Starting the investigation
The video above shows a typical SAP Signavio Process Intelligence investigation. ACME Company management has a set of established KPIs that are not currently being met, and the company needs to discover why this is the case. They suspect the organization’s procure to pay process is not operating as it should, and are on the hunt for procure to pay process improvement.
Starting in the SAP Signavio Collaboration Hub, where all of ACME Company’s process models are stored, it is a simple matter to launch SAP Signavio Process Intelligence to investigate further. SAP Signavio Process Intelligence takes data that resides in transactional systems and then, through Process Mining technology, gives users the ability to create visual and meaningful investigations from that raw data. An investigation is made up of different ‘widgets’, which visualize the mined raw data and help tell a story.
In the example above, the investigation starts with widgets outlining basic information: “Total Invoice Amount” for this data set, “KPIs” and “Cycle Time.” Examining the information from these widgets shows that the invoice-to-payment process and time-to-approval are processing slower than expected, leading to the missed KPIs. Next, the Process Funnel widget visualizes how individual cases run through the designed process, revealing a potential source of the problem: Sequence flows are being started from different points in the process, and one activity (“Check Invoice”) is looping.
More fun with widgets
To explore this issue further, ACME creates their own custom widget, comprising information from three different activities: Receive invoice, check invoice, and approve invoice. Running the widget shows these three activities combined take 56% of the overall process cycle time. This is clearly where the discrepancies lie, and therefore where the opportunity for procure to pay process improvement exists.
Using other widgets—Time Series, Histogram, and Process Discovery—means the process time and case frequency can be identified, then this data can be used to visualize the way the process actually behaves. In the video example, this combination of widgets reveals that more than a third of “Check Invoice” activities are being referred back to head office from a particular service center.
Here we can leverage the power of SAP Signavio Process Transformation Suite and export this finding as a BPMN diagram directly into SAP Signavio Process Manager. This model can then be a starting point for process improvement and optimization.
Insights into action for procure to pay process improvement
So, in the example video, what has ACME Company learnt?
- The company is breaching target KPIs due to non-compliant reassigns from one service center to head office.
- As much as one day of time per case could be saved if this reassign was removed.
- This saved time would result in the KPIs not being breached.
There is an additional step, of course, between procure to pay process knowledge and procure to pay process improvement. The purpose of an investigation is to turn insights into action, which means ACME Company must use what they have learned to make changes to their process.
Using SAP Signavio Process Manager, the company begins to collaborate and optimize their current process model based on what was learnt from the investigation, by adding clearer work instructions and reassigning checklists to the process documentation. In turn, employees will be able to make more informed and compliant decisions in future, reducing wasted time and money. A textbook case of procure to pay process improvement!
How Signavio helps
SAP Signavio Process Intelligence offers more than process monitoring. Signavio’s investigations function enables detailed follow up on any unexpected process behavior, using a documented, story-like process analysis. The content of an investigation can be as unique as the process question itself, and investigations can be shared with other staff members to ensure collaborative process analysis.
Process excellence saves companies thousands in costs each year by improving efficiency; combining this with advanced process mining and data analytics means the savings could be exponentially higher. To find out how your organization could benefit, why not get in touch to arrange your free demonstration today?