Process Mining and Task Mining

A major roadblock for many organizations attempting to deploy intelligent automation at scale is identifying suitable candidate processes and creating an implementation roadmap. Process mining can add immense value by identifying processes that can be automated.

Process mining tools interrogate the event logs of key enterprise systems to highlight the steps undertaken to complete a specific process. The best tools combine these digital footprints with powerful analysis techniques to present the as-is process and its variants and suggest opportunities to optimize and automate.

The benefits of process mining are not limited to highlighting automation opportunities. It can also identify process inefficiencies and bottlenecks leading to process improvement opportunities or improved resource allocation, ultimately boosting employee experience and customer satisfaction.

While process mining is a powerful tool for gaining insight into enterprise-level processes, task mining operates at a desktop level to discover and analyze the tasks users perform in between taking part in enterprise-level processes. Task mining is achieved via the installation of a local agent on each desktop that records user interactions (e.g. keystrokes, mouse clicks, etc.) and combines this with context recognition to understand how tasks are executed and the variations that exist across teams. Data privacy and related considerations inform the planning from the outset.

Task mining brings into focus opportunities for automation that would be missed if using process mining alone. Many of the automation opportunities highlighted by task mining are good candidates for citizen developers, being by their nature shorter and less complex than those captured through process mining software.

Both process and task mining can independently provide tangible value. However, to maximize the potential value these tools can provide, they should be viewed as individual elements within a larger operations excellence strategy.

Combining process and task mining tools with intelligent automation tools like RPA, chatbots, and AI provides a potent mix of discovery, analysis and execution capabilities. The combination of process mining, task mining, and intelligent automation enables organizations to move seamlessly from identifying improvement opportunities to delivering real-time enhancements and efficiencies.