A Practical Guide to

Process Mining
The what, why, and how of using process mining
to become a fully automated enterprise™

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 In this e-book, we’ll cover:

What process How it works What it means for Real world How you can
mining is, and why automation applications get started
it’s important

Let’s get
started.

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 Do you get the impression
that your enterprise Digital footprint of a process

applications are trying to tell

you something? They are. Receive Invoice

Where are your While you try to improve your business processes

processes
through techniques like process mapping, your Pay Invoice Process Invoice
systems store loads of data about how your
processes actually work.
now, and All you have to do is know how to find it.
where do they The challenge is that, until recently, people didn’t

need to be? know how to find it, or didn’t have an easy way
to get it. So that data went undiscovered and
Approve Invoice Final Check of Invoice

unused. Process mining is changing everything.

It takes the digital footprint of a process within
your enterprise systems and automatically makes
it visible to you.

You can see in an instant how your business

processes actually perform, you can see who did
what and when, and you can view every process
variation, bottleneck, and exception. For the
first time, you have accurate and up-to-date
information to make better decisions about how
you optimize and structure your processes.
Sounds like magic, right?
Well, it’s not! It’s science and it’s here.
Who should read this e-book?
Process mining is becoming an integral
technology for a growing number of businesses
across the globe. Although process teams
have traditionally been tasked with process
improvement and optimization, business users
are increasingly becoming involved in making sure
their processes work for them.
We wrote this guide with the
following people in mind:
ƒ Automation teams looking to strengthen and
enhance existing initiatives
ƒ Continuous improvement teams
ƒ Business leaders and users
ƒ Internal audit team

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 What is process mining and why is it important?
Efficient processes that are strategically
aligned to the business have long been
a goal for organizations worldwide.
The secret to increasing productivity,
reducing costs, and driving efficiency, lies
in the ability to get the most from your
mission-critical processes.
In the past, there has been one small
problem: organizations have struggled to
gain full visibility and accurate knowledge
into how their processes actually
perform.
Until now, process improvement for many
organizations has involved traditional
business process management
techniques such as process mapping.
Think time-consuming workshops and
interviews. Such methods are often
subjective, lack relevant process data,
and are based on information that
becomes outdated as soon as the
mapping project closes out.
Process mining changes all this by
tapping into a data source that has
always been there. Most of your
enterprise applications (like SAP and
Salesforce) record every activity and
transaction that happens within each
stage of a process. We call this event
data, and this data forms the basis for
process mining (but more on that later).
Simply put, process mining chronicles
your process from start to finish,
revealing the various paths a process
takes.
It gives insight into bottlenecks and
unnecessary rework, which tells you a
lot about how efficient your processes
are. Or aren’t.

According to AI Multiple, citing a Forrester report, 37% of

decision-makers report delays to their digital transformation Happy path Actual process
initiatives due to misunderstood processes (1).
Figure 1: The expected process vs. the actual process

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 How does it work?
“Process mining Everyone has their unique way of
getting work done, and it’s normal for
is a foundational people to approach a task in different
ways. That’s not a bad thing, but over
imperative for time, you might start seeing excessive
levels of variation in the process, to
any organization the point where it weighs the business
Process mining allows you to see the
‘as is’ of your current processes and
Process mining delivers essential
provides the insights on how to move
benefits including:
it to where you want the process to
be. The analytical capabilities built
ƒ Surveys processes across your enterprise at high scale and
into process mining help you monitor
your key performance indicators (KPIs)
minimal human effort

interested in down. to ensure your process outcomes are

orchestrating
efficient operations.”
Prof.dr.ir. Wil Van der Aalst
Godfather of Process Mining
Leveraging something you already have,
the event data, process mining gives
you the opportunity to shape and create
efficient processes. And optimized
processes provide a better experience
for your customers, delivered by
happier employees.
always aligned with your business
outcomes. For instance, a strategic and
company-wide goal may be to improve
customer retention rates.
With process mining, you can track
how long an order takes to process,
your on-time and in-full delivery rates,
pinpointing the exact root cause of
delivery problems, which you can
quickly correct or eliminate.
ƒ Helps you zero in on automation-ready bottlenecks,
deviations and inefficient processes
ƒ Leverages data to boost the ROI from automation
ƒ Provides easy-to-understand dashboards for fast reporting to
business stakeholders
ƒ Continuously monitors processes to measure impact of
improvements and ROI
ƒ Democratizes process data so employees have greater control
over processes
ƒ Simplifies compliance with full audit trails and reporting
ƒ Provides a single source of process truth, reduces silos
between departments

