Global Process Mining Survey Identifies Success Factors and Increasing Adoption of Process Mining
The Global Process Mining Survey 2021 conducted by the Deloitte Center for Process Bionics (CPB) in collaboration with the PADS group (prof. Wil van der Aalst) analyzes the current state of process mining adoption and deliver insights on how process mining generates value.
Some of the findings:
- The majority of the respondents, namely 63%, have already started to implement process mining. But there is still room for more, as currently, 87% of non-adopters are planning to conduct pilot projects or are willing to try it out with a proof of concept.
- 83% of companies already using process mining on a global scale plan to expand their initiatives, as do 77% of respondents that currently have island solutions and 63% of respondents that have recently launched a Proof of Concept.
- The key expectations of process mining are process improvement, transparency and cost reduction. 84% of the respondents believe that process mining delivers value. 31% of respondents say that process optimization measures (like automation) have delivered value.
Support processes with high efficiency but low-value potential are the most common starting point of process mining. Most of the customers have started with processes that are straightforward and have highly standardized data sets. Popular starting points are purchase-to-pay and accounting processes, followed by order-to-cash and IT service management processes.
In the foreword of the report prof. Wil van der Aalst writes:
“My personal experiences align well with the findings in this report. Process mining is most effective when it is done in an enterprise-wide manner. It makes perfect sense to start with small pilot projects to gain experience, but the real benefits come when process mining is applied to many operational processes throughout the organization in a continuous manner. Moreover, process mining can be used to identify (or even predict) performance and compliance problems. However, these insights need to be turned into concrete actions. This requires support from C-level management. Process mining projects that do not have such support, but that are expected to provide a high Return on Investment (ROI), are doomed to fail. Also, process mining often reveals data quality problems that need to be addressed anyway. Such factors should be taken into account when making ROI calculations. If the data is in good shape, it is possible to get results almost immediately. Process mining is an amazing highly-generic technology, but its value highly depends on how it is used.
Next to increasing the scope of process mining, it is crucial to better identify improvements that have a high value. Most processes follow a Pareto distribution, i.e., 80% of the cases are executed as planned or expected, and 20% are not. However, the remaining 20% of cases account for 80% of the variability and operational friction (e.g., rework and delays). The problem is that the remaining 20% of cases are heterogeneous and it is not easy to identify the deviations that matter. This requires an analytical and value-driven mindset. Therefore, this survey recommends selecting high-value processes and establishing a clear data-to-value strategy.”
Based on analysis of the findings, five key success factors have been identified.
- Cross-departmental alignment between IT and business
- Data Quality and Transformation
- Clear targets
- Leadership commitment
- Dedicated resources availability
See https://www2.deloitte.com/de/de/pages/finance/articles/global-process-mining-survey-2021.html for more information about the study and by the Deloitte Center for Process Bionics (CPB). A copy of the full report can be found here.