Best Process Mining Tools

Bijou Barry
BB
Researched and written by Bijou Barry

Process mining tools monitor event logs to recognize how a company’s employees perform business and IT processes. Process mining solutions provide visibility into current processes and the vulnerabilities or gaps within those processes. From there, it enables users to create data-driven improvements based on how these processes are conducted. These tools deliver conformance checking to ensure processes are carried out properly and alert users where steps are being missed or skipped down to the exact employee. With the assistance of machine learning, some process mining software may provide proactive, actionable insights to assist in data-driven decision making and process improvement.

Process mining software can help operations professionals recognize how business processes are carried out in practice and not just in theory. By better understanding how employees or IT systems are performing, IT project managers and operations teams can develop and automate necessary workflows. If a company is using business process management software, process mining can provide insight into the performance of prebuilt workflows. In addition, users can discover areas where they may be able to automate such processes with the help of robotic process automation software. In this category, some of the solutions are focused solely on process mining, whereas others have process mining as a component of their broader platform offerings.

Many process mining tools can integrate with various software, such as ERP systems, CRM software, and supply chain suites, among many others and are built to fit into a company’s existing IT architecture.

To qualify for inclusion in the Process Mining category, a product must:

Track event logs to discover actual business processes
Perform conformance checks to identify inconsistencies or abnormalities in business processes
Provide organizational insights into which employees are deviating from the norm
Integrate with existing business software and IT infrastructure
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Best Process Mining Tools At A Glance

G2 takes pride in showing unbiased reviews on user satisfaction in our ratings and reports. We do not allow paid placements in any of our ratings, rankings, or reports. Learn about our scoring methodologies.

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94 Listings in Process Mining Available
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(487)4.5 out of 5
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(168)4.3 out of 5
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Learn More About Process Mining Tools

What are Process Mining Tools?

At its core, process mining tools help businesses get a grasp of their processes to better understand what they are and how they are performing. When one digs into the roots of any given business, the underlying structures will often be supported by processes or the workflows and business functions that underpin operations. Processes are the steps and tasks taken to get a job done. The best processes are easily repeatable and well-documented. However, it is not always easy to get a handle on all the processes going on, as they can be distributed across individuals, teams, and systems. This is where process mining software comes in. This software can help businesses determine how to optimize their processes through automation or by making these processes more efficient. Process mining tools analyze logs from various business systems, such as CRM, ERP, and purchasing software. From there, business leaders can make informed, data-driven decisions about their processes and workflows.

Processes can quickly get out of hand. For example, one person might input data about a customer in a CRM, another might port that data out into financial software, and yet another colleague might analyze that data to derive insights. With process mining software implemented, businesses can get visibility into how the various disparate tasks combine into processes and how well they work together.

Traditionally, process mining tools are used by mid-market and enterprise-sized companies. Larger companies tend to have more siloed departments, and when business actions need to become integrated to be efficient, process mining software is an easy solution. However, small businesses can also reap the benefits of RPA technology, as they have processes as well.

What Types of Process Mining Tools Exist?

Process discovery

Process mining software can focus on process discovery. These tools are simpler and allow for an overview of processes. Some, however, use more advanced techniques, like artificial intelligence, to discover and group together processes.

Conformance checking

Conformance checking is a process mining method used to check compliance. It compares event logs or an actual process with the existing reference model, or target model, for that process. This technique determines whether the actual process corresponds to the target process.

Process reengineering

Process reengineering involves changing the process model. It includes redesigning core business processes to dramatically improve productivity, cycle times, and quality. These tools focus on the analysis and design of workflows and processes.

What are the Common Features of Process Mining Tools?

The following are some core features within process mining solutions that can help users in many ways:

Process management: For the software to process processes, robust integration capabilities with business tools, such as CRM and ERP software, are critical. This software can allow users to access and understand different processes based on their roles. This will give users the ability to find bottlenecks and identify gaps between how things should be and how they are in reality.

Process analysis: Management is the first step, and analysis is the second. Process mining tools allow users to conduct real-time process analysis, giving them process notation capabilities and the ability to define business entities and responsibilities for given processes.

