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SAP Signavio: Process Insights vs. Process Intelligence.
When should you use SAP Signavio Process Insights and when Process Intelligence? Learn the differences and a practical O2C example.
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In many SAP transformation programs, one question keeps coming up: should we use SAP Signavio Process Insights or SAP Signavio Process Intelligence—or both? The truth is, each solves a different part of the puzzle. Understanding those roles will help you reach value faster and avoid analysis paralysis.
Two products, two speeds.
Process Insights is the fastest way to get decision-ready visibility into your SAP core processes. It comes with out-of-the-box KPIs, best-practice checks, and benchmarks for areas like Purchase-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, and Record-to-Report. Because the content is prebuilt for SAP data, you can establish a baseline within weeks, spot obvious leakages—think discount losses, rework loops, or missing 3-way matches—and build a credible business case for change. It’s ideal for S/4HANA preparation, executive reporting, and quick wins when time-to-value matters most.
Process Intelligence is your general-purpose process mining workhorse. It ingests event logs from SAP and non-SAP systems, reconstructs end-to-end flows, and lets you dive into variants, conformance, and root causes. If you need to understand cross-system bottlenecks, prove policy adherence, surface automation opportunities, or set up continuous monitoring with alerts and simulations, this is where you’ll do the heavy lifting.
When to choose which.
If your priority is speed, standards, and SAP-centric visibility, start with Process Insights. You’ll quickly answer questions like: Where do we lose cash through late postings? Which deviations create rework in P2P? How do our KPIs compare to industry benchmarks? The acceleration comes from not having to define metrics yourself.
If your priority is depth, end-to-end transparency, and multi-system analysis, go for Process Intelligence. It helps you quantify the impact of specific variants, validate conformance against your target model, and connect insights to action through orchestration, automation, and change management. It’s the right choice for audit-ready compliance, automation discovery, and value tracking across complex landscapes.
Stronger together: top-down meets bottom-up.
The best pattern we see combines both. Begin with Process Insights to establish a clear baseline, highlight hotspots, and articulate the business value. Then use Process Intelligence to investigate the root causes behind those hotspots, model your target flows, and operationalize improvements with dashboards, alerts, and governance. This keeps stakeholders aligned while giving your team the analytical depth to deliver measurable outcomes.
A practical example: reduce DSO in Order-to-Cash.
Imagine a company struggling with late billing and rising Days Sales Outstanding. In the first month, Process Insights reveals a clear pattern: partial deliveries and manual workarounds consistently delay invoicing. With that direction, the team brings in Process Intelligence to analyze event logs across order, delivery, billing, and payment. Variant analysis shows a subset of orders that detour through exceptions and approvals; conformance checks confirm where rules are bypassed. The improvement plan adjusts delivery block logic, sets cut-off rules, and automates exception handling. Within a quarter, DSO drops, first-time-right rises, and rework falls—now tracked continuously.
In a nutshell.
Process Insights gives you speed, standards, and SAP benchmarks—perfect for quick wins and management clarity.
Using both, in that order, delivers momentum and measurable impact without losing precision.
Get in touch with Westernacher Consulting and start your SAP Signavio journey with Process Insights and Process Intelligence today.
