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Comparing Process Mining & Process Intelligence Solutions

Process Mining Meets AI
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Introduction to Process Mining and Process Intelligence

Process Mining has emerged as a critical technology for organisations to discover, analyse, and improve their business processes using data. It works by extracting time-stamped event logs from enterprise systems (ERP, CRM, etc.) and showing the actual process flows with every step, path, and duration. This data-driven approach provides transparency into how processes truly operate (as opposed to how they are assumed to operate), helping identify bottlenecks, deviations, and opportunities for improvement.

Over the past decade, the field has evolved beyond basic process mapping into broader Process Intelligence, which combines traditional Process Mining with real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and even automated optimisation. Major analysts and vendors often refer to this holistic approach as Process Intelligence or Execution Management, indicating a shift from just discovering processes to actively managing and enhancing them.

The market for Process Mining and intelligence tools has grown rapidly, with many vendors entering the space. Early pioneers like Celonis have become market leaders, while large enterprise software companies (SAP, IBM, Microsoft, etc.) have acquired or developed their own solutions. Gartner’s reviews list dozens of process mining tools.

Each tool tends to have a unique focus. Some excel at enterprise-wide analytics, others at seamless integration with specific source systems, and some at quick deployment or task-level insights. Selecting the right solution requires an understanding of not only their features but also how they align with your organisation’s systems, expertise, and objectives.

In the following sections, we provide an overview of common functionality, new AI-driven capabilities, service and support considerations, profiles of leading vendors/products, a detailed comparison of their strengths, and guidance on which product might best fit certain scenarios.

Core Functionalities of Process Mining Tools

Modern process mining platforms vary in features, but most offer a core set of functionalities that support the journey from raw data to actionable process improvement. Listed below are some of the key capablities that Process Mining and Process Intelligence products offer.

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Process Discovery
Automatically generating an interactive process flowchart from event log data. This reveals the actual paths taken in a process, how often each path occurs, the volume and duration. Users can typically filter by case attributes (event combinations) or time frames to focus on specific variants of the process.

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Process Insight (dashboards) Interactive dashboards with graphs, charts, and tables that allow users to explore various metrics of the process. These might show KPIs like throughput times, frequencies of activities, compliance violations, etc., and allow drilling down into details by clicking on parts of the visualisations.

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Process Analytics (queries)
Analytical tools (with a SQL-like language or visual analysis builder) to perform deeper analysis of loaded process data. This enables power users to define custom metrics, perform root cause analysis (e.g. correlating process outcomes with attributes), and answer ad-hoc questions beyond the pre-built dashboards.

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Data Integration
Connectors and integration methods to pull data from various source systems (ERP, CRM, BPM, custom applications) into the process mining tool. Leading platforms come with a wide range of pre-built connectors or ETL tools, enabling easier extraction of event logs. (Celonis, for instance, is known for extensive connectors to systems like SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, etc.). Others may rely on generic APIs or CSV uploads, often involving more effort and limiting options for complex data sourcing and automated scheduling.

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Data Pre-Processing
The ability to perform data transformations or filtering before loading into the process mining tool. This leverages database or data warehouse capabilities to handle large data volumes efficiently (reducing the load on the mining platform) and to clean or aggregate data for improved performance and reduced hosting costs. Not all tools support this; those that do (e.g. IBM, Intellifold) can use SQL or scripts to prepare data, improving performance and flexibility.

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Predictive Analytics (ML)
Machine learning and advanced analytics features that predict future outcomes or risks in a process. These often involve statistical analyses and Machine Learning (ML). For example, the tool might predict which ongoing cases are likely to miss a deadline, if a known issue is likely to occur, or which customers might churn based on patterns. These insights allow proactive intervention.

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Process Modelling & Conformance
Functionality to manually model an ideal business process (often using BPMN diagrams) and compare it against the discovered process map. This helps incompliance and conformance checking, highlighting where real processes deviate from documented procedures. Some tools (e.g. SAP Signavio, Software AG ARIS) are particularly strong in combining Process Mining with Process Modelling and enterprise architecture.