The goal is to fully understand your processes, fostering a cycle

of continuous improvement that aids transformation initiatives,
primarily through automation.

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 What does process mining mean for automation?
There has been a heated debate for some
years over the role automation plays in
business and society. That debate is now
over. The question is no longer ‘should
we automate?’ but ‘how can we use
automation to maintain and grow our
business?’.
According to a Gartner press release,
Gartner estimates that almost 69% of
routine work done by managers will be
completely automated by 2024. (2). The
benefits of automation have stretched
past freeing staff by removing mundane
tasks. It has become business-critical.
Core processes – such as order-to-cash
(O2C) or purchase-to-pay (P2P) – have
to be as lean, agile and responsive as
possible if your business is to survive.
The growing demand of process mining
signals a new evolution in automation,
as organizations transition towards the
fully automated enterprise™, where
robots get to do all automatable tasks.
Not only are people freed from repetitive
work, they are empowered to create their
own automations. Integrating artificial
intelligence (AI) and machine learning
(ML) into automations improves process
efficiency, employee productivity, and
business decision-making.
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For this level of automation to be Process mining provides many benefits to
effective, you must have complete automation initiatives:
visibility into core processes. You must
know where the process is today, where
McKinsey, in their 2017
ƒ Provide full context and end-to-end perspective needed to improve
you need it to be, and how you can move processes and make sure automations deliver results report “A Future That
smoothly and effectively between the two
ƒ Identify the most valuable, impactful places to insert automation Works: Automation,
states. That requires process mining.
within a process Employment, And
Along with process mining and AI, robotic ƒ Continuously monitor automation performance and ROI Productivity,” estimates
process automation (RPA) is one of ƒ Drive better business outcomes by linking business rules with
the foundational elements of the fully automation assessment
that $3.6 trillion of work
automated enterprise. While each of the
ƒ Improve auditing and compliance through process comparison,
is automatable (3).
technologies offer incredible benefits to
analysis and validation
an organization, you can realize their full
potential when they are integrated.
Firstly, process mining opens the door Enterprise applications that Business processes suitable for
for RPA initiatives by supplying accurate process mining can connect to process mining (include but not
(include but not limited to): limited to):
process insights and opportunities for
automation. This enables you to identify
the most time-consuming and inefficient SAP Order-to-cash
Oracle JDE Accounts receivable
steps within a process to pass to a Findings in Forrester’s
software robot. As the robot runs, you can ServiceNow Purchase-to-pay
see its performance, how it affects your Salesforce Accounts payable
report “Future of Jobs,
process, and what further automation Oracle Peoplesoft Production 2027: Working Side
ideas you could leverage to maximize
process efficiency. Using process mining,
SAP Ariba Quality management by Side with Robots,”
Oracle EBS Meter-to-cash
you can identify the best path through a indicate that automation
process, and, when the process changes, Workday HCM Service/Incident management
the automation can adapt quickly, and Service Max Claims management
will create 14.9 million
remain effective. Lead-to-order new jobs by 2027 (4).
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Process mining
and automation
in four steps
There is no such thing as the perfect
process. In fact, there’s no such thing
as a static process. Your processes are
constantly evolving and changing over
time. Process mining ensures you’re
able to deliver processes that meet
your current needs, so you can quickly
and smoothly adapt as your business
changes.
Integrated process mining and
automation solutions are designed to
follow these four steps for effective and
sustainable transformation.
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1. Discover
The secret to process mining is its ability
to use digital footprints left behind
in applications to discover how your
processes work. Every enterprise system
captures event data related to your
processes. Process mining reads this data
and automatically transforms it into an
event log. This event log contains three
key pieces of information vital for process
mining: an activity (what happened),
a time stamp (when it happened), and
a case ID (unique case identifier). From
the event log, process mining visualizes
the process in a process graph, revealing
