Automated Business Analysis vs. Process Mining

Automated business analysis and process mining can offer deep insights into an organization’s performance. Those insights, in turn, can be used to cut costs, increase efficiency, and more.

In this post, we’ll take a look at automated business analysis and process mining in order to understand how they can generate a competitive advantage in today’s marketplace.

Automated Business Analysis vs. Process Mining

Business analysis is a practice aimed at identifying and driving needed changes within an organization.

Naturally, business analysis requires high-level strategic thinking and deep insights into and organizations’ processes and its performance.

Among other things, business analysis involves:

• Identifying and quantifying an organization’s problems
• Defining solutions to those problems 
• Developing organizational change plans
• Leveraging data, metrics, OKRs, and KPIs to better execute change plans
• Working with stakeholders across the organization before, during, and after a change program
• Using techniques and practices such as business process management (BPM)

The role of the business analyst is to guide an organization towards better business processes, practices, and models.

Similarly, process mining is also aimed at improving an organization’s processes. The method, however, is different.

Process mining specifically refers to:

• Extracting data on processes within the organization
• Comparing processes as they are to processes as they should be
• Using the information learned to enhance processes

Process mining relies upon the use of software to analyze processes, mine data, learn from that data, and help analysts optimize processes based on that information.

Since process mining tools operate continuously and automatically, they are ideal for automated business analysis.

Automate Analysis to Gain an Edge

Certain aspects of business analysis cannot be automated. A great deal, in fact, requires human insight and input.

However, process mining tools have exploded in popularity because they automate key aspects of business analysis.

A few advantages of automating business analysis through tools such as process mining platforms include:

• Cost savings. Process mining tools prevent professionals from having to perform analysis themselves. This drives down the cost of business analysis, especially for larger organizations.
• Increased process efficiency. One of the core benefits of any type of business analysis, including automated business analysis, is increased efficiency. Once processes are analyzed an improved upon, they are invariably more efficient, less costly, and more productive.
• Deeper insights. Process mining platforms use analytics, such as software usage analytics, in order to offer deeper insights into business performance. The use of such analytics offers data that would otherwise be impossible to see. Digital adoption solutions, for instance, can monitor and analyze workflows and processes automatically.
• Improved business performance. Ultimately, process mining and automated business analysis can enhance business performance. Decreased costs, improved output, increased employee engagement, and other benefits all combine to generate better outcomes for the organization.

Naturally, the benefits derived from a process mining platform or business analysis function will depend on many factors.

These include everything from the size of the business to the process mining platform being used to the maturity of the business analysis function. In the next section, we will look at a few tips that can help you improve your business analyses.

Getting Started with Automated Business Analysis

Here is a quick set of tips that can help those who are just getting started with business analysis and automated business analysis.

• Understand the purpose of automated business analysis. In this post, we have already learned what business analysis is and how it benefits organizations. That understanding is crucial to the successful adoption of any business analysis program, especially one that involves automated business analysis.
• Get buy-in from executives. Executive leadership is critical to the success of any change management program. To obtain buy-in from business leaders, make a business case for your proposal and communicate that value in terms executives can understand. 
• Form a partnership with IT. Since automated business analysis tools, such as process mining tools, need a structured digital adoption effort, so support from IT is necessary. Open discussions with IT leaders, such as CIOs, and work with them to develop an adoption program.
• Set achievable goals for your business analysis function. Every business function should have a purpose. Define that purpose clearly in a strategic statement, then elaborate that into a series of goals and measurable objectives.
• Create a change management roadmap. Change management is the discipline dedicated to overseeing organizational change programs. Develop a roadmap, or a plan, that describes the implementation of the business analysis function.
• Evaluate and choose digital tools carefully. Business analysis tools include but are not limited to process mining tools. Start by analyzing the data that you would like to collect, see if any data sources already exist within your organization, then examine the ecosystem of business analysis tools, which can include BPMSs, DAPs, change management software, flowchart software, process mining tools, and more.

Implementing a business analysis function requires an investment of time, energy, and money. Yet that investment can generate a significant ROI, which can then result in major performance gains across the organization.