were designed to be executed. This real-time, data-driven approach allows businesses to make informed decisions and implement process improvements from their discoveries.

The 5 steps of process mining

1. Process discovery: Understand and manage process flows.
2. Process analysis: Understand process performance based on actual data.
3. Process optimization: Make changes to processes to prepare them for intelligent automation/RPA.
4. Process automation: Export process data for IA.
5. Process monitoring and prediction: Receive real-time alerts when unusual process behavior occurs.

A process mining software

SS&C | Blue Prism® Process Intelligence powered by ABBYY Timeline is the perfect combination of process mining and task mining, with IA and BPM to facilitate decision-making and deliver a unified workforce with the ability to monitor, respond and predict future outcomes.

Examples of industries that use process mining

• Process mining in manufacturing and the supply chain. 
• Process mining in banking and financial services. 
• Process mining in healthcare. 

What Are The Benefits of Process Mining?

There are numerous benefits process mining enables; we’ve highlighted a few you can mention in your business case.

Efficiency

By identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies, process mining helps businesses streamline their operations and improve productivity.

Compliance

Process mining can detect deviations from standard procedures, helping businesses maintain compliance with regulations and internal policies.

Transparency

Process mining provides a clear, visual representation of business processes, enhancing transparency and understanding of how processes function.

Cost savings

By reducing inefficiencies and waste, process mining can lead to significant cost savings.

What Is a Business Case?

A business case is a detailed justification for why a project should be invested in financially and time-wise. Your business case states why, in precise terms, the business should pursue the project. Building a business case for process mining requires a clear understanding of the problem, a compelling solution and a positive ROI.

Your Process Mining Business Case Template

By following these steps, you can create a robust business case that convinces stakeholders of the value of process mining and paves the way for its successful implementation in your organization.

1 – Executive summary

Summarize all the details of your business case to gain stakeholder buy-in. This should introduce the entire plan.

2 – Identify the problem

Lay out specific reasons why process mining can help the business. These can include:

• Cost leakages.
• Resource waste or shortages.
• Operational inefficiencies.

3 – Propose the solution

Explain what process mining software does and how you can implement the tool to help prepare your organization for automation. This can include:

• Discovering bottlenecks and process slowdowns.
• Monitoring and optimizing processes.
• Gaining more insights into how work is done.

4 – List the benefits

Benefits could include cost savings, improvements, customer satisfaction and efficiency gains. Be as specific as possible. In this section, you could also include a comparison of how other technologies hold up to process mining.

5 – Calculate the ROI and TCO

Compare expected benefits to estimated costs for your potential return on investment (ROI). Your total cost of ownership (TCO) will include the cost of implementing the software, plus any consulting, maintenance and personnel training costs. By demonstrating a positive ROI, you can show that process mining is not only a valuable tool for improving business processes but also a sound financial investment.

6 – Identify potential risks

Identify any potential issues you may encounter when implementing the software and set realistic expectations. These can include:

• Technology limitations.
• Legacy systems.
• Outdated infrastructure.
• Lack of development skills.
• Requirements for good governance and compliance.
• What happens if it fails.

7 – Write a specific case study

Find scenarios in your business where processes could be analyzed and optimized, such as purchase-to-pay processing, order processing or appointment scheduling. Within the case study, you can also identify how your competitors are leveraging process mining. Showcase specific process mining use cases where you would primarily use the technology.

8 – Establish a realistic timeline

Plan a timeline and budget for implementing process mining and account for training and implementation time. This should detail aspects such as:

• Which departments are involved.
• What the end goals of each phase are.
• Roles and responsibilities.

9 – List who is involved

Identify the specific entities involved in implementing, running and monitoring the software. These should include:

• Your selected software vendor.
• Departments the software will impact.

10 – Set a clear end goal

What problems can process mining solve? Find specific results your business can achieve with process mining, with plans for scaling and expanding. These can include:

• Improved customer experience.
• Avoiding penalties or fines.
• Reducing operational costs.
• Staying agile and adapting to new markets.
• Attracting new customers, suppliers or partners.

How Do I Fit Process Mining Into An Intelligent Automation Strategy?

If your work involves digital transformation or process improvement, you’re probably familiar with organizations using process mining tools to analyze digital footprints and reconstruct core processes. Within process mining stands an important concept: conformance checks. As process mining delves into your event logs, conformance checks analyze the differences and alignments between the actual process execution and its intended execution.

By leveraging process-mining software, you can keep your business operational with effective workflows and continuous process improvement.

Inefficient tasks have the potential to slow the progress of your business, hindering its growth and efficiency if they go unseen. Whether it’s data entry, document approvals or regulatory conformance, each task, subtask and process comes with a risk for errors, oversights and non-compliance. Fortunately, task and process mining play crucial roles in alleviating these challenges and spotting automation opportunities.

Get started with process mining today with SS&C Blue Prism’s Process Intelligence