variations, bottlenecks, and exceptions.
Where previously this would have been
a laborious task, process mining does it
automatically.
2. Optimize/Automate
The visualization capabilities built into
process mining helps you zero in on what
should be optimized, how to do it, and
what the return on your efforts will be.
But visualization is not enough. What
it comes down to is what you do with
your findings. Automation is proven to
quickly and impactfully transform your
business. There are other measures that
can dramatically improve processes, for
example, retraining people, or removing
extra steps in the process. Improving
processes before automation will help
you build stronger and more durable
automations. It’s not always black and
white either, you might also need a
combination of automation and other
solutions. Process mining gives you the
complete picture, so you know exactly
what’s required to improve the process.
3. Monitor 4. Act
You’ve made some changes, so it’s only After monitoring, it’s important to
natural you’d want to check whether be proactive when it comes to any
it’s made a difference. When you deploy new findings. Why not use an alerting
a robot to one part of the process, you framework to immediately inform you of
often don’t know the effect on the rest unwanted process deviations? You can
of the process. That’s where process bring a human or robot into the loop to
mining can identify any bottlenecks that quickly rectify process problems. This
have just been shifted further down the instant and continuous overview of your
process. It provides much needed end- processes gives you a solid foundation
to-end process context for automation. to remain agile to constantly changing
You can also monitor your processes external conditions. Whether it’s new
using custom business logic, to solve technologies, new legislation, a new
business problems that are unique to competitive situation, or economic
your organization. changes, you can act fast and stay ahead
of the curve with process mining.
Until recently, process mining has really been the reserve of
process improvement teams, but now the software is helping to
democratize process improvement. By displaying the results
of process mining on intuitive process graphs and dashboards,
business managers and users can take greater control of their
own daily processes and workflows for the first time.
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Real world applications
Every industry can benefit from process mining, with some already
seeing widespread adoption of the technology, including:
Financial Services
Every branch of financial services is
highly regulated and strong compliance
management is essential. Process
mining provides immense help in these
areas with typical financial processes
analyzed including loan approval,
risk and investment management,
fraud, and consultancy. Some leading
companies within the financial services
industries use process mining to
surface new cross-selling and upselling
opportunities.
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Telecommunications Healthcare
Telecommunications has become The recent COVID-19 pandemic
a very customer-focused industry. highlighted the need for extremely
As markets worldwide continue to flexible and digital processes within
de-regulate, telecom organizations healthcare to handle vast increases
are increasingly innovation-oriented in demand for testing, treatment,
to attract and retain customers. With and health services. With more focus
short innovation and product cycles, on the patient journey and patient-
telecoms companies need highly centric healthcare, process mining
efficient and agile processes, making is helping connect services to the
process mining an obvious choice. patient, improve their experience, and
Client acquisition, sales and billing optimize performance for hospitals,
management, and service procurement labs, social care, and other healthcare
are just a few of the processes where providers. Process mining is combining
process mining is delivering results.   with automation to reduce or remove
manual processes and repetitive
paperwork to give doctors and medical
staff more time with the patient.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is undergoing rapid
change through the application
of disruptive digital technologies.
The days of mass production are
slowly being replaced by carefully
managed inventories based around
personalization and customization.
This is altering all parts of the
manufacturing process from how
materials are sourced, where and
how products are manufactured, how
products are delivered to the customer,
and how the customer is serviced.
Lean processes have been a feature
of manufacturing for many years so it
was clear that process mining can help
augment and enhance approaches that
manufacturers were already following.
Supply chain and logistics
Logistics and the supply chain are set
up for process mining. The industry has
