In this article, you’ll learn:
what Process Mining really does – and how it helps you finally make complex processes visible,
which five key benefits companies gain from it – from clear transparency to measurable efficiency gains,
how Process Mining differs from Task Mining – and how you can use it to analyze not only workflows but also individual activities in detail,
and what role Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) plays – to reduce manual work and accelerate your analysis.
In short: You’ll learn how to use Process Mining and the five most important levers to unlock targeted optimization potential, reduce costs, and manage your processes sustainably – data-driven, efficient, and with minimal IT effort.
What is Process Mining – and Why Is It So Effective?
Process Mining is a technology-driven method that enables companies not only to map their business processes but to objectively analyze and assess them – based on real data.
The starting point: In every company, hundreds – often thousands – of processes run daily, from order placement to invoice processing and delivery. All of these processes leave digital traces in the IT systems used – such as SAP, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, or specialized logistics and ERP solutions.
Every booking, every status change, every system action is stored as a so-called event. These individual events – with timestamps, user IDs, and process references – form the foundation of Process Mining.
What results is: A complete image of the actual process reality – not modeled, not estimated, but exactly as it happens. Process Mining identifies:
how the process is actually run – and how often,
where processes branch, repeat, or stall,
where defined target processes are being deviated from,
how much time individual steps take – and why.
What GPS Is for Trucks, Process Mining Is for Your Processes
Imagine your business processes as a supply chain on the road: Trucks move between locations, goods are loaded, stopped, checked, forwarded. On paper, the route is clear – but what really happens along the way?
Process Mining works like a highly accurate GPS tracker:
It not only shows where the vehicle is at any given time, but also where it deviates, slows down, turns back, or is stuck in traffic – and why.
Applied to your processes, this means: You see in real time where your workflows run smoothly – and where time-wasters, detours, or unnecessary stops have crept in.
The advantage: Companies gain an objective, data-based view of their operational workflows. Weak points, media breaks, or inefficient variants become visible – without lengthy interviews or manual evaluations.
Instead of relying on assumptions, Process Mining provides reliable decision-making foundations. And not just as a snapshot, but continuously – like a live navigation system for your business processes.
In short: Process Mining translates system data into process knowledge – and process knowledge into measurable progress.
The Value: 5 Good Reasons for Process Mining
Process Mining is far more than an analysis tool. It is a strategic instrument for managing, optimizing, and safeguarding your business processes. Especially in data-intensive industries such as logistics, manufacturing, or retail, the method brings measurable advantages – often faster than expected.
1. Create Transparency Where There Were Only Assumptions
Many processes in a company span multiple departments, locations, or IT systems – making them difficult to trace. While there are process models, guidelines, and tools – how much of that is actually applied in day-to-day operations?
Process Mining provides the answer: It reveals the actual state of your processes – automatically, across systems, and objectively. Instead of relying on manual interviews or gut feeling, the analysis shows exactly how often, how long, and through which paths your processes are truly executed.
This creates clarity – and forms the foundation for any well-informed optimization.
2. Identify Weaknesses Precisely
Many processes hold enormous improvement potential – which often goes unnoticed in daily business. Whether delivery delays, duplicate entries, manual corrections, or time-consuming follow-ups: the causes are often hard to detect because they lie deep within IT systems or interfaces.
Process Mining uncovers these weak points: It identifies where processes fall out of sync, how often certain loops occur, or which variants are particularly costly or error-prone.
The result: Clear insights into where interventions are worthwhile – and where small changes can have a big impact.
3. Prove Compliance Easily and Continuously
The more complex a process, the harder it becomes to ensure compliance with regulations, guidelines, or audit trails. Especially in regulated industries (e.g. pharma, banking, automotive, or logistics), compliance becomes a daily challenge.
With Process Mining, you stay in control: The technology detects deviations in real time – such as missing approval steps, incorrect processing sequences, or unauthorized bypasses. You can verify whether defined process standards are being met – and receive audit-proof evaluations, without manual investigation.
This way, compliance becomes an integrated part of a controllable process – not a burden.
4. Improve Efficiency in Measurable Terms
Efficiency isn’t a matter of gut feeling – but of the right levers. Process Mining shows where and why processes unnecessarily consume time, resources, or money. It quantifies exactly how much effort is tied to specific process variants – and what you could save through targeted actions.
Whether it’s automation, reduction of process variants, better interfaces, or clearer responsibilities: the technology provides the data foundation for sound decisions – with visible effects on cost, lead times, and quality.
Best of all: You can measure exactly what has improved before and after the optimization.
5. Secure Change Management
Process changes are important – but often hard to measure. Which measure truly had an effect? Was it implemented everywhere? Were there unwanted side effects?
Process Mining provides clarity: You can accompany changes with data and observe the impact in real time. This allows you to prove success – and detect and correct weaknesses early on.
Especially in transformation projects (e.g. digitization, ERP rollouts, shared services), this transparency is crucial: It shows whether your processes are truly improving – or just changing.
And Task Mining? What Companies Can Additionally Analyze
While Process Mining accesses system-side process data, Task Mining goes a step closer to the human level: It analyzes individual work steps on the desktop – keystrokes, click paths, interactions with applications.
This is especially useful for repetitive, manual tasks, such as in administrative work, customer service, or financial accounting.
Combined, both methods provide a complete picture: from overarching processes to daily click routines.
The Role of Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) in Process Mining
Many processes start with documents: delivery notes, invoices, shipping bills, order confirmations. But this information is often unstructured – in PDFs, scans, or emails.
This is where IDP comes in. It reads, understands, and structures content from documents automatically – making it usable for Process Mining tools.
Specifically, this means:
Process analyses can also include paper-based or unstructured workflows
IDP bridges data gaps between humans, machines, and systems
Workflows become more continuous and fully visible
The foundation for automation and control is significantly improved
Example: A logistics provider receives hundreds of delivery notes daily via email. With IDP, the data is extracted, verified, and fed into the system process – including timestamp and cross-checking with transport data. Process Mining then automatically analyzes where delays occur – for example, in goods receipt booking or forwarding to subcontractors.
endless possibilities.
ExB is an Intelligent Document Processing platform that transforms unstructured data from any type of document into structured results. Our AI-based software can not only extract all relevant information from your documents, but also understand them. This allows you to automate your processes and save both time & money, while improving your customer experience and employee satisfaction. Win-win.
Conclusion: Creating the Foundation for Better Processes
Process Mining was once a topic for IT departments. Today, it’s a strategic tool for decision-makers. Those who want to understand processes objectively – instead of relying on gut feeling – can no longer ignore data-driven methods.
In combination with Task Mining and Intelligent Document Processing, a new level of analysis emerges: holistic, measurable, controllable.
Who understands processes can improve them. Who measures them can control them. And who automates them stays ahead.
