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Businesses seeking ways to drive operational efficiency with process intelligence tools are likely to come across two key contenders: Celonis and UiPath.
These tools are common options for many organizations because of their ability to document operations, gathering robust data that leaders can use to support process optimization. However, the platforms differ in their approach. Celonis is primarily a process intelligence tool that aims to create "digital twins" of companies' system-level processes, while UiPath is a robotic process automation (RPA) platform that offers a process mining add-on.
Here, explore the key features of both products and discover the best process mining tool for your organization's needs.
Celonis use cases and key features
Celonis reconstructs organizations' system-level processes using event logs from ERPs, CRMs, ITSMs and similar tools. Using Celonis, teams can document how processes run at scale, especially on legacy systems.
Celonis's key features include:
- Process mining: Celonis’s central feature is process mining, extracting data from legacy enterprise systems, like CRMs and ERPs.
- Supply chain improvement recommendations: Celonis’s Master Data Improvement app uses machine learning models to generate suggestions on improving lead time, maintaining safety stock, and scheduling reorder points.
- Integrations: Celonis has over 100 integrations with systems like Salesforce and SAP.
Celonis is commonly used for:
- Enterprise process intelligence initiatives: Celonis can provide rich system-level process data, especially on large-scale operations.
- KPI and conformance monitoring: Celonis monitors KPIs in business areas like procurement, sales, and supply chain, and ensures that work adheres to processes and compliance regulations while driving operational excellence.
- Centralized information: Celonis provides organizations, especially those that run in legacy systems, with a reliable single source of truth on business processes, giving leaders the data they need to make decisions on workflow migrations and process automations.
UiPath use cases and key features
UiPath is a process automation platform that aims to speed up the execution of routine tasks by automating time-consuming human labor. The platform's process mining tool analyzes system event logs, mapping flows, and helping business leaders visualize performance and make data-driven decisions on further automation opportunities.
UiPath's key features include:
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA): UiPath's core feature is robotic process automation, through which software bots perform repetitive digital tasks, freeing up human time.
- AI-driven automation: UiPath leverages AI insights on process improvements to help business leaders make smarter decisions on what to automate.
- Automation orchestration: This UiPath feature orchestrates end-to-end large-scale automations—from planning, to deployment, to monitoring.
UiPath is most commonly used for:
- RPA discovery and execution: UiPath's process mining capabilities allow it to map and pinpoint inefficiencies, which it can then turn into areas of opportunity through robotic process automation.
- Task-level workflow analysis: In addition to process mining, UiPath offers task mining, which tracks user actions at the desktop level, like clicks and keystrokes, creating task flow diagrams that show step-by-step user actions across applications.
- IT-led automation programs: IT departments can use UiPath to plan and execute scalable automation projects.
UiPath and Celonis process mining comparison
While Celonis and UiPath have an inherently different focus, businesses often use these tools to the same end: process optimization. To select the best tool, it's essential to perform a functional process mining tool comparison, so that you can choose the one that will help your organization transform most efficiently.
- System-level process reconstruction versus task and interaction capture: Celonis harvests existing system-level data, whereas UiPath performs task and process mining to highlight inefficiencies and automation opportunities.
- Historical process analysis versus automation-driven discovery: Celonis provides information on how processes have traditionally run at a company, while UiPath focuses on finding ways to streamline work.
- Process excellence ownership versus automation team ownership: Center of Excellence (CoE) teams are at the helm of Celonis, while IT-backed automation teams leverage UiPath to make process automation decisions and execute them at scale.
- Long-term process standardization versus fast automation outcomes: Celonis can support long-term process optimization and standardization, while UiPath offers immediate insights on potential automations.
- Analytical insights versus execution focused outputs: Celonis is best used as an analytics tool, while UiPath helps teams streamline work with ready-to-execute automations.
Celonis vs. UiPath: Plans and pricing
At a high-level, both Celonis and UiPath charge users higher fees as they acquire more robust features, but Celonis's pricing is primarily scope-focused, while UiPath's is tiered.
Celonis offers tailored, enterprise level price quotes, based on factors like the number of users, volume of data, scope of work, and professional support services needed.
UiPath offers tiered pricing that includes a basic free plan and affordable packages for individuals and small teams. At the enterprise level, UiPath generates bespoke licensing options dependent on the type of users (like developers and citizen developers), the robot types, AI capacities, and other add-ons (like their process mining tool).
How Scribe Optimize compares to Celonis and UiPath
Both Celonis and UiPath are strong options for gathering system data on existing processes and surfacing efficiency opportunities. But Scribe goes further by adding the human and execution layers missing from system-level process mining.
Scribe Optimize turns understanding into action. Scribe’s Workflow AI platform enables leaders to view what workflows are being performed in real-time across multiple tools and teams. With Scribe Optimize's visually-driven, user-friendly workflow analytics, living process documentation, and AI-driven recommendations, business leaders can visualize, document, and continuously improve workflows in real time.
Scribe Optimize:
- Captures end-to-end human workflows
- Doesn't rely on system event logs alone
- Automatically updates maps and improvement recommendations as work shifts
- Highlights bottlenecks in real time instead of performing point-in-time analysis, driving continuous improvement and successful change management initiatives
FAQs
What is the difference between process mining vs. task mining tools?
Process mining maps end-to-end workflows, leveraging system-level data, while task mining tracks user interactions (like clicks, keystrokes, or app use) to show how humans perform work.
Does Celonis or UiPath have the fastest time to value?
UiPath offers immediate wins with fast robotic process automations that streamline the processes your teams currently run, while Celonis implies a lengthy time investment on initial analysis, paying out in long-term wins (like major workflow overhauls).
Do you need RPA or automation to get value from process mining?
Process mining provides teams with information on how work gets done that they can analyze to drive improvements, which don't necessarily rely on automation or RPA tools. For example, a team could observe that each member performs a certain task in different ways and then decide on a standardized workflow instead of running several variations.
