Companies can start by considering three questions:<ol><li>What important capabilities do we want to build?</li><li>What skills and resources do we have to support the process?</li><li>What practical matters must we settle—such as software requirements?</li></ol>

How to get started

Many new digital tools help companies to monitor how work is done. AI, machine learning, and computer vision are new tools that enable observation and help analyse with granularity. Companies can test historical assumptions and hypotheses before committing resources to create solutions. They can then revisit these later to gain further insights.

The process insights approach

Process insights will capture the activities by using tools to record them while it is being performed. This data collection allows for quick diagnoses and documentation and enables a company to automate the start and endpoint for the process. The process insights approach serves three purposes.<ol><li>It gives a proof point so that decision-makers don't use a gut feel.</li><li>It reveals process information that leaders lack. ("We don't know how long it really takes.")</li><li>It is a litmus test to validate the expected gains of an approach.</li></ol>

Capture, diagnose, analyze, improve

The process insights approach supports short-term and longer-term, more strategic benefits. <ul><li>Companies can gain a clear view of work that has strategic value. The discovery can reveal the complexity of processes and can influence decisions about outsourcing, automating or reconfiguring processes.</li><li>Process insights can uncover metrics for ways of working, which can help in better decision making.</li><li>Companies can evaluate the impact of process improvement and automation efforts.</li></ul>

Process insights' longer-term payoff

An Asia telcos wanted to expand its robotic process automation program and automate a huge percentage of process work. The company wanted to equip every employee with a robot assistant. At first, the company could not find a way to capture more than $5 million out of a $40 million savings opportunity it had identified. They could not see how to automate the smaller, fragmented processes. The company scaled up the RPA program. The insights from the exercise showed they could realize a 90% savings opportunity, and they discovered twice as many processes with automation potential.

Example of process insights

<ul><li>Start with a hypothesis-driven approach regarding where to unlock value.</li><li>Select the right tool for the job. Identify a suite of technologies that can help you manage operations holistically.</li><li>Embed the technology in an overarching delivery mechanism. It is most valuable when embedded into an existing initiative, such as automation.</li><li>Use process insights to augment—not replace—subject matter expertise. The approach and technologies of process insights should not substitute the knowledge and intuition of employees and specialists but validate assumptions and uncover insights.</li></ul>

Create the right assumptions and intent

Many companies think technology is a solution, but it's not in itself. When used with a process insights approach, tech solutions assist with gathering information and analysis on a different level. Digital technologies enable fine-tuning in implementation. When monitoring and data gathering is running in the background, it can be targeted at specific activities while respecting the user's privacy.

Technology enabled, not technology driven

Transparency is indispensable for understanding business processes and developing opportunities for improvement. Companies increasingly look to automate areas. But getting a clear picture of service processes is a challenge, such as measuring capacity, accuracy, how long it takes to execute when they're functioning and diagnosing breakdowns and bottlenecks. The traditional approach is inefficient. But a new approach called process insights has shown promise. It connects technology tools and analytics in a three-stage process that delivers insight in a transparent, consistent and objective way.