Celonis vs SAP Signavio Comparison (2023 Update)

In this article we compare Celonis vs SAP Signavio process mining and business process management features and introduce a new, third alternative called Workfellow.

What is the difference between Celonis and Signavio?

Celonis and Signavio are peers in the enterprise process intelligence software market. Celonis is an independent company and process mining market leader offering a broad range of solutions catering to the SAP ERP and data ecosystem. Signavio is a best-of-breed process mining and business process management tool (BPM) that was acquired by SAP in 2021.

While the two companies are closely connected Celonis is not owned by SAP. In the early days of the company in 2012 Celonis participated in the SAP Startup Focus program and has held reseller agreements with SAP, but they are today independent companies. Signavio was a competitor to Celonis until it was acquired by SAP - and now goes by the name SAP Signavio.

Celonis vs Signavio - peers in process mining

Process mining methods help enterprise businesses achieve better performance and efficiency through using data science and data mining techniques. It provides an understanding of how processes are actually being executed in an organization, allowing for more efficient and effective business operations.

There are four common uses for process mining:

1. Process discovery: To identify the true state of processes, tasks and the use of key IT systems;

2. Conformance checking: to gain compliance with organization policies and regulations;

3. Root cause analysis: to analyze the root causes of process performance issues, including bottlenecks, delays, and inefficiencies in business processes.

4. Process optimization: process mining can be used to optimize existing processes for improved performance and efficiency, for example, through task automation.

Growing demand in process mining

Process mining is not a new technology but has recently increased in popularity as more enterprise organizations look to increase digitalization and business process automation. Gartner estimates that the market has grown to over $2bn in revenue in 2023. 

There are now over 30 different process mining software solutions available in the market. Two of the most popular tools on the market are Celonis and SAP Signavio. 

In this article we compare Celonis vs Signavio process mining features and introduce a new, third alternative called Workfellow.

What is Celonis

Celonis is a process mining and intelligent automation platform that allows companies to improve their business processes through a platform called the “Execution Management System” (EMS). It does this by giving users visibility and insights into the performance of their processes through extracting and analyzing event logs from different data sources, for example, ERP or CMS systems. Celonis EMS also allows users to identify bottlenecks, discover inefficiencies, and optimize processes.

Celonis is considered the global market leader in process mining, but is not the only option for enterprise organizations. In addition to Signavio, there are many other Celonis alternatives to consider.

What makes Celonis Process Mining popular:

• Enterprise focus: Celonis provides a deep level of service, security and process data management for the needs of large enterprise organizations. ‍
• Event log expertise: Celonis has a broad experience in mining and extracting event logs from different source systems, especially popular ERPs such as SAP and Oracle.‍
• Wide partner network: Celonis has over 250 partner agencies that provide implementation consulting services, including many of the largest management consultancies and BPOs.

What is Signavio

SAP Signavio is a leading process automation and orchestration platform falling under the SAP software ecosystem. It provides a suite of tools to help automate processes, including an easy-to-use visual workflow designer, a powerful robotic automation platform, and an AI-powered document processing component. 

Signavio offers a broad range of business process management solutions and a unique Collaboration Hub to drive operational excellence. SAP Signavio’s Process Transformation suite can be used for a variety of purposes, including process insights, process automation, process management and process modeling.

What makes SAP Signavio Process Intelligence popular:

• SAP ecosystem - increased level of integration to other SAP solutions and data ecosystem.
• Collaboration - Signavio has many collaboration features enabling team-wide business process management.
• Process management - Signavio provides both process mining and business process management in one solution.

Celonis vs Signavio Process Mining Comparison

When comparing Celonis and Signavio process mining functionality, it is important to consider the different aspects of each tool. Here we look at four key criteria: ease of deployment, data visualizations, automation capabilities, and pricing.

Ease of deployment

A key element of any process mining solution is the ease of deployment in enterprise organizations. Most process mining tools depend on extracting and loading event logs from different source systems for process analysis, but different solution providers have their own approaches to data ingestion.

Celonis Process Mining Deployment

Celonis is known for being an enterprise-grade tool that requires significant time and resources for deployment. Every source system needs to be integrated separately, and overall, the management of different types of connections may require significant resources and data engineering skills to set up.

Once fully set up Celonis is able to extract large amounts of data quickly and accurately through different methods. Celonis offers automated integration solutions to widely used ERP systems, such as SAP, a configurable self-service data extractor and the ability to upload process data files, such as .xlsx or .xes.

Signavio Process Mining Deployment

While Signavio benefits from the SAP ecosystem, it has less extensive process mining capabilities than Celonis. On the other hand, Signavio is able to provide broad process modeling and design options, as well as workflow management capabilities beyond process mining.

Visualizations and Analytics

Another key feature of process mining tools is the ability to visualize key processes and draw insights from actionable process analytics. Different process mining solutions look similar on the surface but major differences come in the details.

