What is Process Mining?
Process mining is a widely-used technology to model, analyze, and optimize business processes. Think of a MRI that shows how your processes actually run — not how you think they run.
1. Before we start: What is a process?
Let’s get back to basics by defining processes first. A process is a series of actions or steps repeated in a progression from a defined or recognized 'start' to a defined or recognized 'finish'. The purpose of a process is to establish and maintain a commonly understood flow that allows a task to be completed efficiently and consistently. Every step of a business process leaves a digital footprint in your transactional systems in the form of event log data. Process mining software works by using this event log data to create a living picture of what your actual processes really look like — which does not always match the definition you might have worked out in process mapping workshops.
Of course, some process steps don’t necessarily take place in a transactional system — for example, sending an email or opening a spreadsheet. Task mining is the technology that collects desktop data like this. When combined with Celonis process mining, it can give an even more granular view of how work gets done within an organization.
2. What is process mining?
Process Mining: Getting an in-depth look at your business processes
Every process step you take leaves digital traces — event log data — in the transactional systems you use. Process mining extracts those digital traces and meaningfully connects them to help you understand your business better. Celonis uses the event log data from process mining to create a digital twin of your business processes, helping you visualize every move your business makes in real time. The digital twin shows you your processes as they really are, allowing you to uncover opportunities for value, and to identify and fix inefficiencies. The beauty is that it can apply to any process for each system.
Process Mining: From academia to the boardroom
10 years ago, process mining started out as an academic theory. Today, it’s a well-established business technology, used by thousands of organizations around the world, with hundreds more starting every day. It’s been widely recognized — by enterprises, analysts, and the media— as the best way to truly understand your business processes. In 2023, process mining was given its own Magic Quadrant™ by Gartner®, validating its growing prevalence amongst enterprises.
Professor Wil van der Aalst refers to process mining as “the bridge between data science [which includes algorithms, machine learning, data mining, and predictive analytics] and process science [which covers operations management and research, business process improvement and management, process automation, workflow management, and optimization].” Process mining is the technology at the heart of the Celonis Process Intelligence platform, enabling enterprises to fully understand how their core business processes run, find the hidden opportunities, take intelligent, automated action to improve performance, and unlock value across the enterprise. Want to become a process mining expert, fast? Check out our free virtual process mining course, led by the Godfather of Process Mining and Celonis Chief Scientist Prof. Wil van der Aalst.
3. Why process mining matters
Process mining reveals how your business processes actually run, and can help you change them for the better. Making your business processes run better has a well-proven, immensely positive impact on your top line, bottom line, and green line. Many businesses don’t realize how variable their processes are, and the impact that variability has on, well, everything. You can’t fix what you can’t see, and most businesses aren’t seeing the full picture of how everything’s actually getting done across programs, systems, and departments. Businesses using Celonis are often shocked to see how their processes flow in real life compared to how they should flow in theory. This is part of the great disconnect at the heart of many organizations today — departments struggle to communicate, systems don’t work well together, and, subsequently, processes go haywire. This leads to lost value, low efficiency, unmet customer needs, and greater environmental and resource burdens.
Process mining solves for this by acting as a much-needed connector between systems, programs, processes and people, shining a light into the inner workings of businesses so everything and everyone can work together more effectively.
Read more about why process mining matters.
4. How does process mining work?
Process mining works by extracting data from event logs readily available in