How the process mining journey around the world may assist in the digitalization, and guarantee excellence of user experiences
Process Mining is arguably one of the most ingenious software technologies developed in XXI century. It combines data mining with process management disciplines and supports the automated discovery, conformance checking and enhancement of processes. Born in the scientific community, it experienced a rapid academic development in continental Europe, mainly in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.
On the commercial side, it also found its way in Europe. Specially in support of Purchase to Pay (P2P) and Order to Cash (O2C) on SAP implementations, it found early adopters in the industry. A prevalently industry-oriented mind set, where establishing and following processes are mandatory for business success, also helped propel its adoption in the old continent.
On the other hand, Process Mining still lags in other geographies. The Americas, for example, are underrepresented in Forrester’s last Now Tech report on Process Mining and Documentation[1]. Global consulting service companies scratch their heads around why process mining does so well in Europe, but lacks traction in Asia or the Americas.
Why has process mining not yet established its development on other continents?
One may speculate that North and South Americans show less of a process driven mindset, and value service excellence through flexibility and quickness over conformance to reference process models. One might also recognise that those economies are more service-prone than industry-oriented, and customer facing operations seem more prevalent and relevant than purchasing processes, for example.
All in all, Process Mining has not fulfilled its potential worldwide. It is just scratching the surface of new applications such as customer journey and user experience management, for example. Powerhouse economies such as the US and China are still on the dawn of the process mining adoption curve.
The fact is that for process mining to realize its full potential, it has to lose a bit of its European accent. It must focus less on P2P and O2C in SAP contexts, and reach out to the digital economy, where service offerings marked by flexibility, quicker response times and operations excellence are king. Process Mining may need to develop some new capacities, but I am sure it will create a huge impact in the digital era as well. Or, as Forrester already stated:
“Process Mining is the compass in the digital transformation”.
