Process mining and discovery leads the way as enterprises seek better ways of working

Process Mining and Discovery is highest ranked of all investments made in emerging technologies among the global 2000 enterprise respondents in the H2 HFS Pulse Survey, conducted in the latter half of 2021, published in 2022. We see this as a sign that enterprises are getting more serious about not just fixing and automating processes but finding better ways of getting work done.

In the first half of 2021 our Pulse survey (of 801 executives in global 2000 enterprises) showed Process Mining and Discovery at the back of our emerging tech pack. Then, while 71% of businesses planned to increase their spend, that was well behind plans for process automation (at 81%). Every other emerging tech category scored 76% or above. The rise of Process Mining and Discovery is real.

• In our new Pulse Survey (H2, 2021), Cybersecurity was named among the top 5 investments by more respondents than any other technology – evidence that protection is high on the agenda as virtual working in the cloud becomes increasingly mainstream. But it ranked #1 or #2 for just 28% of our respondents vs 35% for process mining and discovery.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI, including machine learning and natural language processing) scored 2nd for #1/#2 rankings, forcing simple process automation down to fourth spot.
• The rising focus on AI chimes with the view arrived at in recent HFS research (supported by Blue Prism) that enterprises are looking for more intelligence from process automation – and are finding it in the combination with AI, ML and NLP.

The Bottom Line: Enterprises are seeking better ways of delivering end-to-end with greater intelligence and faster response to insight

Service providers reported last year (HFS OneOffice Top 10 Native Automation Services) that process intelligence (HFS’s take on processing mining and discovery) was getting hot. They told us it was being applied in 52% of automation engagements – 2nd only to Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Now our enterprise-focused Pulse survey reinforces the importance that enterprises are attaching to being able to achieve a clear and accurate understanding of their processes. This paves the way for enterprises to accelerate the implementation of process improvements delivering better end-to-end outcomes and – infused with AI – automatically adapting to the insights they generate.