According to many experts, process mining is becoming an indispensable technology for companies using RPA to automate business processes. The results of a new survey, however, show less than a third of U.S. firms are using process mining tools to understand those processes. Many organizations are at least planning to leverage the technology moving forward, though: According to the State of Process Mining and Robotic Process Automation 2020, commissioned by Milpitas, Calif.-based process intelligence firm ABBYY, 42 percent of U.S. firms polled said they are either considering process mining platforms or are in the early stages of implementing them as part of their RPA programs.
“There is a direct relation to RPA project failure and not adequately understanding business process workflows and how they may deviate,” commented Scott Opitz, chief marketing officer at ABBYY. “It’s becoming clearer to organizations that process knowledge is fundamental for successful automation initiatives. More advanced process mining tools are required to offer real-time visualization of bottlenecks, analysis of how various process execution patterns impact costs, and alerts to proactively notify staff if something is occurring or perhaps not occurring in the process.
The report also found that a strong understanding of an organization’s business processes was the most important factor influencing the success of an RPA program, with 70 percent of respondents identifying it as such.