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Process Simulation
The ability to run "what-if” scenarios by simulating changes to the process (such as adding resources, changing a step, or re-routing flows) and analysing the impact on performance. Simulation is valuable for forecasting the outcome of process changes before implementing them in reality. Not all products have simulation; those with academic roots (Apromore) or those from BPM tool origins (ARIS, Signavio) typically include this.

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Alerts & Monitoring
Setting up automated alerts or notifications when certain process conditions occur. For example, the tool can send an email or SMS if a case is stuck in a certain step beyond a threshold time, or if data characterises drop below a target, or indicate high-risk process activities or transactions. Alerts provide real-time monitoring to catch and address issues directly.

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Audit & Compliance Reporting
Generating reports and audit trails of process execution for compliance purposes. This can include exportable reports showing who did what and when, where deviations occurred, and logs that satisfy regulatory requirements. Easy to export exceptions, evidence for audit sampling, and assurance where process paths are expected or transactions are low risk.

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Action Workflow
Enabling follow-up actions or remediation workflows directly from the process mining insights. For instance, some platforms let you trigger a case in a workflow system or create ticket for process owners to act on a discovered issue. A few platforms have built-in action engines or can integrate with RPA/BPM tools to close the loop from insight to action.

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Task Mining
Capturing and analysing user interactions on the desktop/laptop or at the UI level to enrich process understanding. Task mining may record clicks, keystrokes, and screen data to discover the manual steps users take. This is useful for processes that involve offline work or multiple systems without unified logs. Tools like ABBYY Timeline and UiPath offer strong task mining capabilities.

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Process Automation
Some platforms extend into directly automating processes by triggering the setup of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots or providing low-code tools to implement process improvements. UiPath and IBM are notable for tightly integrating RPA with Process Mining, so users can go from discovering an inefficiency to deploying a bot to fix it. Others, rely on third-party integrations for workflow orchestration and automating specific actions.

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Artificial Intelligence
In the last couple of years, AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) have started to augment Process Mining tools in novel ways. Vendors are introducing conversational interfaces and intelligent assistants to make interacting with process data more intuitive. It can be used to perform root cause analyses, to accelerate solution development, and to support process improvement and process automation.

AI insights & root cause analyses

This refers to leveraging advanced AI (particularly LLMs) to enable intuitive, conversational interactions with process data. Instead of manually exploring dashboards and writing queries, users can ask questions in natural language and get instant insights.

For example, Celonis’s new Process Copilot (a GenAI chatbot) allows analysts and business users to converse with the platform as if chatting with a colleague, asking which process variant is fastest, why a certain step is causing delays, etc. The AI interprets the question, analyses the data, and responds with findings or even generates charts to answer the question.

Intellifold’s platform introduces a feature called AI Insight Discovery, which uses LLM technology to help classify data, detect anomalies, and uncover hidden patterns or outliers in process flows through simple Q&A. This means a user could ask, “Where are the bottlenecks or rework activities in my order-to-cash process?” and the AI would highlight steps or cases that meet these criteria. Or one might request, “Show me any unusual spikes in processing time last month and potential causes,” and the AI can surface anomaly trends and relevant case examples. Essentially, it aims to get actionable answers faster by removing the manual effort of slicing and dicing data.

Many of these assistants also provide recommended questions or next steps to the user. The focus is on making solution exploration conversational and efficient, so that business users (not just data scientists) can quickly pinpoint opportunities such as compliance issues or customer experience pain points and easily find the root causes.

AI solution development

Another cutting-edge use of AI in this domain is speeding up the creation of new analyses, dashboards, and process solutions. Each business has unique processes and questions, and building custom dashboards or queries can be time-consuming if done manually.

Intellifold’s AI Solution Development capability addresses this by using AI (and the vendor’s internal knowledge base of processes and systems) to translate a user’s question into queries and dashboard visualisations. For example, if a user asks, “I need to see a visualisation of invoice processing times by department and identify any outliers,” the AI can interpret this request, map it to the data model (knowing what “invoice processing time” means, which table contains that info, how “department” is defined, etc.), and then generate a new dashboard or query to fulfill the request. This involves the AI doing tasks like KPI translation to the data model, code generation for queries, suggesting the most appropriate visualisation, and even performing automated validation of results.

