Process Mining: Tools Experience: Celonis Snap

This post summarizes my initial experience and impressions of the Snap process mining tool by Celonis.

Getting Started

As simple as signing up for a free account and leveraging the Explore a Demo Process option. The Process Overview presented prior to starting a demo assists with understanding the context of the data and business case. However, after clicking the Run Demo button, it took quite a while for the next screen and subsequent pages to appear.

Usage

I explored the Service Request demo due to my familiarity with IT service management processes. Without reading the documentation or watching any videos, I was able to explore a number of process characteristics. I discovered that you can add and configure different views of process flow and analysis. After a few minutes of exploring the demo, I was ready to load some sample data. It took a few tries to realize I needed to get out of the demo mode and start a New Analysis from the first login page, rather than starting a New Analysis of the already loaded Service Request logs in the demo workspace.

I chose to load an XES file provided as part of an exercise from the Process Mining: Data Science in Action course. After uploading the file, the system walks you through identifying the Case ID, Activity Name, and Timestamp columns. The prompts for two types of analysis appeared in a Quickstart XES workspace. The Process Explorer automatically generated an overview, two views on throughput, and a look at the volume of rework involved. Walking through the steps finally prompts you on building your own analysis along with short demonstration videos; an optimal application of “just in time” training.  Adding components to a worksheet started getting less intuitive, but I’m so engaged at this point I’m willing to invest more time in figuring that out.

Summary

Initial exploration revealed a number of powerful features. Definitely a tool to investigate further.