Celonis advancing the face of process intelligence the old-fashioned way

figurines of working men working on computer chips | Celonis advancing the face of process intelligence the old-fashioned way

Key Takeaways

Process Intelligence (PI) integrates process mining, task mining, and business intelligence to provide insights that help businesses identify inefficiencies and optimize their operations.

Companies like BMW and ABB have successfully implemented PI to improve efficiency, drive digital transformation, and incorporate sustainability practices into their operations.

Celonis is at the forefront of developing AI-driven solutions for end-to-end process optimization, emphasizing the need for a connective management layer to synchronize resources and achieve true business transformation.

Process inefficiency is often named as the overarching issue that causes businesses a myriad of problems, including bottlenecks and confusion, and often leads to delays and operational setbacks.

As a response to that, the nature of process intelligence (PI) combines process mining, task mining and business intelligence-like metrics to deliver deep insights into business processes. The power of process intelligence lies in the ability to turn raw process data into a continuous flow of accurate, unbiased process insights to pinpoint inefficiencies and bottlenecks and facilitate business process optimization and automation.

One company pioneering process mining and process intelligence is American-German data processing company, Celonis. The vendor’s chief evangelist, Lars Reinkemeyer, recently took both a traditional and non-conventional approach by launching a book deep-diving into the topic – ‘Process Intelligence in Action’.

Since launching the book, Reinkemeyer has said on LinkedIn that it was created to “demonstrate the evolution from process mining to process intelligence, from how to get started to driving adoption, and what the critical success factors to scale a digital transformation are, as well as showing some unsuccessful examples.”

Featuring 12 use cases written by practitioners and leaders in transformation and Centers of Excellence (CoE) who have applied PI in their respective organizations, the use cases contribute practical examples which cover business factors such as its operating model and CoE (BMW), digital transformation (Reckitt), system transformation (Bosch), community (Ingka), supply chain (Siemens) or value methodology (PepsiCo).

Seeing value as “the name of the game,” Reinkemeyer explained that this should be the primary purpose of any process intelligence initiative: “Value can come in multiple dimensions – quantitative value which is measured e.g. in dollar or euros […] efficiency, customer satisfaction or sustainability.”

Speaking about the experience of his organization with PI, Harald Krüger, former CEO of BMW Group, said that since enabling PI at the car giant, its leadership “is fueled by its capability to manage and measure based on real-time data.” For Krüger, “Process Intelligence provides transparency of actual process flows for a data and fact-based single source of truth, which allows to drive digital transformations.”

As part of its case study, BMW shared that by providing process intelligence tools for employees, the company helps them to understand and improve relevant processes, driving efficiency and value. In the spirit of process excellence, BMW has evolved its operating model towards a hybrid setup with one CoE working with multiple Centers of Competence (CoCs) and sharing the lessons learned along the journey. 

As another example, a case study by electrical equipment manufacturer ABB draws on its process mining experience for more than ten years with a recent expansion from the traditional focus on cost savings and automation towards adopting sustainable practices in operations.

ABB launched its Energy Efficiency Movement in 2021 focusing on Scope 3 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The company went on to measure and improve CO2 emissions, supporting its strategic and innovative shift from KPI reporting towards improving corporate sustainability targets relying on process intelligence.

When it comes to sustainability, Reinkemeyer has said that ‘How to get started?’ is typically one of the first questions for every new Process Intelligence project. In another LinkedIn post, he shared that “igniting right on the journey is key for sustainable success and should consider multiple aspects such as strong sponsorship and a clear purpose, the right use case(s) which allow for quick value realization and leveraging early adopters.”

Continuing from there, he added.“once the first million of value has been realized and the journey has been successfully ignited, it is all about driving adoption and expanding across the organization.” 

Celonis also recently introduced an advancement to help companies achieve end-to-end process optimization through a new AI-driven process orchestration solution developed in partnership with composable business commerce company, Emporix.

The process-context-aware orchestration platform, Emporix Orchestration Engine, is leveraging Celonis’ Process Intelligence to orchestrate processes end-to-end in real-time to allow businesses to establish agile, data-driven operations and increase overall efficiency by using AI to continually optimize with minimal human intervention.

“Existing tools and automation strategies alone cannot deliver the promise of end-to-end process optimization,” said Carsten Thoma, president of Celonis. “By themselves, these only transform individual, linear and siloed tasks. Businesses need an intelligent, connective management layer to ensure all their resources, systems and people are working in sync and achieve true end-to-end process optimization and business transformation.”

The popularity and prominence of process intelligence is also demonstrated by the growing efforts of fellow vendors in the field.

For instance, SS&C Blue Prism’s process intelligence is leveraging PI by allowing financial services firms to automate the identification and monitoring of 100 percent of their transactions. Automation Anywhere is applying process intelligence in healthcare, life sciences, HR, finance and accounting as exemplified during its Imagine conference in June. Finally, UiPath uses process mining by connecting to source data, advancing visualization and AI-powered analysis techniques to continuously measure the impact of improvements.