always been tasked with doing things
better and faster while reducing costs.
The recent pandemic also identified
the need for flexibility and resilience.
Increased digitization within global
supply chains means that each step
within logistics processes has to be
carefully analyzed and improved
using process mining – both within
the organization and with its trading
partners and logistics carriers. The
processes where process mining is
being applied include order-to-cash,
purchase-to-pay, material, stock
and delivery processes, and quality
management. 
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Process mining in action: Purchase-to-pay (P2P)
Let’s take a look at how you
can use process mining to
transform the P2P process.
P2P is a core process for most
companies that, when deployed
strategically, drives value and
profitability in the business. It
covers every step that you take from
deciding to purchase an item to
paying the supplier.
Now, let’s look at a before
and after transformation
scenario:
Before transformation:
Your inefficient P2P process meant
that the rest of the supply chain,
and potentially end customers,
suffered. The unoptimized process
also impacted your ability to manage
working capital and cash flow. Manual
work, rework and exception handling
resulted in costly errors, not to
mention dissatisfied employees.
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The high level process looks like this:
Purchase to Goods Delivery
Create purchase
requisition
Examples of P2P transformation with process mining and automation
Discover pain points
with process mining
Long purchasing cycle time due
to bottlenecks in the purchase
requisition (PR) and purchase
order (PO) process
Supplier delivery delays
Inability to capture early invoice
payment discounts
Long cycle time to process
invoices due to incomplete or
missing data
Create purchase
Goods delivery
order
Optimize the process
through automation
Robot handles PR/PO approvals
below a threshold, a person
manages PR/PO approval above
the threshold
Use findings from process
mining to evaluate supplier
performance and share results to
create an improvement plan with
quantifiable goals
Robot runs the payment process
to ensure payment happens at
the optimal time
Robot runs the payment process
resulting in higher accuracy and
faster invoice processing time
Accounts Payable
Invoice receipt Payment & billing
After transformation:
ƒ You’ve improved throughput time,
optimized inventory and safety stock
levels
Monitor with Act to keep
process mining processes on track ƒ Automation has increased accuracy and
reduced errors, freeing people up to
Purchase order cycle time Alert your purchasing manager
work on other value-added work
whenever PR/PO approval is ƒ You’ve improved supplier relationships
above the threshold and needs
manager approval
and in turn, their ability to deliver on
time
Supplier lead time Alert your purchasing manager ƒ You can now capture early payment
whenever a supplier delivers late
On-time and in-full discounts, enhancing the cash position
of the company
delivery rate
% of discounts captured Alert your accounts payable
officer whenever a payment is at
Invoice processing time risk of being delayed
Invoice exception rate Alert your master data manager
whenever there is an exception
Invoice processing time to be handled, for example
missing supplier information
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 Process mining in action: Order-to-cash (O2C)
The O2C process is a
core process that starts
with creating a sales
order and ends with
invoice settlement.
Now, let’s look at a
before and after
transformation scenario:
Before transformation:
Your O2C process was slow
and customers were getting
frustrated with your inability to
deliver orders on time and in full.
Manual hand offs in the process
resulted in unnecessary errors
and time-consuming follow up
for employees. Poor visibility into
the process meant that systemic
process issues went unnoticed
and worsened over time. Late
processing of customer invoices
obstructed your ability to optimize
working capital and cash flow.
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The high-level process looks like this:
Create Sales
Order
Examples of O2C transformation with process mining and automation
Discover pain points
with process mining
Bottleneck creating sales orders
Discrepancy between actual
goods issue date vs. planned
goods issue date, delaying
outbound deliveries
Customers not paying invoices
on time
Order to Shipping
Manage Fulfill Sales
Ship Order
Credit Order
Optimize the process
through automation
Deploy an order processing
robot
Robot creates outbound delivery
and transfer order, person picks
the order in the warehouse.
Once completed, a robot can
post goods issue for outbound
delivery
Identify the root cause of late
payments, i.e., time between
shipment and billing creation
is too long, delay in sending
invoices, disputed invoice
