Data has made many things possible for businesses of all scales – from newly-launched startups and SMBs to fully-established enterprises. When it comes to improving the operational outcomes, it is the data extracted by observing each human-digital interaction that can help analyze the current process model, conform to the ideal process model, and achieve process excellence. But like any new initiative, you need to be very careful in the start to reap sweet fruits afterward.
Remember, it is the start that is the most crucial. Even the slightest miscalculation can lead to wasted efforts, ineffective results, and a lot of skepticism toward the technology. Kicking off the process discovery initiative with the right start is imperative to increase the initiative’s effectiveness and maximize the returns. Let’s find out how you can do it.
How to launch a process discover initiative right
Process discovery initiative is the way to go when you want to observe work, get a deeper insight into your process, and improve them to get better outcomes. There are different powerful analysis tools that observe individuals as they work and give a complete visual report of your process.
Using this report, many enterprises have successfully created their ideal process model, progressed in their digital transformation efforts, and aimed for hyper-automation. You can also continuously monitor the processes to ensure conformance with the same. Learn how your process is performed on the root level by the people with all the deviations, bottlenecks, repetitions, delays, etc. You can harmonize the processes by knowing how people in different process stages work and finding the proper practices to optimize them.
However, getting the right insights is only possible when you have launched your process discovery initiative in the right manner. Here are some of the steps that you should take or things you should keep in mind:
Bring together the right team
You cannot launch any project and expect it to succeed until you have brought together the right team. Other than those who yearn for excellence and innovation in processes, you also need to have process mining and discovery champions ready to embrace the evolving work environment. They need not just be the c-suite executives. This team needs to be ingrained into all the layers of your organization. At the same time, you will also need the approval and direct involvement of high-level members, cooperation, and eagerness to enhance the processes through this cutting-edge initiative.
You need to find the IT players and the executives who would understand the urgency and importance of this initiative. Apart from that, you will also need to find subject matter experts to handle the software tools. You might come across different opponents, deniers, neutrals, and even proponents who have varying views on your proposal for discovering the process. But you need to deal with all types of people in the organization to ensure the initiative runs smoothly once it is initiated.
Identify the right use case
Did you know that one of the biggest reasons why most RPA initiatives fail is that they aren’t performed in the right process? Finding the right process is crucial for any automation initiative. Likewise, identifying the right use case with maximum human-digital interaction is imperative for process discovery. Your initiatives will not reach fruition if you haven’t identified the use case that can be observed to know your process.
You might have different goals. Let’s say you want to undergo an effective digital transformation. So, how can process discovery help you adapt quickly and gain success with this digital transformation initiative? Let’s find out.
Process discovery acts as a precursor to digital transformation. It helps you gain transparency into your process so you can also have successful ‘digital’ projects kicking off. How can process mining help in this use case?
- It can help you make digital transformation decisions based on evidence and improve customer experience.
- It automates process optimization to help you expand your efforts and connect better with customers.
- You can get a deep analysis of the performance and conformance of any process ready for digital transformation.
- It can help you find the right process for the RPA initiative.
Get Ready For Data Observance
Process discovery happens between committed states of data. It’s no different from data mining except that in the former, you mine the data for analyzing, improving, and conforming to a particular process. In the latter, you mine data for any purpose. Basically, committed states of data set the foundation of process discovery. So, before you even think of process discovery, you need to know that it will observe each and every nuance between the committed states of data.
Enterprises have large IT systems that collect data at each event. Here are the three components that you might require in the data sets for process mining:
- Activity: This is the name of the activity or step being performed and ready for mining.
- Unique Case ID: This unique case identifier tells about different data added.
- Timestamp: This is when the data entry is created and helps identify any delays in the process.
But apart from the case ID for the training of the process discovery tool, the activity & timestamp recorded by systems might be optional. This is because process discovery goes far beyond the analysis of recorded events. It enables hyperautomation. It uses technologies like Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, etc., to observe every possible human interaction with machine precision.
Stay focussed on specific processes
There isn’t enough focus given to the fact that you always need to start small with process discovery. You need to focus your efforts on a specific process at the beginning with a clearly defined start and end. Putting all your eggs in the same basket will be too time-taking and risky.
You can always start small with a process that is a clearly defined part of your core operations. This way, you can actually know how well the process discovery tool is observing work. And if it can work for you, how much cost it helped in reducing, and how much effective it was. Once you have seen the results, it is easier to scale the goals to other processes.
In summary
Start slowly to achieve process excellence. With each enterprise aiming for digital transformation, launching a process discovery initiative is the way to go. However, the start is the most crucial part and can determine whether you are successful with process discovery. Like all other new technologies, tech leaders always recommend starting to discover the process with a smaller project first. When they’ve achieved process excellence, you can move ahead with the discovery of the process’s more extensive projects too.
