Why Process Mining Is the Top Skill To Learn in 2022

With digitization becoming increasingly important, having the right set of tech skills has never been more vital for both job seekers and established professionals alike, with advanced IT know-how at top of the list.

Individuals with expertise in areas such as Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, and Machine Learning are in high demand, but process mining is quickly gaining traction as a must-have skill. Here are three reasons why you should think about adding it to your aptitude armoury:

1. Processes are everywhere!

The role of Process Management in business is gaining more importance by the day. Business Processes are an important success factor whether it comes to Supply Chain, Logistics, Finance, and Marketing. Frictionless Processes are an inherent component to company success as smooth processes drive customer satisfaction and productivity and faulty processes can be a huge cost and time factor for businesses. Over the last 20 years, awareness for Process Management has risen in businesses. The fact that over 50% of Fortune 500 companies already use Process Mining technology speaks for itself.

Process Management, and more specifically process mining, has turned into a huge field of employment as well. If you searched for jobs on Linkedin in 2021 alone, there were over 300,000 open positions related to Process Mining, Process Management, and Execution Management. There are millions of jobs in the field that will arise in the next few years.

2. A data-driven approach towards process management is strictly necessary

Moreover, we are in the middle of a digital revolution. According to an ECB survey from 2018 looking at large-scale businesses in the EURO region, big data technologies are looked into by over 80% of firms, being the biggest contributor to digital transformation followed by Cloud Computing, E-Commerce, and Artificial Intelligence (ECB Economic Bulletin, Issue 7/2018). According to a more recent post-pandemic study from the European Investment bank which compares digitization between the US and EU Region, the digitalization rate is even higher in US firms clearly fueling a rapid digital transformation (Digitalisation in Europe 2020-2021, 2021). 

Process Management is equally affected by digitalization trends. Over the last 30 years I have researched how a data-driven approach can facilitate process insights and analytics. Process Mining has turned into one of the leading approaches for Process Management. Processes leave digital footprints generated through all sorts of interactions tracked using website cookies, to administrative ERP and CRM systems, to sensors and other IoT gadgets. A data-driven approach towards Process Management is necessary to survive in our digital economy.

3. Process Mining has intersections to many other high-in demand fields such as AI, ML and RPA

Process Mining is more than a data analytics technology by now. What started as the analysis of historical data has now turned into a budding research field and industry technology that seamlessly connects analytics to execution. Celonis Software is the best example of how process mining can interact with other technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or RPA, to go from Process Discovery to Process Enhancement. This places process mining in the middle of other in high demand skills. If you are looking for a sensible skill set, process mining cannot be left out of the equation.

Having researched the field since the 1990s, I am not at all surprised at the great momentum that we currently see around the field. Process mining is already one of the top trending technologies of the last three decades. However, I am also convinced that is not the end yet, and even more is yet to come. Process mining and Execution Management will be an essential part of every large enterprise’s IT toolkit. 

Together, with the Celonis Academic Alliance, you can prepare for the growing Process mining job market by acquiring the skills that industry is looking for. In the last year, Celonis and RWTH Aachen have co-developed a comprehensive introductory course to applied process mining called “Process Mining: From Theory to Execution”. The 10h course offers a free certification opportunity by the market leader and leading research institution in the field. Moreover you can look for job opportunities in the field via the Celonis Process Mining job market. 

I strongly encourage you to take your share in the Digital Process Future!

Wil van der Aalst

Distinguished Humboldt Professor at RWTH Aachen University and Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Informationstechnik

Prof.dr.ir. Wil van der Aalst is the Chief Scientist of Celonis and a full professor at RWTH Aachen University leading the Process and Data Science (PADS) group. He is also part-time affiliated with the Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Informationstechnik (FIT) where he leads FIT’s Process Mining group and the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e). He coined the field of Process Mining and his research interests include Process Mining, Petri Nets, business process management, workflow management, process modeling, and process analysis.