Truly understanding what is going on with an organization’s processes can be a great challenge!

According to Gartner, hyperautomation is a business and activity optimization methodology that organizations can use to quickly identify, examine, and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. Hyperautomation involves the orchestrated use of various tools, platforms, and technologies, including Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence.

In this context, UiPath, a market leader in automation, aims to achieve the Fully Automated Enterprise™, helping companies use automation to reach their highest potential. UiPath offers a complete automation platform, combining its leading RPA solution with a set of tools that allow organizations to rapidly scale their digital business operations.

The UiPath Enterprise platform provides a set of technological solutions to complement its RPA platform. Thus, UiPath Enterprise represents the combination of a leading, robust, and market-recognized foundation with additional components that elevate it to the level of hyperautomation.

Hyperautomation requires a deep understanding of the activities and processes being implemented, to ensure continuous process optimization. In this regard, two concepts become particularly relevant:
Process Discovery refers to the set of different tools and techniques for discovering how each process in companies is actually executed. With Process Discovery, companies can gain a complete understanding of their processes, identifying steps and details that were previously unnoticed but could have negative effects, as well as understanding deviations from expected activity. This stage requires diving deep into the details of each business process. Today, this task can be accomplished more simply, effectively, and accurately, thanks to Process Mining tools!
Process Mining has proven to be a key element in the transition to Hyperautomation. In fact, a sign of its importance is that different vendors, like Microsoft, are beginning to integrate Process Mining services into their portfolios.

What are the advantages of Process Mining?

Until now, the responsibility for developing and optimizing a business’s processes belonged to a specific team.

However, using Process Mining, it is possible to utilize information recorded in various institutional systems to identify and analyze the processes actually carried out within the institution from an intrinsic and inter-process perspective. For example, in a billing scenario, understanding the activities performed from the moment an invoice is received until it is paid, identifying the steps, timeframes, participants, associated information, and other relevant data, as well as their relationship with other processes. Based on this information, Process Mining can create a “detailed map” that helps identify inefficiencies, highlighting aspects such as redundancies, bottlenecks, and repetitions, and promoting their resolution.

Why do organizations invest in Process Mining?

One of the main reasons is knowledge: understanding the details of the processes that support a business. Typically, end users do not have a holistic view of the entire process path. Considering the billing process mentioned earlier, the UiPath Process Mining tool demonstrates various deviations that can occur from the moment an invoice is received until it is paid. The platform presents the collected information in a visually appealing way, structuring the process chain, composed of the necessary logs to capture the reality of the sequence of actions. This makes the most efficient points and the most congested points evident.

Since it is integrated into the global UiPath platform, all users can implement Process Mining, as the platform allows the end user to monitor any given process. After bottlenecks are detected, a proposal for process change or update is sent to the “Center of Excellence,” which will apply RPA techniques to automate it. After all changes are implemented, it becomes possible to measure the impact on the overall process (end-to-end). This methodology allows listing improvements, making associations, and drawing conclusions by comparing the “before” and “after.” These comparisons are presented quantitatively, for example, showing how many hours were saved thanks to a specific process change.

Finally, it should be noted that Process Mining is also used to promote continuous improvement. After improving a weak point in the process, Process Mining facilitates the detection of the next. Hence the term “continuous”: finding a problem, fixing it, monitoring, finding another problem, and so on.

Steps of UiPath Process Mining

UiPath Process Mining is divided into three main stages:

By directly connecting to data sources like SAP, Oracle, or Salesforce, UiPath Process Mining provides users with a holistic view of the entire process. Information is presented through an intuitive dashboard, facilitating its use, identifying problems, points for improvement, and what to do after requesting task automation.

Alongside data extraction, UiPath Process Mining also adds value to all raw information by processing it and presenting indicators and insights on the dashboard.

• Tags are a practical way to identify important KPIs for the business. For example: ordering activities in a specific sequence to monitor if the sequence is followed: “Receive invoice,” “Check Invoice,” and “Final Verification.” If the sequence is not followed, the manager can identify the reason and implement a change.
• The universal model with occurrence identification (Case ID) allows tracking a particular case. For example, in a business based on the “Purchase-Sale” system, the Case ID would be the order number. This Case ID is linked to a series of activities (Activity) with a timestamp (Event), allowing mapping the journey of each case and process.

Global Overview

In summary, while RPA allows automating repetitive tasks, increasing productivity, reducing errors, and promoting quality, Process Mining accelerates the transition to more appropriate hyperautomation through:

• An informed and holistic view of all end-to-end processes;
• Continuous monitoring;
• Detailed analysis of activities and points to optimize, facilitating their identification.