ServiceNow survey: Leaders optimizing with process mining

Process mining and optimization is becoming a key priority for companies with 63% of leading enterprises deploying systems for continual process improvement, according to a ThoughtLab survey commissioned by ServiceNow.

The findings are based on a sample of 900 global C-suite executives or equivalent. ServiceNow and ThoughtLab also categorized respondents as optimization leaders, intermediates and beginners.

ServiceNow, a strategic Celonis partner, launched the survey along with its Winter 2022 edition of Workflow magazine, which focused on optimization. Celonis co-CEO Alex Rinke outlined his thoughts on optimization along with ServiceNow CTO David Wright.

Wright said in Workflow that process mining is invaluable to prioritizing digitization and automation because it offers a real-world roadmap to how a business operates. He noted that "many teams do make the initial mistake of automating too much or indiscriminately" without process mining.

Rinke added that process mining serves as a business X-ray-machine that then leads to better execution over time. "Ultimately you will have processes that compose themselves on the fly and then decompose themselves," said Rinke. He added that the transparency of automated process mining drives execution and business performance. 

ServiceNow's findings on process mining land as optimization is becoming an ongoing theme amid supply chain disruptions, inflation, digital transformation and the need to be agile while delivering returns in turbulent times. What's beginning to form is a neutral digitization layer that executes across various systems of record by melding data science and process science along with a bevy of technologies.

Among the key data points from the ServiceNow-ThoughtLab survey:

• Manufacturing is the most advanced industry in terms of process optimization with 31% of the group in the leader category. Healthcare and life sciences was the second most mature industry at 17% with telecommunications and financial services at 17% and 16%, respectively.

• Large companies were more mature in process redesign and optimization than smaller companies. For instance, 27% of companies with more than $5 billion in revenue were considered mature in optimization strategies.

• 58% of companies are modernizing IT platforms and systems to optimize processes.

• 70% of CEOs and COOs say they are fully or partly responsible for a range of optimization steps. CIOs also play a key role in deploying the IT systems to support optimization.

The ServiceNow-ThoughtLab survey also looked at the steps taken by respondents and compared leaders vs. the pack. The common thread was that leaders were more likely to optimize processes, digitize workflows, automate and iterate.

For instance, leading companies developed a system for continuous process improvement 63% of the time compared to 28% of non-leaders. The same percentage of leaders built a process improvement culture.

• Get educated on process mining with Wil an der Aalst's course.

• Leverage process mining best practices, e-books and courses at Celonis Academy.

• Consider task mining as a technology to use with process mining.

• Look for process mining use cases that span multiple systems since returns tend to be larger there.

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief (former)

Larry Dignan is the former Editor in Chief of Celonis Media. Before joining Celonis, he was Editor in Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine.