Process intelligence and its growing significance for businesses in 2023

A typical business process comprises various roles, tasks, and systems executed differently. Unfortunately, a lack of adequate tools makes it impossible for executives to identify root causes during process deviations. Explicit variations are easily recognizable, but subtle nuances stay camouflaged. And quick fixes could easily limit business opportunities in the long term and possible chances of higher returns. Undoubtedly, existing processes become ineffective with time, resulting in service delays, lost revenue and market to competitors, and added overhead costs for the company. Therefore, a bird’s eye view of each operation is imperative, so they are responsive enough to seize an opportunity as and when they occur.

Business process intelligence – A brief overview

Process intelligence is data systematically extracted to analyze every step within a business operation, reflecting the overall workflow. Business process intelligence provides:

As a result, it helps elevate the quality and speed of operations while mitigating process risks and arresting overhead costs. Process intelligent data provides a basic understanding of what is expected from each process and how they can be transformed to garner higher results.

Manual methods of unearthing process data have proved insufficient and inaccurate for multiple reasons. Thankfully, process intelligence tools use new-age technologies like AI and Computer Vision to automatically create a detailed blueprint of the current digital processes across all applications, departments, and the entire enterprise. The automated software systems can monitor each task execution and extract data without disrupting the general workflow. Furthermore, since the tools follow specific pre-programmed rules, the chances of omitting or removing incorrect data are negligible. Therefore, the quality of process intelligence captured is impeccable, error-free, reliable, and accurate.

Furthermore, process intelligence software systems collect, aggregate, clean, and update data in a centralized platform for easy and real-time visibility.

Evaluating the importance of business process intelligence

The primary objective of extracting process intelligence is to transform existing operations digitally to keep up with the changing times. Reliable and accurate data captured in real-time eliminates the guesswork from the process and enables owners to make informed choices regarding business process transformations. Therefore, optimization initiatives become faster, more accurate, and more data-driven. However, its benefits are not limited to process migration only.

At the most granular level, process data reflects bottlenecks and assists owners in identifying tasks consuming the maximum time for execution. This will help determine if automation is needed to speed up workflows and arrest human errors. On the other hand, employees can leverage business insights to deliver their objectives more accurately, and their efficiency improves manifold.

Process intelligence fuels intelligent automation, value engineering, process standardization, resource optimization, and employee experience. Additionally, from a business standpoint, it can improve compliance and governance and enhance operational efficiencies across the enterprise.

Benefits of process intelligence for businesses

Often, enterprise transformation initiatives fail at the pilot stage, and in many other instances, the owners need help to scale digital solutions across critical operations. Lack of visibility into actual processes is one of the primary reasons. In the absence of accurate and real-time process intelligence, implementing any change to the existing system is quite impossible. Therefore, process intelligence software solutions serve some specific purposes, namely:

Scalability: Process intelligence comprises granular details about how each process functions, demonstrating problem areas needing immediate improvement.

Accuracy: It leverages cross-application datasets and AI technology to provide real-time insights, allowing businesses to make informed and impactful decisions.

Speed: It identifies slow, manual steps within each process so enterprises can opt for digital solutions to accelerate task executions, improving the company’s time-to-value and returns on innovation investments.

Unbiased: Process intelligence tools are automated, capturing as-is processes without the bias or errors associated with manual capture.

Continuous: These software systems continually capture process variations across different shifts, locations, and roles to optimize and tailor future processes for unique needs.

Process intelligence can reinvent businesses – Four reasons to justify

When companies need help understanding their processes, they can solve the equation of what to automate and why with process intelligence tools. With automated solutions, owners can easily access data from multiple locations and applications, gain a comprehensive view for deep process understanding, and make informed decisions. In addition, process intelligence empowers enterprises to optimize business processes and test automation capabilities for higher outcomes. Below are the following four reasons businesses must invest more in process intelligence tools to revamp their operations.

