ABSTRACT

The increasing capability to generate and store data and the growing fusion of the physical and the digital world are fostering the use of Process Mining, a trend in business process management which has finally arrived in industrial application. The reduction in throughput times, cutting costs, or increased satisfaction among customers are examples of how an organization can benefit from process mining in order to remain competitive or to gain further competitive advantages. However, it is evident that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) show a considerable backlog when approaching the digital transformation compared to large enterprises. This chapter investigates the prerequisites for process mining and when an organization is ready for this technology. Further, the chapter examines with the applicability of process mining for SMEs. It is based on a case study with two SMEs from the Austro-German border region around Salzburg. It is found that especially process-related prerequisites, IT-related prerequisites, and data-related prerequisites are central backlogs in the SMEs regarded. Thereupon, the chapter derives managerial implications for the implementation steps necessary in order to integrate process mining in SMEs.