Process Mining as a Service (PROMaaS): Benefits & Challenges [2024]
In a survey, 61% of businesses stated that they consider process mining beneficial since they can use factual process data to identify bottlenecks and optimize their processes. Despite its benefits, process mining is challenging to implement due to limited process mining tooling or expertise (52%) and complex IT landscape (30%). However, such limitations can be tackled with process mining as a service solutions.
In this article, we explore process mining as a service, benefits, challenges, and comparison with on-premise process mining implementation.
What is process mining as a service?
Process mining as a service (PROMaaS) refers to the outsourcing of process mining by hiring service providers to discover and monitor business processes. PROMaaS allows businesses to use process mining without additional cost of building a process mining CoE.
PROMaaS is a new terminology which is used by consultancy companies (e.g. PwC and Coberg) and some process mining vendors (e.g. IBM). By referring to the delivery of processes through the cloud, consultants and vendors aim to position their offerings as a new market category. Yet, the term is not yet clearly defined. Therefore, in this article, PROMaaS is not evaluated as a new category but rather an equivalent word for process mining outsourcing efforts.
What are the benefits of process mining as a service?
Some of the advantages of process mining as a service includes:
- Cost reduction:
- By implementing process mining on the cloud, businesses can avoid the infrastructure cost and other associated implementation and IT costs.
- Companies can also avoid licensing costs since it is included in the costs of the service.
- They will not be in need of hiring process mining experts to apply and maintain process mining
- Fast deployment:
- Since there is no need to hire experts and install the tool on premise, the adoption of process mining can be faster.
What is the difference between implementing process mining on-premise and as a service?
Some of differences between PROMaas and process mining on-premise include:
PROMaas | On-premise | |
---|---|---|
Deployment | On the service providers' hardware (workstation, 64-bit operating system, server
configuration)
| Businesses rent or buy the hardware to employ |
Access | Providers can access with any device from any location | Only businesses can access via their hardware, via VPN access
|
Maintenance and updates | Providers are responsible for updates and maintenance | Businesses are responsible for maintenance and updates of software and
hardware
|
Costs | All used software, environment and maintenance are included in a
yearly license | Costs for hardware, running costs for maintenance, electricity, and expert
employees
|
Security | Data security is the PROMaaS providers' responsibility | Businesses have to fulfill the security requirements and standards |
What are the challenges of process mining as a service?
PROMaaS can be challenging because of:
- Data privacy: To benefit from PROMaaS, businesses have to share their data that contains information about employees, clients and entire business with a third-party. Yet, companies can overcome this issue by addressing permissions and credentials through privacy enhancing technologies.
- Cloud migration: To employ process mining as a service, businesses are required to complete their data migration and cloud adoption. Businesses may postpone their cloud migration due to high costs and the lack of skills required to execute the migration. Some companies provide cloud solutions that include process mining in the solution package that help companies to overcome the challenge of cloud integration.
Further Reading
If you want to learn more about process mining and process discovery tools and how to choose PM consultancy, you can read our in-depth articles:
- Top 22 Process Discovery Tools in 2022
- How to Choose Process Mining Consultancy
- Top 10 Open Source and Free Trial Process Mining Tools
If you believe your business can benefit from process mining tools, you can check our data-driven list of process mining software and other automation solutions.
Check out comprehensive and constantly updated list of process mining case studies to understand process mining as a service with real-life examples.
And you can let us find you the right vendor:
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