Improved operational efficiency

Process intelligence allows owners to dive deep into each process, map workflows, and mine data for analysis on a real-time basis. The tools capture accurate data on workflows, people responsible for their execution, the duration for task completion, average lead times and existing bottlenecks, and their source of origin. Non-linear processes with multiple discrepancies are mapped to compare how work is done against standard practices. Such insights enable owners to decide whether to automate or eradicate recurring, time-intensive tasks to bring down the overall time taken for execution, thereby accelerating workflows and improving operational efficiency. When processes are streamlined, employees can complete their responsibilities efficiently and within the stipulated time. Their productivity improves while deliverables are accurate and reliable.

Enhanced customer experience

Today, customers prefer tailored and hyper-personalized services matching their convenient expectations. So, companies need information about what the former needs, things that motivate their buying decisions, and where they prefer searching for information or shopping. With the help of such valuable insights, it becomes a lot easier for owners to custom-create services for their end users and keep up with their quantity and quality preferences. Furthermore, services and product information transparency are essential for new-age-conscious buyers. These details help build trust and loyalty among buyers. And good customer journeys and shopping experiences can go a long way in boosting the brand’s awareness in the market while drawing more valuable prospects.

Better decision making

A study shows that nearly 43% of companies surveyed agree that process intelligence enables them to leverage data strategically and win over markets within a year. But data should be available in real-time, as and when needed, for any game-changing strategy. Process intelligence software solutions ensure that the same data is present at your fingertips. These tools supersede the manual capabilities of humans for extracting data from multiple sources and processing and analyzing them within the shortest time possible. Hence, decision-makers have readily available quality and reliable insights to frame their strategies.

Increased agility and flexibility

Process intelligence empowers organizations to become more agile and flexible with their operations and strategies. With the rightful insights, they can adapt quickly to the rapidly changing and ambiguous environment. In addition, it helps enterprises become more responsive and technologically adept while effectively catering to the needs of employees, stakeholders, and clients.

Process intelligence software implementation – Challenges and remedies

Misaligned expectations: It is always better to outsource advanced software systems from trusted vendors for various reasons. Continuous backend support is one of the main reasons behind the choice. However, poor research about the vendor and their software offerings can lead to many challenges when employees start working with them. Misaligned expectations and what kind of support the vendor can provide will turn into a dominating concern going forward. Transparent and open communication between internal project heads and the vendor can save a lot of pain.

Poor data integrity: Post software integration, enterprise data needs to be migrated from the existing system to the new one. But here, important decisions are required pertaining to which data can be shared across systems and which cannot. And also, data integrity and quality should be maintained during transfer. Any chance of data getting compromised or spoiled can damage the company. So, understand the level of interoperability between the two systems and continuously verify data integrity to be safer.

The non-cooperative mindset: 79% of respondents in a survey kcited ‘people’ as a top three challenge for process intelligence adoption. Every employee within the team is responsible for ensuring the software implementation’s success. That the new tool will be in the best interest of all should be communicated first, and then a framework for identifying common user problems should be created so everyone in the team is on the same page.

The unpreparedness of the IT team: Some employees would be satisfied working with the existing system, wherein the IT team might need a basic understanding of how to work with more advanced tools. Recruiting a new batch of trained staff is never a feasible option. So, companies should focus on training their team about the benefits of a new process intelligence software solution and how to use them effectively.

Lack of vendor support: The vendor is an extended partner in the project, and their expertise will be needed to ensure a smooth transition. Therefore, opening lines of communication with them is essential, especially during the initial days. But first, companies need to ascertain from the vendor’s earlier or existing clients about their customer support before making a wrong investment choice.

Diminishing productivity: Frequently, it has been witnessed that employee productivity dips during a new software implementation. This can impact the ROI of the system and employee morale. However, contextual learning, based on an individual’s current needs, alongside tailored guidance and real-time support, can enable employees to complete their work and maintain productivity levels.

For more information download the whitepaper: The New Paradigm of Process Excellence

The final takeaway

Process intelligence is valuable enterprise data that enables them to scale their digital transformation initiatives effectively while becoming more responsive and competitive with their strategies. In addition, such insights also contribute to improving their customer experiences. Today, data is the most valuable asset for an organization, and its operations, processes, and documents are a treasure trove waiting to be extracted and leveraged. With the help of AI and Automation, businesses can easily tap into the locked information and realize unlimited possibilities for their organizations while scaling higher returns and business opportunities.