Why Process Mining Matters?
Process mining reveals how work really happens by analyzing system data. Beyond efficiency and compliance, it explains why companies need it to succeed in digital transformation—explore below to see its full benefits.
Shortcuts
- Why is process mining important?
- Core benefits of process mining
- When should you use process mining?
- Why do you need process mining for business transformation?
- How process mining supports continuous improvement?
- How does process mining improve the customer journey?
- Challenges and considerations
- Conclusion
Organizations design processes with the expectation that work flows smoothly from start to finish. In reality, everyday execution often looks very different: manual steps, exceptions, and system gaps can slow things down or create compliance risks.
Process mining addresses this gap. By analyzing digital traces left in ERP, CRM, or workflow systems, it reconstructs how processes actually run. This makes it one of the most effective ways to perform process discovery and build a fact-based foundation for improvement.
Companies adopt process mining not just to understand the “as-is” state, but to answer bigger questions: where are we losing time, why do errors occur, and how can we adapt faster to change?
These insights explain why process mining is important—because without them, digital transformation, compliance, and efficiency efforts risk being built on assumptions.
→ Related: What is Business Process Management?
Why is process mining important?
Most organizations already track KPIs and performance metrics, but these numbers rarely explain why processes perform the way they do. That’s where process mining adds value. It moves beyond surface-level reporting to show the exact paths work takes, how often exceptions occur, and where time or resources are lost.
This transparency matters because business processes are often more complex than leaders realize. Different departments may follow different variations of the same workflow, or manual workarounds may silently grow over time. Without visibility, teams risk making decisions on assumptions rather than evidence.
By turning system data into objective insights, process mining software creates a shared reality across business and IT. It ensures that efficiency programs, compliance initiatives, or transformation projects are based on facts—not opinions.
This explains why process mining is important: it closes the gap between how processes are designed and how they actually run.
For companies in regulated industries, this clarity directly supports operational resilience, while in financial services it strengthens compliance and audit readiness.
10-Step Guide to Achieving Process and Experience Excellence
All businesses have the same goal: to run at their best. But all too often, there’s a disconnect between operations and experience. What’s missing is an outside-in perspective on operational excellence and transformation efforts. This can help you drive a differentiating edge in the market and ongoing financial success.
Core benefits of process mining
The value of process mining goes beyond efficiency gains. It provides a foundation for solving specific business challenges that organizations face in their day-to-day operations and long-term transformation programs.
1. Streamlining finance operations
In accounts payable, process mining can reveal where invoices are delayed or approvals are skipped. For order-to-cash, it can highlight how often credit checks are bypassed or orders require manual correction. These insights directly support faster cycles, fewer errors, and stronger compliance.
2. Strengthening procurement and supply chain
Process mining exposes bottlenecks in procure-to-pay, such as stalled purchase orders or contract non-compliance. In supply chain flows, it can detect recurring delays caused by manual data entry or missing documentation, enabling teams to reduce stockouts and improve on-time delivery.
3. Improving customer experience
Customer-facing processes like service activation or complaint handling often involve multiple handoffs. Process mining shows where cases get stuck, where unnecessary rework happens, and where service teams lose time on manual steps. The result is faster resolution, lower churn, and higher satisfaction.
4. Enabling digital transformation
Large-scale initiatives like ERP transformation, automation programs, or compliance projects depend on reliable process data. Process mining provides the evidence base: which processes should be automated, which need redesign before scaling, and where risks could undermine transformation goals.
5. Building resilience and agility
In uncertain environments, resilience is just as important as efficiency. By monitoring processes continuously, companies can adapt to market shifts, new regulations, or crises. This makes process mining not just a tool for cost reduction, but a long-term enabler of adaptability and competitive advantage.
When should you use process mining?
Process mining is most useful when organizations need clarity about how work is actually performed. Typical scenarios include:
- When manual process mapping isn’t enough: workshops and diagrams are useful for shared understanding, but they often reflect how people think work happens. Process mining validates those maps with objective data, capturing exceptions and hidden variations at scale.
- Before digital transformation: to baseline the “as-is” process and avoid carrying inefficiencies into new systems.
- When KPIs aren’t enough: if dashboards show performance gaps but the root causes are unclear.
- For compliance-driven industries: when regulatory pressure requires proof that processes follow defined rules.
- During continuous improvement programs: to track whether changes deliver sustained results.
In short, process mining should be used whenever decisions about change, investment, or compliance require evidence rather than assumption.
→ Related: Process Mining 2.0 - Generative AI
BPM Resources
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Why do you need process mining for business transformation?
