So you've heard a lot about the many benefits of RPA, and you want in, but you don't know which processes would be the best to automate first. Which manual processes are costing you the most money and time, frustrating employees, and the lowest hanging fruit for automation? And the big question: Which RPA automation project will give you the best ROI? These questions can be answered by a simple strategy: process mining. Process mining identifies business processes most suited for RPA using a data-driven approach rather than relying on human guesses.
What is Process Mining?
RPA is implemented 54% faster and its value has increased by 44% when it's combined with process mining."
– QPR
Enterprises running a myriad of software platforms often find it difficult and expensive to track processes and understand the flow of data throughout the company. With process mining, much of the work is automated providing valuable insights into all processes. Process mining can also help understand the efficiency of certain processes when performed manually. Process mining uses data from event logs to provide insights into each process. This leads to automated process discovery or identification of “as-is processes” based on data rather than qualitative methods. A typical process mining workflow looks like the graphic below.
How Process Mining Improves RPA Automation Efficiency
Understands the Processes for RPA
Process mining software overviews the entire IT infrastructure and analyzes event logs to better understand the intricacies of underlying processes. The process maps created are used by RPA bots to perform the same tasks automatically with greater efficiency and speed.
Selecting the Right Processes
Selecting processes for automation is an important part of RPA implementation. Since RPA speeds up most processes, any unidentified flaws and inefficiencies can increase. While business analysts may still be in the best position to decide which processes can be automated, a data-driven perspective by process mining software can ensure the right processes are selected for automation.
Identify Variations in Processes
Variations and deviations in processes are common occurrences especially if the processes have evolved over time and consistency has not been maintained. When automating a process, inconsistencies can be a problem. Process mining identifies these variations and helps streamline the process so it can be successfully automated with RPA.
Leveraging Process Maps
When automating a process, every step that the human worker performs needs to be carefully recorded. This can become complex and leaves businesses open to error. With process mining, all process steps can be laid out in a complete process map as a template for RPA bots.
Benefits of Process Mining for RPA Automation
78% of people who execute automation say process mining is key to enabling their RPA efforts."
– UI Path
Here are some of the key benefits process mining can have for RPA Automation:
- Examines and evaluates processes completely and precisely with accurate data.
- Thoroughly surveys and audits processes ubiquitously within the enterprise.
- Discovers the most significant processes to automate for operational efficiency.
- Incessantly supervises automation results in response to ROI.
- Maps business objectives with automation assessment.
- Acts as a checkpoint for businesses to detect variations and incompetent processes that should be reconsidered or automated again.
- Constantly monitors processes and reviews enhancements.
- Streamlines compliance activities with a thorough audit process.
Conclusion
RPA is a powerful technology, but it is often implemented without adequate planning and strategy that can bring the best results for your company. Pairing your RPA strategy with process mining ensures the best outcome for your automation goals. Process mining provides the necessary context to ensure RPA deployment is successful.