amount, unpunctual customers.
Deploy a robot to generate and
send invoices, so invoices are
always on time
Accounts Receivable
Invoice
Monitor with
process mining
Sales order cycle time
Overdue outbound deliveries
Invoice creation and clearing
lead time
Days sales outstanding (DSO)
Receive
Payment
Act to keep
processes on track
Alert the responsible customer
service representative whenever
an order hasn’t been processed
by the robot
Alert shipping specialist
whenever a delivery is ready to
be picked
Whenever there is an invoice
sitting idle, trigger a robot to
handle invoice processing
After transformation:
ƒ You’ve reduced the time it takes to
unblock invoices and sales orders from
credit block
ƒ There are fewer costly errors
in the delivery process
ƒ Your customers are happy as they’re
getting their orders on time
ƒ There are less delays in your wider
supply chain
ƒ You’ve optimized your invoicing process
and cash flow
ƒ Your employees are happier
due to less repetitive and manual work.
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UiPath. A global leader in process mining and RPA
Everest Group has named UiPath as a Leader
in process mining in its report “Everest Group
Peak Matrix® for Process Mining Technology
Vendors 2020” (5). In addition, UiPath has
been recognized by analysts for a number
of years as a leader in Robotic Process
Automation (6).
Trusted by hundreds of organizations
worldwide, UiPath Process Mining is one of
the most comprehensive and feature-rich
available today.
UiPath “are ahead in developing superior
process mining capabilities, with greater
focus on ease of use for business users,
integration with enterprise applications,
accuracy in process model generation,
and analytics and dashboarding
capabilities … They have a vision to drive
enterprise performance and improve
customer experience using a data-driven
approach to process mining.”
The Everest Group
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Key benefits include:
ƒ Captures data from widely used enterprise
systems and applications, as well as legacy
and custom systems
ƒ In-built data transformation capabilities
without the need for external integrators or
SQL coding
ƒ 60 pre-built dashboards to accelerate
development and process analysis
ƒ Integration with UiPath Orchestrator to
directly trigger bots to handle tasks
ƒ Integration with UiPath Action Center to
directly alert people with human-in-the-loop
capabilities
ƒ Custom business tags to automatically detect
and flag undesirable process behavior
ƒ Proprietary process graph for user-friendly
and intuitive process analysis
ƒ Anonymization algorithms ensure data
privacy and compliance
ƒ Process-specific connectors and apps
to accelerate deployment and lower
implementation costs
ƒ Full DevOps environment to simplify
maintainability
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 Creating a 360-degree view What’s next?
of core processes Talk to one of our experts. If you want to
learn what process mining can do for your
SAP SALESFORCE ORACLE business, just reach out to us, we’d be happy
UiPath is one of the very few automation providers with the capabilities to to show you.
combine process mining with task mining. While process mining utilizes the event Process Mining
data from your enterprise applications, task mining allows you to see exactly the Process insights from CONTACT US

activities individual employees are executing within the process. business systems like
ERP and CRM

See how it works. Watch this short and

comprehensive demo video to see how an
integrated process mining and automation
360º System Data solution can help you boost efficiency across
Process
Task Mining User Data Awareness
your business

Desktop capture of tasks

WATCH THE DEMO VIDEO
performed by employeess

Figure 2: Combining process mining with task mining

Taken together, process mining and task mining
provide a complete, 360-degree view of the
process. You can see instantly what people are
doing, the effect that it has, and how things can be
improved.
You’ll also see how your process changes are
working, whether your targets are being met, and
if your employees have accepted those changes
and are now following the new process steps.
At UiPath, we believe a combination of enabling
technologies working in tandem is key for
our customers to become a fully automated
enterprise. UiPath Process Mining has been
developed to assist teams to continuously
Enroll in the UiPath Academy. Continue
learning about automation and process
mining with our free Academy training
discover and monitor their automations and
courses. Whether you’re a developer, data
processes. Whether you are part of a continuous
scientist, executive, or an analyst, there’s a
improvement team, an RPA lead, a process owner,
course for you.
or a process analyst, process mining provides the
essential foundation for successful transformation
ENROLL NOW
programs.

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