Celonis Process Analytics

Celonis provides a broad range of ready-made charts and views, including OLAP tables, column charts, pie charts, scatter plots and donut charts.

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Dashboards within Celonis can be configured easily using a visual editor and adjusted with a code editor. Celonis provides many of the process mining visualizations and analytics including process variations and task analysis.

Signavio Process Analytics

Signavio has a full-fledged process analytics range under the SAP Signavio Process Insights brand, including a process simulation engine and a unique internal control system (ICS). On the other hand, the reporting and configuration opportunities outside of the SAP ecosystem are more limited.

Process Automation Enablers

Another popular use-case of process mining solutions is to enable intelligent automation. Most process mining solutions offer process discovery functionality that highlight opportunities to automate key processes or tasks. 

Celonis Automation Capabilities

Celonis offers a range of advanced automation capabilities, claiming it can perform up to 5000 automation tasks per hour. Over 500 different automation solutions and bots can be found in the Celonis EMS store, with native integrations especially to major ERPs such as SAP and Oracle.

Signavio Automation Capabilities

While SAP Signavio is not a process automation solution, it does currently offer capabilities under the Signavio Process Transformation suite to analyze and manage automation projects.

Process Mining Pricing

Most process mining solutions are offered depending on the complexity of needs of the client using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) pricing. The pricing mentioned below is only indicative based on openly available data and in most cases the pricing will vary depending on the level of integration, implementation and training support needed.

Celonis Process Mining Pricing

Celonis offers various pricing options from a free-to-try Celonis EMS plan to enterprise-level subscriptions. For small and medium sized businesses prices start from $90,000 for a 3 year contract. Source: Amazon AWS Marketplace.

Signavio Process Mining Pricing

SAP Signavio is offered on an enterprise Software-as-a-Service basis. Pricing may be offered depending on the resources and requirements of your organization.

A Third Alternative - Workfellow

While Celonis and Signavio are popular options for process mining, there is a third emerging option in Workfellow. Workfellow is the first AI-powered hybrid process intelligence solution combining process insights and task insights into one solution. 

Workfellow was founded in 2019 by experienced intelligent automation experts specializing in process intelligence software. Workfellow has customers across different industries from logistics to consumer goods, and especially knowledge-intensive work including banking, financial services and insurance.

Key features of Workfellow

• Ease of deployment: Workfellow does not require access to event logs, instead it generates event logs automatically through a method called Work API.
• End-to-end analysis: Through Work APi Workfellow is able to track tasks and process flows across different business apps, allowing for end-to-end analysis of workflows.
• Automated insights: Workfellow includes ready-made dashboards and provides automated insights within it’s analytics.‍
• Level of privacy: Workfellow is a GDPR-free solution that does not process personally identifiable data.

Workfellow Process Mining Deployment

Workfellow is currently one of the fastest process mining tools to deploy available in the market. Most customers will have data and insights available within 30 days. Workfellow uses plug-and-play data capture functionality that can capture relevant business objects from any business application without the need to integrate and mine event logs. The major advantage of this approach is that it is up to 10x faster than conventional process mining. Most Workfellow customers are able to gather actionable insights within 30 days with effortless implementation without the need for extensive data engineering resources.

Workfellow Process Analytics

Workfellow provides advanced and configurable process and task visualization options for the broadest set of use-cases. The key advantage is that Workfellow can track both the flow and time of activities, processes and tasks across different business applications.

In addition to process and task visualizations Workfellow gives unrivalled granularity into the cost and time of complex workflows across different business applications.  

Workfellow Automation Capabilities

Workfellow is the first process intelligence tool that includes intelligent automation opportunity identification. It provides automated recommendations of where business processes can be automated and the estimated impact automation can bring. In addition, Workfellow can be used to track the impact of automation projects on key performance indicators. 

Workfellow Pricing

Workfellow is offered on a simple Software-as-a-Service basis where you only pay for the amount of workstations connected to Work API. The minimum number for Work API connections is 50 workstations. Typically the cost of ownership for clients has been up to 3x lower than the well-known alternative. For more information on pricing, contact us.

Celonis vs. Signavio Process Mining Summary

Both Celonis and Signavio are powerful process mining and automation tools. Celonis offers enterprise-level process mining and configurable analytics capabilities, while Signavio offers a deep integration to the SAP ERP and software ecosystem. Depending on the needs of the company, either one of these tools can be a great option.

Who should use Celonis?

Celonis can be ideal for a large organizations with significant data science resources with most of their workflows and processes within a single ERP system, such as SAP. 

Who should use Signavio?

Signavio is a flexible process mining and business process management solution suitable for enterprise businesses especially focused on the SAP data stack.

Who should use Workfellow?

Workfellow is a good option for any organization that doesn’t have extensive data science and process mining resources in-house looking for an effortless and fast way to gain process intelligence without data mining hassle. Read a case-study how one medium-sized business process outsourcing (BPO) firm uncovered over € 2 million ($2.17 million) in process waste.

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