The outcome is that a user with minimal technical skill can quickly get a custom chart or analysis tailored to their needs, without waiting weeks for a data analyst or IT person to develop it. While Intellifold is a key player offering this kind of AI-driven solution customisation, other vendors are exploring similar avenues.

Celonis has demonstrated that its Copilot can build graphs or apply complex filters through a chat prompt, and no doubt more platforms will integrate LLM-based solution generation as the technology matures. The major benefit is a much closer alignment of the tool’s output with the business’s unique objectives, achieved quickly through AI assistance rather than lengthy manual development.

These AI-powered features are still emerging, but they represent a significant trend in process intelligence: making the tools more accessible, smart, and adaptive. By enabling conversational insight discovery and automated solution building, vendors are lowering the barrier for business users to harness process data. This not only saves time but also helps organisations get to value faster.

It’s worth noting that the effectiveness of such features depends on the quality of the underlying models and training (especially domain-specific knowledge). As these capabilities mature, they could become a deciding factor for those who want to empower non-technical users and accelerate continuous improvement.

Services and Support Models (Tailored vs Self-Service)

Implementing a process mining or intelligence solution is not just about software, it also involves services, expertise, and ongoing support to truly drive value. Different vendors offer different models for how customers can get up and running and continuously improve their processes. Organisations need to consider whether they prefer a more self-service approach (handling setup and solution development internally) or a vendor/partner-supported approach (leveraging consultants and experts to guide the way). Here we compare how vendors stack up in terms of services and what to think about:

In summary, match the service model to your needs. If you want a quick win and have limited in-house expertise, look for vendors known for fast deployment and strong support. They can provide templates, do the heavy lifting on data and analysis, and even guide improvement workshops. If you have a capable team and just need the software, you might opt for a platform that gives you flexibility and control.

Most successful deployments involve a combination: initial handholding by the vendor or partner, coupled with training to enable your team for the long run. The good news is that most major vendors recognise the importance of add-on services for product support and process improvement.

Vendor and Product Profiles

Below we profile some of the most prominent Process Mining and Process Intelligence products on the market, highlighting eachvendor’s focus, expertise, and services. This list covers established leaders and innovative players:

Comparison of Leading Process Mining Products

All the above solutions aim to help organisations leverage data for process improvement, but they differ in focus areas, strengths, and potential downsides. Below is a comparative overview across a few key dimensions:

In a condensed view, one could say: Celonis is best in class functionality, but complex and expensive; SAP Signavio is great if you are an SAP house and want mining & modeling together; IBM is great for simulation and if you value IBM’s one-stop services; UiPath is best for automation-centric improvements and ease of integrating with RPA; ServiceNow is convenient for ServiceNow-contained processes; ARIS is ideal for comprehensive process governance alongside mining; ProcessMaker is quick deployment, mid-market friendly, but limtied advanced analytics; Apromore is advanced analytics on a budget (open-source flexibility), but require more technical expertise; ABBYY is task mining and AI insights for operational detail; Intellifold is tailored AI-driven solution with end-to-end support at a lower cost entry point. Each has trade-offs, so the key differences truly depend on what matters most to the organisation’s needs.

Choosing the Right Solution for Your Needs

Given the variety of options, it’s important to align the tool with the specific context and goals of your organisation. Selecting the right process mining product depends on matching its strengths to your priorities. Large enterprises with complex systems lean towards comprehensive platforms like Celonis or IBM, especially if they have the resources to support them. Companies deeply invested in certain ecosystems (SAP, ServiceNow, UiPath, etc.) often opt for the complementary tool from that ecosystem for seamless integration. Organisations that need agility, quick results, or a more cost-effective approach might choose newer or specialised tools like Intellifold, ProcessMaker, or Apromore which can deliver targeted value without heavyweight infrastructure.

Finally, consider the vendor’s service model: a tool is only as good as the improvement it enables. Sometimes a slightly less feature-rich tool with excellent support will yield better outcomes than a top-tier tool that you struggle to fully use. Each vendor has a unique blend of focus and expertise, so by understanding those, you can make an informed decision aligned with your business objectives. And remember, the Process Mining market is evolving fast, especially with AI entering the fray. Whichevertool you choose, keep an eye on new features and be ready to take advantage ofinnovations to stay ahead in your process excellence journey.

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