Most organisations believe they know their processes. After all, if something works, it must be working well. Reality, however, is often more complex than the company documentation suggests. Processes that look great on PowerPoint slides are, in day-to-day operation, full of shortcuts, delays, exceptions and manual workarounds. This raises the question: how can we gain a genuine picture of what is actually happening within our organisation?
UiPath offers concrete solutions as part of its “Discover” series - a set of tools that can genuinely change the way an organisation is managed.
From intuition to fact: what is Process Mining?
Every process in a company leaves a digital trail - in SAP, CRM, procurement or finance systems. Process Mining allows us to collect and analyse this data, transforming it into visualisations that represent how end-to-end processes actually unfold.
This is not about “how it should be”, but about “how it actually is”.
This allows organisations to:
discover every variant of a process, including those that deviate from the standard,
identify bottlenecks and delays,
compare the efficiency of different branches, teams or systems.
Most importantly, decisions can then be based on data rather than assumptions. Instead of implementing automation on a hunch, organisations can select the areas that genuinely generate losses or inefficiency.
Task Mining - exploring automation potential with employee input
Once the process flow is understood as a whole, it is time to go deeper - to the level of the individual task. Task Mining analyses how employees use their computers: how they click, in what order they open applications, what they copy, which reports they compile manually. The process is fully automated and requires no additional effort from employees. After a few days of operation, the solution delivers the following insights:
Which activities are repetitive and suitable for automation,
Differences in how various people carry out the same task (for example, different approaches to invoice approval),
Real data for building RPA processes, rather than mere assumptions.
UiPath’s Task Mining also safeguards privacy - data is collected anonymously, and employees are informed that they are part of the analysis. This is not a tool for surveillance, but for improvement.
The end result? Genuine automation based on facts, not guesswork.
Communications Mining - the real intent hidden in communication
Communication within an organisation is not merely a “soft” element. It contains concrete actions, agreements, requests and decisions. Communications Mining analyses unstructured content: emails, MS Teams messages, tickets in service systems, or comments logged in the CRM.
Using advanced NLP (natural language processing), the tool is able to:
recognise user intent (is this an enquiry, a complaint, a request for help?),
classify messages automatically,
route communications to the appropriate departments or employees without human involvement,
feed other automated processes with structured data extracted from the communication analysed.
Why does this matter? An increasing number of processes now begin with a message - whether a client email or an HR request. To build fully automated processes, organisations first need to understand what is happening at the communication stage.
Three perspectives = the full picture
Each of these tools delivers unique value on its own. But their true strength lies in combining them.
Process Mining shows what is happening within the systems.
Task Mining reveals what people actually do.
Communications Mining extracts information from messages exchanged between users.
Together, they provide a complete context, enabling informed decisions on which processes to optimise, which to automate, and which simply need to be simplified.
Working with ERP systems
For many organisations, SAP forms the backbone of operations. The good news is that UiPath - as a leader in RPA and hyperautomation - integrates seamlessly with SAP, in both ECC and S/4HANA versions.
Both Process Mining and Task Mining have native connectors to SAP, which means:
Processes such as Purchase-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, Hire-to-Retire or Record-to-Report can be analysed,
data is collected quickly, without the need for lengthy custom implementation projects,
automations can be built directly on the basis of real SAP user scenarios.
Furthermore, Communications Mining can be used, for example, to analyse service tickets, client enquiries or supplier messages - and can connect to SAP via the UiPath Integration Service.
When is the right time to start?
There is no need to have a ready-made automation strategy before making use of these tools. On the contrary - they can help build the right strategy in the first place.
The best starting point is a specific business case, for example:
Order fulfilment taking too long?
SLA problems in customer service?
Performance differences between teams?
These are ideal starting points for Process and Task Mining. From there, all that remains is to act.
If you cannot see the fault, you cannot fix it
UiPath’s Discover series is not a set of tools “for IT specialists”. It is a suite of intelligent solutions that allow managers, directors and boards to make better decisions based on data. They help organisations understand operational reality as it truly is - not as they would like it to be.
In a world where time is money and competitors never rest, understanding how a business truly operates can be an invaluable advantage.
If you are not certain how these technologies could help your organisation, start with a single question: Do I really know what is happening in my processes?