Top 3 Celonis Alternatives for Process Mining in 2024
Hey there! If you‘re reading this, I imagine you‘re interested in adopting process mining to improve operational efficiency. With the right solution, process mining can provide tremendous visibility into your business processes and help drive significant optimizations.
However, I also know first-time buyers face a challenging vendor selection process given the crowded market.
In my experience as a data analytics consultant, companies often look at Celonis first since it claims to be the market leader. But Celonis has some downsides reported by users that are important to consider.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll discuss:
- What process mining is and key Celonis capabilities
- Limitations to be aware of with Celonis
- Top Celonis alternatives to evaluate
- Helpful selection criteria to determine the best fit
My goal is to provide unbiased insights to help you make an informed decision selecting your ideal process mining platform. Let‘s dive in!
What is Process Mining?
Process mining uses data science to automatically discover and analyze business processes. By pulling real-time data from event logs across your systems, process mining solutions can provide end-to-end transparency into how work gets done.
Key capabilities provided by process mining include:
- Process Discovery: Visualize processes as flow charts to understand dependencies and variants
- Conformance Checking: Identify deviations by comparing event logs with process maps
- Enhancement: Improve processes by analyzing bottlenecks and throughput
- Automation: Apply RPA to optimize processes or trigger responses
Top process mining benefits include:
- Removing process blindspots
- Improving efficiency
- Ensuring compliance
- Facilitating automation initiatives
Why Do Companies Struggle to Adopt Process Mining?
Process mining offers game-changing visibility, but it is still an emerging technology.
In a recent survey of 500 executives:
- 93% expressed interest in adopting process mining
- But only 21% have an active implementation
This reveals a large gap between interest and actual adoption. So what‘s holding companies back?
According to the survey, the top three challenges faced are:
- Complex IT landscapes (30%): Most companies use dozens of different systems that process mining needs to integrate with.
- Selecting the right vendor (27%): With so many vendors offering different tools, choosing the best solution is difficult.
- Lack of internal skills (23%): Process mining requires data science expertise many organizations lack.
With these insights, it‘s clear that selecting the right process mining vendor is a critical yet challenging first step to succeed.
Overview of Celonis Process Mining Capabilities
Celonis Execution Management System (EMS) combines process discovery, mining, and intelligence in a unified cloud platform.
Key capabilities include:
- Process Mining Engine: Automatically visualizes processes from system logs with intelligent analytics.
- Action Engine: Monitors processes and triggers real-time actions like alerts or RPA bots.
- Applications: Pre-built apps for execution management across finance, procurement, production and more.
- Task Mining: Discovers in-tool human behavior patterns for training and optimization.
- DTO: Provides a simulation environment to test process changes.
- Celonis ML: Applies machine learning for pattern recognition and prediction.
As the first process mining-focused company, Celonis has seen rapid growth and claims to be the market leader. But is it the right choice for your business? Let‘s look at some of the limitations reported by users.
Key Limitations to Consider with Celonis
While Celonis offers advanced functionality, reviewers point out some areas of weakness to be aware of:
Ease of use: Although Celonis ranks top 3 in ease of use on G2, 7% of reviewers still found it difficult. It relies heavily on code rather than drag-and-drop interfaces.
Support: The majority of reviews complained about poor customer support taking too long to resolve tickets.
User interface: Users want simpler options like drag-and-drop. Celonis requires SQL knowledge and coding for analysis.
Integration: Customers faced challenges integrating Celonis with other systems, citing errors and delays.
Features: Task mining was rated inefficient compared to competitors.
Pricing: Many reviewers considered Celonis overpriced compared to alternative solutions.
According to G2 data, Celonis scored lower than competitors in areas like ease of use, setup, support, and direction:
Figure 1: Celonis lags in ease of use, setup, admin, support and product vision. Source: G2
Specific reviewers pointed out pros and cons:
Figure 2: A G2 user highlighting the pros and cons of Celonis. Source: G2
Others compared Celonis specifically on task mining and pricing:
Figure 3: A G2 review comparing Celonis on price and task mining. Source: G2
While Celonis is a solid choice, these limitations highlight the value of evaluating all your options to find the best fit. Next let‘s look at the top alternatives.
