How Process Mining Can Boost Your RPA Strategy

by Burak Koçak
1 year ago
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What is Process Mining?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a powerful technology that can automate repetitive and rule-based tasks, freeing up human workers for more creative and value-added activities. However, RPA alone is not enough to achieve optimal efficiency and performance. You also need to understand how your business processes work, where the bottlenecks and inefficiencies are, and how to improve them. That’s where process mining comes in.

Process mining is a data-driven technique that analyzes the digital traces of your business processes, such as event logs, transaction records, or audit trails. By applying advanced algorithms and visualization tools, process mining can provide you with a clear and objective picture of how your processes actually run, how they deviate from the ideal state, and how they can be optimized.

In this blog post, we will explain how process mining can boost your RPA strategy by helping you:

  • Discover the best candidates for automation.
  • Design and implement effective automation solutions.
  • Monitor and improve the performance of your automated processes.

Discover the Best Candidates for Automation

One of the biggest challenges of RPA is to identify which processes are suitable for automation and which ones are not. Not all processes can be automated equally, and some may require more effort and resources than others. How do you know which ones to prioritize?

Process mining can help you discover the best candidates for automation by analyzing your process data and providing you with metrics such as:

  • Frequency: How often does the process run?
  • Volume: How many cases or instances does the process handle?
  • Variability: How much does the process deviate from the standard or expected path?
  • Complexity: How many steps or activities does the process involve?

  • Manual effort: How much human intervention or interaction does the process require?

By using these metrics, you can rank your processes according to their automation potential and feasibility. For example, a process that is frequent, high-volume, low-variability, low-complexity, and high-manual effort is likely to be a good candidate for automation. On the other hand, a process that is infrequent, low-volume, high-variability, high-complexity, and low-manual effort may not be worth automating.

Process mining can also help you identify the root causes of process inefficiencies, such as rework, errors, delays, or exceptions. By eliminating or minimizing these issues, you can increase the quality and consistency of your processes and make them more suitable for automation.

Design and Implement Effective Automation Solutions

Once you have identified the best candidates for automation, you must design and implement effective solutions that meet your business goals and requirements. However, this is not a trivial task. You need to ensure that your automation solutions are aligned with your actual process flows, handle all possible scenarios and exceptions, and comply with the relevant rules and regulations.

Process mining can help you design and implement effective automation solutions by providing you with the followings:

  • Process variants: How do your processes differ depending on the context or situation? What are the standard or rare deviations from the norm? How do they affect the outcome or performance of your processes?

  • Process models: How do your processes look in reality? What are the main steps and activities involved? What are the dependencies and relationships between them?

  • Process rules: What are the business rules or logic that govern your processes? What are the conditions or triggers that determine the flow or execution of your processes?

Using these insights, you can create accurate and comprehensive automation solutions that capture the essence and complexity of your processes. You can also validate and test your automation solutions against your process data to ensure they work as intended and do not introduce new errors or inefficiencies.

Monitor and Improve the Performance of Your Automated Processes

After implementing your automation solutions, you need to monitor and improve their performance over time. You need to ensure that your automated processes are delivering the expected benefits and results, running smoothly and reliably, and adapting to changing business needs and conditions.

Process mining can help you monitor and improve the performance of your automated processes by providing you with the followings:

  • Process anomalies: Are there any problems or issues with your automated processes? Are there any deviations or exceptions that require human attention or intervention? Are there any risks or opportunities for improvement?

  • Process indicators: How well are your automated processes performing? What key metrics measure their efficiency, effectiveness, quality, compliance, or customer satisfaction?

  • Process trends: How are your automated processes evolving over time? Are there any patterns or changes in their behavior or performance? Are there any external factors or influences that affect them?

By using these insights, you can track and evaluate the impact of your automation solutions on your business outcomes. You can also identify new opportunities for optimization and innovation, and continuously improve your processes and performance. Process mining and RPA are complementary technologies that can help you achieve a higher level of digital transformation and competitive advantage for your business.

If you want to learn more about how VooDoo RPA can help you leverage process mining and RPA for your business, contact us today for a free consultation and demo.

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