Insights from Celosphere 2024

Process Mining helps organisations understand how the business operates. It acts like a torch, shining a light on business processes, highlighting hidden bottlenecks and root causes. The first step is awareness; the technology enables teams to model their current business processes by analysing event log data. Next, real-time insights are used to analyse the processes and identify trends and relationships between tasks. Sophisticated Process Mining technology can go one step further by identifying hidden process bottlenecks and acting on them in real time to unlock value for the business.

Celonis is a leader in the Process Mining space, formed in 2011 and serving more than 1,500 customers globally. Enfuse Group attended their annual conference in Munich on October 23rd —Celosphere 2024—and wanted to share some key takeaways: 

The Power of Object-Centric Process Mining (OCPM)
Traditional Process Mining (Case Centric Process Mining or CCPM) uses system data to model the relationships between activities in a process and find process bottlenecks. It differentiates cases by a unique identifier, such as an Order No or Invoice ID. This can be very useful for processes that lie within a single department; however, this method of process mining can become complicated when use cases include multi-process interactions that cross teams and departmental boundaries

This is where OCPM comes in; by analysing processes at the object* level, it gives teams an accurate, system agnostic view of the organisations end-to-end processes and how they interact with each other.

• OCPM Example

  Let’s consider the Order to Cash process, where we see that there is a typical problem around Late Cash Collections – so the business is being paid late by their customers on a regular basis.

  In a traditional case-centric approach, analysis would focus on each individual invoice case, identifying issues such as incorrect manual data entry or manual rework preventing the correct processing of invoices hence, causing late collection. This insight is very useful as we can improve the process based on these findings, but these root causes are limited to the invoice processing object itself, and we are missing the deeper root cause of this late collection.

   In OCPM, we would examine the invoice object in connection with related upstream objects like "Sales Order," "Inventory Item," “Shipping Order” or "Warehouse Order” etc. We might discover that the root cause is upstream in the Inventory Item object, where inventory stock levels are inaccurately recorded. This issue causes order quantities to be adjusted manually in the ordering system to match available stock, but the invoice still reflects the original ordered quantity rather than the adjusted amount causing mismatch errors and hence late invoice processing. By capturing the interdependencies across objects, OCPM reveals the true reality of what is happening in the business and is not limited to one perspective of the invoice.

 At Celosphere 2024, Celonis announced the Celonis Network which takes this concept a step further to enable cross-organisational processes to be connected and analysed, resulting in a real time-shared transparency and collaboration between companies. This is particularly useful for supply chain processes as this allows real time supplier- distributor - customer coordination. Allowing everyone to work together intelligently to optimise their operational performance and improve customer satisfaction.

There Is No Artificial Intelligence (AI) Without Process Intelligence (PI)
The phrase “There’s no AI without PI” was frequently used throughout the conference, but the true importance of this sentiment cannot be emphasised enough. Generative AI works by analysing historical data and identifying patterns that can then be applied to the current query. However, what these models often lack are real-time process insights, meaning that the outputs will always be slightly outdated. In highly reactive and dynamic business environments, this can raise issues with the validity of recommendations.

Process Intelligence can help fill this gap by providing business context that is fully accurate and in real time. Using this data in AI models allows organisations to make better decisions, building on the full “As-Is” picture. To get the most out of AI models, data from PI needs to be utilised.

Value Engineering Is Crucial to Fully Benefit from Process Mining Efforts
Once processes have been modelled and analysed, the next step in Process Mining is to find opportunities for improvement. The approach for investigating improvement areas and prioritising changes will depend on the organisation and its strategic objectives. In some cases, problem areas will already be known to the business, so Process Mining can be useful for analysing the root causes and identifying methods to tackle them. In other cases, the business will be using Process Mining in an exploratory capacity to gain insight into unknown process bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

In both cases, a Process Mining tool such as Celonis will use these insights to generate recommendations. To go one step further you can set up action flows to implement these recommendations directly within the platform. Celonis offers this capability with a user-friendly ‘drag-and-drop interface’ allowing automations to be applied to processes. This is particularly useful for repetitive labour-intensive processes. The image below gives a simple example of an action flow:

The time and effort spent on Process Mining would be wasted if the findings aren’t acted upon and changes aren’t made—the process of making people, process or technology changes and realising value based on these insights is called Value Engineering. Sometimes, the changes will be straightforward, but in other situations, full roles, responsibilities, and team interactions will need to be updated.

To enable a seamless process transition, effective project management and change management are needed to ensure stakeholders are informed and onboard, and that delivery happens on time. Consulting firms experienced in process mining can help organisations with Value Engineering and optimising their processes based on insights from Process Mining.

Celosphere 2024 offered deep insights into the advancing field of Process Intelligence and the latest innovations in the Celonis platform. With game-changing developments like Object-Centric Process Mining (OCPM), the Celonis Network for seamless cross-organizational collaboration, and the critical integration of Process Intelligence with AI, it’s clear that the future of process optimisation lies in real-time visibility and intelligence that transcends process and organisational boundaries, moving us closer to a fully realised, interconnected digital twin. The emphasis on Value Engineering reinforced the need to translate insights into concrete, impactful actions, underscoring the importance of implementing improvements that drive real results. This year’s Celosphere highlighted that as organisations pursue operational excellence, Process Intelligence remains essential, empowering them to understand, enhance, and future-proof their processes in a rapidly evolving business landscape.

For more information on Process Intelligence and how realise tangible benefits from your process insights, contact Fiona McKenzie.