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Zeitworks Process Intelligence vs. RPA Task Mining Capability

Summary

Zeitworks is a business process intelligence platform that provides automated and continuous desktop data collection, AI, and real-time reporting to help operations teams discover how work really gets done. Zeitworks provides transformative data and insights about their people, processes, and productivity, empowering them to improve efficiency, lower costs, and maximize the human potential of their teams.

RPA platform task-mining features facilitate the capture of user-executed business processes, helping identify the specific steps of repetitive desktop processes that are ripe for automation. As part of an RPA platform, identified process paths are easily exported and deployed to robot implementations.

Zeitworks vs. RPA Task Mining Comparison Matrix

Features/ Capability

Desktop agent observation via software sensor
Grey checkmark (limited)
Macro/ Path recording
Statistics on process execution time
Basic application usage statistics
Identify bottlenecks and opportunities for reengineering and training
Continuous agent and team productivity and measurement
Capture and measure unique process execution instances
Statistics on process execution costs, outlier identification and analysis
Application usage statistics by process and team members (including specific Excel/ Notepad behavior)
Continuous real-time data and insights
Application context-switching behavior analysis
Cross application behavior analysis
Data replication (copy & paste) behavior analysis
Continuous improvement - Set and track goals, measure improvements over time

PRA Tasking Mining Product/ Features

Desktop agent observation via software sensor
Macro/ Path recording
Grey checkmark (limited)
Statistics on process execution time
Automation/ bot output
Requires expensive refactoring when your process changes
Basic application usage statistics
Grey checkmark (limited)
Identify bottlenecks and opportunities for reengineering and training

Features/ Capability

Zeitworks Process
Intelligence Platform

RPA Tasking Mining
Product/ Features

Desktop agent observation via software sensor
Macro/ Path recording
Grey checkmark (limited)
Statistics on process execution time
Grey checkmark (limited)
Automation/ bot output
Requires expensive refactoring when your process changes
Basic application usage statistics
Identify bottlenecks and opportunities for reengineering and training
Grey checkmark (limited)
Continuous agent and team productivity and measurement
Capture and measure unique process execution instances
Statistics on process execution costs, outlier identification and analysis
Application usage statistics by process and team members (including specific Excel/ Notepad behavior)
Continuous real-time data and insights
Application context-switching behavior analysis
Cross application behavior analysis
Data replication (copy & paste) behavior analysis
Continuous improvement - Set and track goals, measure improvements over time

What is Task Mining?

Zeitworks and some RPA and Process Mining platforms utilize a set of technologies and techniques commonly referred to as “task mining.” Task mining software collects information about the execution of work performed at a desktop computer by observing and analyzing behavior and event data generated by users performing their job. Importantly, task mining captures repetitive business process work typically involving several desktop applications, including web and communication applications and productivity tools. This data may be from individual users or a cohort of individuals (as, for example, in a call center) and can take the form of data from input devices (keystrokes, mouse clicks), data and events from applications (application windows and input controls), and images (screenshots).

After capturing data, additional mining and analysis capabilities interpret the data by applying sequential pattern recognition, graph/network analysis, and optical character recognition to extract meaningful business insights. Task mining can help enterprises identify process and team inefficiencies, automation potential, and opportunities to lower operational costs and enhance the employee experience.

Both Zeitworks and RPA platforms utilize task mining technologies in their platforms, albeit for very different purposes and business value.

vs

Zeitworks Process Intelligence Platform

Leveraging task-mining and AI, Zeitworks is a business process intelligence platform that empowers teams to transform their operations by revealing continuous data and insights into how work really gets done. Like a fitness tracker for team productivity, Zeitworks surfaces insights and analyses about people and processes in real-time, giving you the information you need to make better data-driven decisions.

Beyond showing you the steps of a given task, Zeitworks provides a wide breadth and depth of continuous information, including detailed metrics on all unique executions of a business process.

Combining team member productivity metrics and behaviors with detailed application usage statistics gives leaders the information they need to improve efficiency, lower costs, and maximize the human potential of their teams.