Top 3 Celonis Alternatives to Consider
Here I‘ll provide an overview of leading alternatives based on user reviews and head-to-head comparisons:
1. ARIS Process Mining
Offered by Software AG, ARIS Process Mining capabilities include process discovery, conformance checking, design and automation.
Ease of use: ARIS was rated difficult by 13% of reviewers – on par with Celonis.
Support: Has the top rating for technical support quality amongst vendors.
User interface: Reviews mention the UI is simple and easy to use.
Integration: According to Gartner, ARIS offers the smoothest integrations with other tools.
Features: Users highlight accuracy of conformance checking as a key strength.
Pricing: Limited public information available on ARIS pricing.
Figure 4: ARIS scores well on process analysis and automation. Source: G2
ARIS is a user-friendly option with strong conformance checking for compliance and smooth integrations. Lack of pricing transparency is a potential downside to confirm upfront.
2. IBM Process Mining
IBM Process Mining is part of the IBM Automation Platform. It leverages automation, AI and analytics for process intelligence.
Ease of use: IBM scored highest on both G2 and Gartner for intuitive navigation.
Support: IBM consistently ranks best for customer service quality.
User interface: It earned the top UI score in 11% of reviews analyzed. Plus #1 on TrustRadius for usability.
Integration: Robust integrations with the IBM ecosystem. considered a strong Celonis alternative.
Features: Users highlight process analysis, notation, mapping and libraries as key strengths.
Pricing: IBM viewed as the most flexible vendor for contracting and costs.
Figure 5: IBM tops for process libraries, collaboration, integrations and execution. Source: G2
IBM is an enterprise-ready option with versatile process mining capabilities and top ratings for usability.
3. UiPath Process Mining
UiPath Process Mining is part of the UiPath automation platform. Key features include process assessment, discovery, analytics, and automation.
Ease of use: UiPath is associated with ease of use in 10% of reviews vs. only 1% finding it difficult.
Support: UiPath beats Celonis in customer service quality.
User interface: Reviewers praise the intuitive, customizable interface. #1 on TrustRadius for usability.
Integration: Users rate UiPath the best for integrations, especially RPA given UiPath‘s roots.
Features: Outscored Celonis on process analysis and visualization per G2 data.
Pricing: Considered expensive yet more flexible than Celonis.
Figure 6: UiPath tops Celonis in usability, support, training and renewal likelihood. Source: TrustRadius
UiPath is an automation-friendly choice with top ratings for the user experience.
Key Selection Criteria
When comparing Celonis to alternatives like ARIS, IBM and UiPath, keep these selection criteria in mind:
- Ease of use: Seek a intuitive solution that won‘t slow user adoption.
- Support: Prioritize strong customer service to speed implementation.
- User interface: Pick a platform with flexibility to customize dashboards and views.
- Integrations: Review integration capabilities to ensure sync with your tech stack.
- Features: Align features to your specific process mining use cases.
- Pricing: Confirm predictable pricing that fits your budget constraints.
Here is a summary of how leading platforms compare across these criteria:
Figure 7: Head-to-head comparison across selection criteria. Source: Gartner
No platform is perfect across the board. Define your must-have priorities and rank solutions to determine the best option.
Key Takeaways
Process mining delivers game-changing visibility – but only if you select the right vendor. Keep these recommendations in mind:
- Look beyond Celonis – explore all alternatives to avoid blindspots.
- Carefully evaluate ease of use, support, UI, integrations, features and pricing.
- Prioritize must-have capabilities based on your use cases.
- Consider ARIS for compliance, IBM for usability and UiPath for automation.
- Leverage free trials to validate the user experience before purchase.
Adopting process mining is a journey. But picking the ideal platform gets you off to the right start. Reach out if I can help further with your vendor selection process!