Automation: Automation is not the only goal of process mining, but it often is the result. Many of these tools integrate with RPA technology, either natively or via third-party integrations. Some of them allow customers, partners, and third-party developers to create applications on top of business processes.

What are the Benefits of Process Mining Tools?

A few benefits of process mining platforms are mentioned below:

Discovery: The proliferation of systems and applications can lead to the proliferation of confusion, but it need not be so. Process mining can help discovery processes by analyzing log data produced by applications. This software could integrate with CRM software, for example, to help one get a better sense of how efficient and effective a business’ customer relationship management is. The power of this technology is that it can integrate with a host of different types of tools and, as such, can give a bird's-eye view of all processes and how they work together.

Monitoring: Once processes have been discovered, the real work can begin. Process mining systems can provide an end-to-end view of processes across the business from a host of different applications and systems. This view can show which processes are taking up the most time and resources, whether that be financial output or human capital.

Optimization: Viewing processes is not a goal in and of itself. The point and purpose of monitoring processes is to optimize them. This can take the form of automation (through robotic process automation (RPA) software, for example) or ensuring that the humans involved can reach their full potential. 

Who Uses Process Mining Tools?

Sales leaders: Lead-to-order processes can take a long time, increasing the payback time of marketing investments. Companies can uncover the reasons behind this issue and take action to reduce sales cycle time.

IT professionals: IT systems may not provide the correct solution on their first try. Process mining tools can produce data-driven insights to increase the first-time resolution rate.

Finance officers: Mistakes and manual interventions in purchase-to-pay processes increase lead time. Process mining can help companies find compatible areas of automation.

What are the Alternatives to Process Mining Tools?

Alternatives to process mining tools can replace this type of software, either partially or completely:

Robotic process automation (RPA) software: RPA software solutions sometimes have process mining capabilities baked in. Therefore, businesses that already implement RPA bots should first check if they have process mining features.

Software Related to Process Mining Tools

Related solutions that can be used together with process mining software include:

Business process management (BPM) software: A business can implement both process mining software and business process management (BPM) software simultaneously to perform different functions of process automation. However, a business might also decide to go with one or the other. BPM software, which has been around for some time, is used to analyze processes at a very high level, while process mining tools go into more granular detail. 

Business process simulation software: Similar to process mining, business process simulation software allows businesses to assess business processes. This software provides more robust tools for simulating these processes and focuses on testing and validating what-if scenarios. It provides tools for creating models as well as visualizing the models and outcomes. It is typically used by executives, managers, and external consultants looking to get a better understanding of a company’s business processes. 

Challenges with Process Mining Tools

Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges. It must always be kept in mind that process mining, like any other digital transformation or automation-related solution, is not a magic bullet. Therefore, users must keep these pitfalls and issues in mind:

Integrations: One concern that users of process mining software should be aware of is the type of software that process mining tools can integrate with to automate processes. Often, companies will deploy process mining tools on top of ERP systems, contact center infrastructure tools, or accounting software, among many other types of software. If the software that a business is hoping to automate processes within is not compatible with the process mining tool of their choice, then there is no point in purchasing that specific product. 

Compatibility: Buyers should go as far as to ensure that the process mining solution can run on either Windows or macOS or any other operating system they may run at their business. Most process mining tools are platform agnostic and can work across many different software vendors; however, it is always best to double-check when buying the software.

Unexpected costs: Just as with any software, it is essential to consider all the potential costs involved. With process mining software, users might discover that they end up spending more than they thought they would.

Which Companies Should Buy Process Mining Tools?

Each industry can benefit in some way from process mining software and implementing an automation strategy. Here are a couple of industry examples where the benefits of process mining are paying off:

Healthcare: Shifts at the hospital can be mentally and physically draining, and the last thing a med tech needs is to stay up on repetitive, low-priority tasks. Process mining software can help healthcare leaders take account of processes and ensure that processes are optimized or automated as needed.

Telecommunications: Telecommunications companies are always looking to improve their processes and bring the best and fastest services to their customers. Process mining can help them better understand their processes.