Process mining is more than a tool for incremental improvements—it is a foundation for transformation at scale. Business transformation initiatives such as ERP migrations, automation programs, or compliance-driven change often struggle because they are built on assumptions about how processes run.
When undocumented workarounds or hidden variations are carried into new systems, transformation fails to deliver its full value.
By reconstructing the “as-is” state from real system data, process mining ensures transformation starts from reality, not guesswork. It shows where processes need harmonization before an ERP migration, which workflows are stable enough for automation, and where compliance gaps could undermine resilience.
In practice, process mining strengthens transformation by:
- ERP transformation: identifying data and process variations that must be harmonized before migration.
- Automation programs: highlighting which workflows are stable enough to automate and where exceptions may reduce ROI.
- Compliance and risk initiatives: providing execution evidence that supports regulatory resilience and audit readiness.
This is why process mining is essential for digital transformation as well as broader business transformation: it doesn’t just highlight inefficiencies, it gives leaders the evidence they need to design change that sticks, scale automation with confidence, and monitor performance long after go-live.
How process mining supports continuous improvement?
One of the biggest reasons companies adopt process mining is that it helps turn process improvement from a one-time project into an ongoing capability.
Traditional improvement efforts often stop after a redesign or a system upgrade, leaving teams without visibility into whether changes were adopted or if performance is slipping again.
Process mining closes this gap by continuously monitoring execution. By comparing “before and after” process data, it shows whether improvements have delivered the expected results and where new bottlenecks may be emerging. This makes it a natural fit within the BPM lifecycle, where optimization is not a final step but a repeating cycle.
In practice, process mining enables continuous improvement by:
- Continuous monitoring: measuring process performance over time instead of relying on one-off audits.
- Faster feedback loops: giving teams early warning when new issues arise, so they can react before small problems grow larger.
- Sustained compliance: ensuring that processes remain aligned with regulatory or internal standards even as systems or teams change.
For many organizations, this means shifting from occasional workshops and audits to a culture of continuous measurement. Instead of waiting months to discover problems, leaders can see trends in near real time and adjust processes proactively.
The result is a more resilient organization—one that adapts quickly to new regulations, technologies, or customer expectations.
How does process mining improve the customer journey?
Every process has an impact on customers—whether it’s an order-to-cash workflow, a service activation, or a complaint resolution. Delays, rework, or missed handoffs directly translate into longer waiting times and lower satisfaction.
Process mining reveals where customer-facing processes break down. It highlights which steps cause delays, where repeated handoffs slow response times, or where errors force customers to resubmit requests. By fixing these issues, organizations can reduce churn, improve response times, and deliver smoother experiences.
This customer perspective is one reason why process mining is important: it connects operational efficiency directly to outcomes customers feel every day.
BPMN 2.0 poster
The uniform documentation of processes is vital for all organizations to provide a clear definition of responsibilities and manage key data in a structured manner. Our BPMN 2.0 poster offers daily support to document processes transparently, to avoid misunderstandings and to sustainably improve processes.
Challenges and considerations
While process mining offers clear benefits, adopting it isn’t without challenges. Success depends on recognizing potential hurdles early and addressing them with the right strategy.
- Data readiness and quality: Not all systems generate event logs in the right format, and some require additional preparation before they can be used. Missing or inconsistent data can limit the accuracy of results.
- Business adoption: Process mining insights are only valuable if they lead to change. Without buy-in from both business and IT, there’s a risk of creating dashboards that nobody acts on.
- Scaling beyond pilots: Many organizations start with a single process, but struggle to scale to multiple departments or global operations. Governance, ownership, and integration with other tools are key to moving beyond proof-of-concept.
These considerations don’t reduce the value of process mining—but they highlight why it should be seen as part of a broader capability. When combined with governance, stakeholder involvement, and continuous monitoring, process mining becomes a sustainable enabler of business transformation.
Conclusion
Process mining matters because it turns hidden process data into actionable insights. It explains not only what is happening in your workflows, but why it happens—and what to do about it. The result is greater efficiency, stronger compliance, better customer and employee experiences, and a solid foundation for digital transformation.
For organizations aiming to compete and adapt in fast-changing markets, process mining is no longer optional. It has become a core capability within process discovery and the broader BPM lifecycle, enabling continuous improvement and resilience.
Process Mining: How to Make Better Decisions Faster
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why is process mining important?
Process mining is important because it gives organizations fact-based insights into how processes actually run, uncovering inefficiencies, risks, and opportunities for automation that would remain hidden with manual methods alone.
What are the main benefits of process mining?
How does process mining support digital transformation?
When should companies use process mining?
Is process mining only for large enterprises?