Find the Process Worth Automating

Microsoft's own process mining tooling exists for exactly this problem. Power Automate's process mining capability builds a map of a business process from event log data pulled out of the systems that actually run it, then overlays performance metrics so you can see where cycle time, rework, or handoffs are the drag. Its task mining companion goes a level deeper, recording desktop-level actions to show what a step actually involves rather than what the process documentation says it involves.

The output isn't just a diagram. Process mining flags automation opportunities directly on the process map, and Microsoft frames the tool around a specific set of outcomes: seeing the actual steps in an operation without guesswork, detecting where a process is noncompliant, comparing variants of the same process, and catching the mistakes that don't show up until you look at what people actually did. That's the same discipline behind step one of our loop — a process doesn't get automated because it sounds slow, it gets automated because we can point at the specific queue, handoff, or wait state that a system can measurably shorten.

How EWO 360° finds the process

When a client's process already throws off usable event data — ticket systems, ERP logs, case management platforms — we can pull it straight through Power Automate's process mining capability and let the automation-recommendation markers on the resulting map point at real candidates instead of guesses. Where that data doesn't exist yet, we get to the same signal a different way: structured interviews mapped against queue depth, handoff count, and cycle time. Either path ends the same way — we don't propose a system until we can name the one process it will shorten, and the number that proves it did.

Next — Step 02: Ground It in Your Actual Data →