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When thinking about business processes at a large enterprise — how they interact and overlap — you can think about the enterprise like a cookbook. A cookbook is typically divided into chapters by main dishes, side dishes, or dessert — at the enterprise level, think of these chapters as departments or business functions such as Shared Services, Finance, Legal, etc. Just like you put together the various courses to make a full meal, these departments make up the functioning enterprise. Each cookbook chapter is full of recipes that have been tested to ensure that the instructions are easy to follow and deliver the dish that you were expecting. In enterprise terms, these recipes represent standardized, documented business processes such as payroll or accounts payable.
Now let’s consider process improvement tools such as process mining and task mining in this context. Process mining reviews the recipe — from the list of ingredients and the amounts required to the individual steps to follow — and lets you know if there’s an ingredient missing or if the cook time or temperature is off. With task mining, you’re in the room while the chef is making the recipe, giving you a first-hand glimpse of the subtle tweaks and techniques that the subject matter expert (SME) applies to the process — and that are not documented in the recipe. Taken one step further, every chef will have their own individual modifications that process mining alone would not catch — the enterprise equivalent would be an Excel cheat sheet that’s different for each SME, but that helps them accomplish the same process.
Mimica’s enterprise customers use both task mining and process mining to identify hidden cost savings, make data-driven decisions, and optimize processes — and they’re using the Center of Excellence (CoE) approach to maximize the combined impact. Keep reading to learn more about the differences between process and task mining, and how they fit together into the CoE model.
Process mining
Process mining follows the path of a transaction throughout a process within enterprise-level systems — such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or a customer relationship management (CRM) system — and provides insights into performance and opportunities for improvement for those processes that take place within the system.
Take the order-to-cash (O2C) process, which begins when a customer places an order and ends when payment is received and applied to accounts receivable. The entire process takes place within the ERP which generates related event logs containing a case ID (order number), activity (step that the order is in), and timestamp (time when an order moves from one step to the next). The process mining tool tracks these event logs at scale, as orders move through the process — and looks for improved business outcomes such as reducing order lead times, late deliveries, or manual rework.
Task mining
Task mining records the interactions between a user and their desktop — all of the clicks, keystrokes, and tasks performed across all of their applications such as Outlook, Excel, web browsers, CRM, ERP, and even virtual applications — to create an accurate map of the tasks that are being done, while identifying time spent, opportunities for automation, and areas for improvement.
Take an average handle time (AHT) use case in a rental car company call center. The agency knows that call center agents spend significantly more time processing rental extensions than handling other call types, but are unsure why. Task mining can uncover that the majority of agent time is spent looking up reservations in the CRM while manually performing cost estimates on extensions in Excel. With this inefficiency discovered, the company can address the root cause and take steps to improve their processes — such as updating software to automatically load reservations from call-in phone numbers and generate cost estimates without manual inputs.
The combined center of excellence
Mimica’s customers are on the cutting edge of enterprise process transformation efforts, and our partners have built world-class CoEs. They’re combining process mining and task mining to advance their organizations’ strategic goals.
How is an ideal CoE structured?
Overseen by a digital transformation leader, the CoE has two teams — one for process mining and one for task mining — and includes these core roles and responsibilities:
- CoE Lead - generates demand, evangelizes the tool, manages projects and is embedded into the other CoE team’s project team
- SME Manager - shares guidance and coordinates between CoE and SMEs
- Business Analyst - executes projects and prepares improvements
- Developer - utilizes the tool’s outputs to develop automations
- Project Manager - manages projects from value identification to realization
- Process Improvement Specialist - leverages the tool’s outputs to drive process improvement efforts
How are projects selected and prioritized?
The CoE is set up to accept potential project ideas from three main buckets:
- Strategic opportunities are identified by the CoE leader that may help business units and functions solve specific challenges.
- Top-down initiatives may refer to the strategic initiative that either tool was purchased for OR a C-level initiative where executive leadership is knowledgeable about the tools and has a specific initiative that they want to drive.
- Bottom-up ideas where employees within a business unit, division or function have demand and submit project ideas for consideration.
The CoE Lead manages the inbound requests from all three buckets, then selects and prioritizes projects based on strategic initiative alignment and the overall business impact anticipated.
A successful CoE finds millions of dollars in savings
On average, our CoE partners find $10-$50 million dollars saving in full-time equivalent (FTE) hours from their Mimica initiatives. In the case of Goodyear, "Mimica was invaluable, pointing us to time savings. You’re not just listening to people saying this is a pain point,” said Deanna Pratt, transformation leader at Goodyear, “now we have actual numbers around how many thousands of hours a process costs per year."
Watch our on-demand fireside chat with Merck’s Executive Director of Global Business Services (GBS) to hear another CoE success story. Steve shares lessons from a recent finance transformation initiative that found major cost savings across the GBS organization, and how Mimica’s task mining filled the gaps left by their process mining tool. Watch now.
