Process Mining Vs. Task Mining

Process Mining Vs. Task Mining

What are the differences and how should you apply them?

In order to truly understand Process Mining Vs. Task Mining, we will first look at each of the technologies and why they are leveraged by organizations.

Process Mining

Process Mining is one of the fastest-growing technologies being adopted by organizations. The technology takes data from existing CRMs, ERPs, and other IT systems and transforms it into what’s known as an “Event Log”. This log is then visualized through a process map, allowing users to identify and analyze bottlenecks, inefficiencies, compliance issues, and other opportunities to improve a business process.

Why do companies leverage process mining?

It really boils down to improving performance (the efficiency of a process), improving conformance (ensuring that it happens in line with company procedures and policies), and identifying opportunities for automation in processes like:

  • Order to Cash
  • Procure to Pay
  • Hire to Retire
  • Customer Support Tickets
  • Accounts Payable and Receivable
  • Credit Applications
  • Patient Queuing
  • And Many More…

Task Mining

Task Mining is a new and growing technology. It involves monitoring specific tasks being performed by users to identify where time is spent and where things can be automated to improve overall operations and reduce repetitive/wasted activities (i.e., copying and pasting from one system to another).

Task Mining Agent
Task Mining Agent

Why do companies leverage task mining?

In today’s post-pandemic world, employees are scattered all over the globe making it challenging for companies to ensure things are done efficiently and correctly.

Task Mining offers companies the ability to monitor specific user actions (assuming the right tool is selected that accounts for protecting a user’s privacy. Look for a follow-up post on the topic of privacy concerns around Task Mining). This helps identify areas where improvements can be made, where RPA will have the maximum benefit, and where integrations could help.

Task Mining can help in areas such as:

  • Reducing wasted hours
  • Eliminate cut and paste between systems
  • Identify a pipeline of automation projects
  • Help prioritize integrations between systems
  • And Many More…

Combining Both Process Mining and Task Mining

The newest trend when we look at Process Mining Vs. Task Mining, is a growing interest in combing the two technologies, this reveals for businesses an even more insightful lens into how their processes really work. Leveraging Process Mining software to reveal what is happening within a system of record (or multiple) and then task mining to discover how long is being spent on each step.

Take for example an order to cash (O2C) process. Through the system of record, process mining can discover bottlenecks and root causes that are driving delays in the process like an elongated discount approval step. While extremely beneficial for a company’s overall workflow to drive improvements in working capital, task mining can add an additional layer of how long is spent on an activity. For example, once the approval bottleneck is addressed task mining could help discover that entering the orders from the CRM to ERP is a costly and time-consuming activity tying up valuable resources. Since task mining can discover how long is being spent on this it also allows businesses to quantity costs and thus truly analyze the return on investment (ROI) of integration or robotic process automation (RPA) project.

James Henderson, CEO mindzie

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