Now that we went through the first 2 stages of APA – Analysis and Proactivity – let’s discuss about the last stage – Action – which will help to answer the most common question: how to obtain value with Celonis?, and more importantly move from identifying opportunities to executing solutions!

At this point the entire broad scope of potential opportunities was curated through the previous stages and now there is a (generally) smaller list of projects that can be explored to understand what type of actions and automation can be triggered with Celonis.

Celonis platform is capable of providing a range of automations and action flows, mostly using RPA, Machine Learning or direct interactions:

1. Process Automation: Automating repetitive tasks within business processes to increase efficiency and reduce errors.
2. Workflow Optimization: Optimizing workflows by identifying and eliminating process bottlenecks.
3. Real-time Monitoring and Alerts: Setting up real-time monitoring for processes, with alerts triggered by anomalies or deviations.
4. Machine Learning-Enhanced Decisions: Leveraging machine learning to enhance decision-making within process flows.
5. Direct Integration Actions: Enabling direct actions within IT systems, like ERP or CRM, through write-back capabilities.
6. Predictive Analytics: Using predictive models to anticipate future trends and take pre-emptive actions.

Which of these capabilities will be implemented in each project will depends on the alignment between pain points, value to be obtained and technical capabilities. The strength of APA strategy is that the previous stages will already gave you better visibility into which capability to implement in the last stage. Thus reducing time spend on evaluating the options and providing a clear indication to your stakeholders about the potential value.

As we are talking about Action stage let’s explore some scenarios which hopefully will inspire your journey with Celonis:

• Predictive maintenance: By analyzing historical performance and data Celonis can alert and suggest maintenance cycles. For example: based on machine performance Celonis can predict when a piece of equipment might fail and schedule proactive maintenance, reducing downtime, by triggering an alert to respective teams to take actions. Future step: automate the entire process and trigger maintenance request directly. Similar case from Uniper: https://videos.celonis.com/watch/kDCBxKQo93SfdP4TzPHND8

• Forecasting and safety stocks: By processing historical data and using Machine Learning algorithms Celonis can propose procurement and inventory levels. Example: trigger an alert when current safety stocks might cause stockouts or excess inventory and propose new levels based on future demand and customer ordering patterns. Future step: automate the actions flows to automatically change the safety stocks levels for specific horizons. Similar case from E.ON: https://videos.celonis.com/watch/kpVbXVNkbRDGJQioQzLJ7b

• Order processing: By identifying the bottlenecks in your order management process Celonis can take control of certain part of the process. Example: manual interactions to move an order from one step of the process to the next one can be completely automated by Celonis, thus reducing the throughput time and the negative impact of last minute order releases for the downstream logistic. Similar case from Concentrix: https://videos.celonis.com/watch/YS2pyDPwzdeMzpNYEGRSod

• Transportation optimization: By integrating logistics data Celonis can suggest optimal shipping routes and methods. Example: daily proposals from Celonis containing all potential changes required to reduce costs and improve delivery times, together with the option to action directly from Celonis to the Transport system (write-back functionality). Future step: based on certain logic and parameters automatically perform the actions in Celonis, reducing the workload and improving transport costs. Similar case from PwC: https://videos.celonis.com/watch/AHEhTaK72UuTi4N9HzuWny

• Supplier performance management: By monitoring workflows Celonis can alert supplier performance drops Example: automated notifications to suppliers when certain SLA’s might be breached in order to avoid changes in the production or transportation, thus incurring additional costs. Similar case from Hitachi Energy: https://videos.celonis.com/watch/DgCwhbTgpMKbeGf2jbPaNs

Of course these examples are just the tip of the iceberg of how Celonis can unlock a world of efficiencies, especially when you are using the APA strategy through your implementation. Proof being that some of these examples were already implemented in several of my projects generating high value from workload reduction, transport efficiency and increased planning efficiency.

If you are interested in implementing Celonis in your organization feel free to get in touch and discuss more in detail.