Creating operational efficiency for banks through process mining

Process mining is not a new phenomenon as financial services institutions have typically done some level of this when they are looking at ways to transform their sales and service operations and create efficiencies. But there is still some untapped potential here for banks and other financial services institutions. 

Starting with understanding what process mining really is. It is a way for businesses to monitor operations in real time and improve processes through analysing already available knowledge from the information the system collects, according to Gartner. So, in essence, process mining provides banks with a connection and a true understanding of what is happening in real-time in their business through constantly collecting data of how front to back-end operations are working. This can also highlight the inefficiencies and bottle necks, which are an obstacle to productivity and profitability. 

The benefits of process mining for banks

Over the past decade, process mining has evolved and become much more automated. The tools that businesses now have access to can look at vast amounts of data from different steps and stages in the banks’ operations and easily focus on where the issue is. These could be problems related to system latency or lack of integration or insufficiently skilled staffing, for example. 

Beneficially, these tools sit in the background and run constantly without the need for manual intervention. As such, the process mining application has access to how operations are performing in a holistic way across all parts of the financial service institution, end-to-end. This enables banks to become more aware of any bottleneck issues, for example, that they may not have known before. This all works to streamline back-end operations and leads to much better customer service.

Further, when looking at compliance and regulations, banks can leverage process mining to ensure that they are aligned to these restraints to avoid any potential hefty fines and reputational damage that come with being non-compliant. As process mining collects data from every part of the business and at every point, it ensures transparency of operations, making it easily explainable to regulators and internal audit functions. 

Putting process mining into practice

Each bank will need to review the cost versus benefit case of implementing process mining into their operations and how this software will fit into their systems. Deploying process mining into operations is a one off and easy integration process, similar to other projects the bank may have implemented in the past. 

So, what does it mean in practice? Well, a member of the business operations or IT team could clearly spot where operations are deviating from customer service expectations, and can tie this back to whether it is a system, process or people problem. If it is a system issue, then that can be highlighted and (hopefully) efficiently sorted, but if the problem stems from a particular person, then they can have more training or re-education in relation to the gaps in their knowledge. Similar to process improvement approaches like lean six-sigma, it is important to identify if an issue is a point failure or wide and systemic. Process mining goes beyond creating efficient front to back operations, it is also a tool to support employees’ development and spot process inefficiencies. 

Even though process mining has been around for a while now, the tools available now enable banks to do this much more efficiently and get a deeper understanding of the inner workings of their business. The ability to change, improve and spot problems in sales and service operations has vastly improved and accelerated, and it can enable banks to find that competitive edge in a digital banking landscape.