Process Mining for the multi-faceted analysis of business processes—A case study in a financial services organization

Most organizations have some kind of process-oriented information system that keeps track of business events. Process Mining starts from event logs extracted from these systems in order to discover, analyze, diagnose and improve processes, organizational, social and data structures. Notwithstanding the large number of contributions to the process mining literature over the last decade, the number of studies actually demonstrating the applicability and value of these techniques in practice has been limited. As a consequence, there is a need for real-life case studies suggesting methodologies to conduct process mining analysis and to show the benefits of its application in real-life environments. In this paper we present a methodological framework for a multi-faceted analysis of real-life event logs based on Process Mining. As such, we demonstrate the usefulness and flexibility of process mining techniques to expose organizational inefficiencies in a real-life case study that is centered on the back office process of a large Belgian insurance company. Our analysis shows that process mining techniques constitute an ideal means to tackle organizational challenges by suggesting process improvements and creating a company-wide process awareness.

► We demonstrate the applicability of process mining techniques to profoundly expose organizational inefficiencies.
► A methodological framework for applying process mining techniques in practice is proposed and validated in a real-life case study.
► The analysis shows that Process Mining is an ideal means for steering process improvement and creating a company-wide process awareness.
► Intelligent approaches to diagnose processes from highly flexible environments are required.