RPA Task-Mining Features

Some RPA platforms offer “task mining” features that facilitate the creation of RPA bots from limited user executions of repetitive business processes. Process executions are recorded by users on their desktop computers and are uploaded to a cloud portal. There, analysis tools help identify automation opportunities from the paths and steps that have been repeated frequently in the recorded data. These tools and analyses help managers understand the characteristics and variances of the frequent paths of the candidate processes, assisting in determining the exact process automation structure to automate. RPA instructions of the chosen candidate process are generated, accelerating the development and deployment of the RPA bot.

While RPA task-mining capabilities provide a helpful snapshot in time, they are not designed to dynamically and continuously provide continuous operational improvements, insight into team behaviors, team time and costs of process executions, or details of consumer-specific processes.

Zeitworks Process Intelligence Platform

Illustration of data going from the business process team into the AI cloud and into the analytics portal

Zeitworks AI-powered Business Process Intelligence Platform observes and measures teams, processes, and productivity continuously, empowering leaders to keep their fingers on the pulse of their operations.

Designed to provide operational data and insights continuously and longitudinally across your whole team.

Although many repetitive business processes have been automated successfully with RPA technologies, most processes are too complex, poorly understood, or require human oversight, making them difficult or impossible to automate. Unlike RPA task-mining features, Zeitworks provides operational data and insights continuously and longitudinally across the whole team. This always-on and comprehensive approach provides insight into time, costs, and efficiency of unique process executions, application usage, and employee work patterns and behaviors. The continuous nature of Zeitworks data collection and analysis enables operations leaders and their teams to make iterative improvements and optimizations.  Several key capabilities distinguish Zeitworks from other products and platforms in the market:

Because the Zeitworks desktop sensor software runs in the background, passively measuring teams and operations, no work is ever stopped or interrupted. Managers can keep their fingers on the pulse of their teams as their work and business change.

Zeitworks can identify, measure and track unique instances of processes and not just the steps that make up a process. This means that Zeitworks can identify, measure, and track individual cases, claims, customers, applications, orders, or whatever unit of work the processes produce. This analysis provides a new level of detail into an organization's business metrics.

Zeitworks identifies, measures, and tracks process execution instances.

Illustration for personal loan program instances being measured and identified

Zeitworks reveals insights about the unique instances or executions of your processes (e.g., person A’s loan vs. person B’s loan) and not just the generic steps of a process

Zeitworks measures not just your processes but also the whole team. Discover who are the best performers and the behaviors that differentiate them. Learn who needs further training and coaching.

The Zeitworks desktop sensor software is easy to install, and the Analytics Portal is intuitive to use and requires no special training, learning curve, or operation of arcane tools. Just log in and start learning about how work really gets done!

Zeitworks screenshot of the personal loan program representing processes

The Zeitworks Analytics Portal provides a wide depth and breadth of data and insights about an organization’s people processes and productivity.

Some RPA platforms offer task-mining features that help create RPA bots from user executions of particular repetitive business processes.

Paths are recorded by users on desktop computers and uploaded to a cloud analysis tool where they can:

Identify automation opportunities, the steps, and paths of a process that have been repeated frequently in the user action data

Understand the frequent path and variances of the candidate processes in order to standardize and agree on the process structure before automating

Generate RPA instructions of a candidate process to accelerate the development and deployment of the RPA bot

Basic statistics about execution time and application usage

Recorded path repetitions by task-mining tools expedite the capture and conversion of human process executions to automation (bot) deployments. RPA task-mining capabilities are not designed to provide continuous operational improvements, insight into team behaviors, team time and costs of process executions, or details of customer-specific processes.

RPA Task-Mining Features

Illustration representing the RPA task mining features

Users initiate recording of process executions on their desktop computers. Uploaded processes can then be analyzed with tools to determine which process steps should contribute to the final process automation definition.

RPA Task-Mining

Personal Loan Program - Abtract Path/ Steps

1

Get next application off CRM queue

2

Open application doc in PDF reader

3

Copy & paste applicant data into Credit Check web application fields

4

Click ‘submit’ button

21

If credit_score > X, open Employment Verification web application

22

Copy & paste applicant data into Employment Verification web application fields

Down arrowOrange robot

RPA platform task-mining features facilitate the capture of user-executed business process paths, helping identify repetitive activities ripe for automation.

Do you have more questions about Zeitworks?