Learn More About Process Mining Tools
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.
