Task mining is one of the fastest-growing markets in the intelligent automation space, reporting an 85 - 95 % growth rate in 2022. Although it's quickly growing, there are still many people who wonder what task mining is and how it can benefit organizations.
So, if you're curious about task mining and what it can do for you, read on, as we at Workfellow have you covered.
What is task mining?
Task mining technology enables organizations to capture user interaction data on desktops to see how people currently get work done and how work can be improved.
Often used in tandem with process mining, task mining technology looks at things from a team perspective, so it can boost overall performance in areas such as:
- Accounts payable
- Order management
- Accounts Receivable
- Procurement
How does task mining work?
Task mining tools typically start by collecting data from employee workstations or computers, which can include keystrokes, clicks, user inputs, recordings, screenshots, and more.
From there, optical character recognition capabilities can add additional context about what the user is doing. For example, it might look at the timestamp data to help assemble a general timeline of activities in a sub-process.
Why is task mining important?
Task mining plays an important role in modern businesses, offering insights into how employees interact with applications and execute processes. By analyzing the granular details of user actions, task mining illuminates the true nature of operations, often revealing inefficiencies or redundant steps that might otherwise go unnoticed.
When integrated with broader Business Process Management strategies, it ensures that businesses stay optimized, agile, and competitive in a rapidly evolving market. Furthermore, task mining empowers organizations to enhance productivity, improve user experience, and ultimately deliver more value to both employees and customers.
6 benefits of task mining software
- Visibility to workflows
Task mining gives transparency to how work is done - allowing for data-driven ways to remove bottlenecks, improve lead time and identify automation opportunities where complex sets of repetitive tasks require dedicated focus.
- Increased efficiency
Task mining identifies bottlenecks to speed up process improvement. When issues slowing processes and people down are quickly found and dealt with, employees can forget about boring, repetitive busy work and focus on the tasks that matter. Of course, focusing on meaningful work boosts morale for a positive company culture and a low turnover rate.
- Transparent performance measurement
Task mining is not, as some people worry, a tool for "spying" on employees. However, it does focus on individual tasks rather than end-to-end processes, which gives managers valuable insights into staff performance.
When it comes to changing or improving processes, knowing an individual's strengths and weaknesses is very useful. Task mining shows areas where an employee excels and where they need extra support or training.
- Operational benchmarking
Data collected by task mining adds up to give organizations a bigger-picture view of their processes. For example, managers might find that many people find a particular new task challenging, which indicates a need for better company-wide training and catch-up sessions.
- Better compliance & risk management
A data-driven approach helps organizations ensure better process governance. Extra visibility into processes helps business leaders identify and stop non-compliant tasks to make adhering to risk and regulatory requirements easier.
- Cost savings
As the main purpose of task mining technologies is to find what kind of saving operations can be done fast, it helps organizations achieve cost savings quickly.
The bottom line
Task mining is a new but growing technology that offers organizations increased visibility, efficiency, transparency, better compliance, and much more. Simply put, it helps teams get work done better.
Although task mining can look at individual actions via desktop computers, it shouldn't always be seen as a tool to monitor individuals. Technology such as Work API harvests business data objects based on the configured needs of organizations without "spying" on individuals carrying out their work.