How to Buy Process Mining Tools

Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Process Mining Software 

When looking to deploy a process mining solution, it is crucial to start from the beginning. In other words, a business should begin by conducting an overview of business processes. If a company is just starting out and looking to purchase its first process mining software, or wherever a business is in its buying process, g2.com can help select the best option. As mentioned above, buyers should also consider the related and ancillary software and services they might want to deploy alongside process mining, such as RPA or robotic process automation (RPA) consultancy services

Taking a holistic overview of the business systems and processes will help businesses identify pain points. This will help them figure out which software to buy (e.g., whether it can effectively handle the business’ processes) and develop buying criteria. 

A request for information (RFI) can be useful, especially if the deployment is large in scale and scope. By producing this, a business can be well-placed to gather information from sellers. Depending on the scope of the deployment, it might be helpful to produce an RFI, a one-page list with a few bullet points describing what is needed from process mining software.

Compare Process Mining Software Products

Create a long list

Evaluating vendors should start with a long list, which will help determine whether a given solution is a good fit. Buyers should create a broad list of tools that align with their business goals. So that there is a level playing field, it is important to ask the same set of questions to each seller.

Create a short list

Next, a whittling down should take place. Through pointed questions, demos, and trials, one can go from a long list to a short one. Although this will differ for each business and use case, three to five products is typically a good number. With this list in hand, businesses can produce a matrix to compare the features and pricing of the various solutions.

Conduct demos

To ensure a thorough comparison, the user should demo each solution on the short list using the same use case and datasets. This will allow the business to evaluate like-for-like and see how each vendor compares against the competition.

Selection of Process Mining Software 

Choose a selection team

Before getting started, it's crucial to create a winning team that will work together throughout the entire process, from identifying pain points to implementation. The software selection team should consist of organization members with the right interests, skills, and time to participate in this process. A good starting point is to aim for three to five people who fill roles such as the main decision maker, project manager, process owner, system owner, or staffing subject matter expert, as well as a technical lead, IT administrator, or security administrator. In smaller companies, the vendor selection team may be smaller, with fewer participants, multitasking, and taking on more responsibilities.

Negotiation

Just because something is written on a company’s pricing page does not mean it is final, although some companies will not budge. It is imperative to open up a conversation regarding pricing and licensing. For example, the vendor may be willing to give a discount for multi-year contracts or to recommend the product to others.

Final decision

After this stage, and before going all in, it is recommended to roll out a test run or pilot program to test adoption with a small sample size of users. If the tool is well used and well received, the buyer can be confident that the selection was correct. If not, it might be time to go back to the drawing board.

How much do Process Mining Tools cost?

Generally, process mining tools require a license (priced either annually or monthly). In addition, one often pays extra per bot, with unattended bots being more expensive than attended ones. 

Return on Investment (ROI)

Since process mining might take the place of humans’ tasks (or their jobs), one must analyze and compare the cost of automation versus having humans do the same tasks. Although the extent to which the software impacts the company’s bottom line is a key indicator of success, it should not be the only one. One must also investigate the ethical ROI, or the moral impact job displacement will have.

Implementation of Process Mining Tools

Who is Responsible for Process Mining Tool Implementation?

Although some process mining solutions require significant IT support, most can be deployed directly by business leaders. These business leaders will have the best visibility into their team’s processes. For more complex deployments, support from the IT team will likely be needed. The IT team might also be involved with security. Since process mining software can access the most sensitive information, IT might get involved to test how secure the software is.

What Does the Implementation Process Look Like for Process Mining Tool?

When one seeks to automate their processes, they must start with a deep analysis of those processes. It need not start with expensive software or an external team. It can begin with pen and paper or on a whiteboard, digital or otherwise. The company, or team, can pinpoint the most broken processes or those ripe for automation, such as the most repetitive ones. Only after this hard work can the actual automation begin.

When Should You Implement Process Mining Tool?

Many solutions provide free trials to test the technology's effectiveness. This can help a business determine whether or not the solution is right for them. If the decision has been made to deploy process mining, it is key that it does not get siloed into one department; otherwise, its very deployment may lead to further complication and confusion around processes.