Manage Cost Centers

Apromore allows displaying cost metrics on top of a process map or a BPMN model in the Process Discoverer.

Note

The Cost overlay and Cost center functionality can be used only with the logs having the Roles column present while uploading the event log to Apromore.

To check the cost metrics, click the Manage cost centers button above the Abstraction Settings panel.

A cost center management window appears, consisting of a list of Roles, Cost per hour section, and Calendar.

We can also specify the currency from the Currency dropdown.

Enter the cost-per-hour values next to each Role and specify the calendar in which the roles work. For instance, a role may work 9 am to 5 pm, 5 Business days, while another works 24/7. Calendars are particularly useful in computing the actual processing time of a task and, by extension, the cost of performing that task. For example, suppose an event log indicates a task begins at 4:50 pm on Thursday and ends at 9:10 am on Friday. If the role assigned to the task works 9 am to 5 pm, 5 Business days, the processing time is 20 minutes. If, on the other hand, the role works 24/7, the processing time is 16 hours, 20 minutes.

Before assigning a calendar to a role, a calendar must be created. To create a calendar, click the calendar icon . A list of already created calendars in the workspace appears.

Click the calendar we wish to apply to the role and click Apply calendar.

We can also create a new calendar. In the Calendar management window, click Add new Calendar.

Enter the name of the calendar. This name will be used to assign the calendar to the role subsequently.

Specify the time range on the calender shown. We may also choose from the predefined calender time range: 9AM-5PM 5 Business Days, 24hr 5 Business Days, and 24hr 7 Days. To specify a custom time range for a day, drag the mouse across the time we wish to specify. We can edit a set time by clicking on the time range. The Edit time range window appears.

We can edit the Start and End times to change the time range. Use the up and down arrow to edit or type the time. Click Update to specify the new time as the new time range for the day.

To delete the entire time range, click Delete. The time range for that day will be removed entirely.

We can also add holidays and add them to a role. Apromore has a list of public holidays per country. To add a public holiday, click Add public holidays.

Specify the country and the state. Click Create.

This imports the public holiday for the set state.

Similarly, we can create a custom holiday for a role. Click Add holiday. Specify the date and description of the holiday. Click Create.

The holiday is added to the list of holidays.

Note

A holiday (public or custom) indicates that the role was not working within that time range. Apromore considers this when calculating critical metrics such as the resource cost, processing times, cycle times, etc.

When the calendar has been satisfactorily specified, click Apply to create it. The calendar now appears in the list of calendars.

To add this calendar to a role, go to the Cost center management window. Click the calendar icon .

Click on the calendar you wish to apply to the role and click Apply calendar.

The calendar is now associated with the role.

Finally, to apply the cost per hour and calendar to a role, click Apply.

To see how the Resource costs are distributed among different process activities, click on the Cost overlay available under the Visualization settings section, Overlay subsection placed top left in the Process Discoverer.

You can also filter the cases based on the distribution of their cost.

To create a Cost-based performance filter, first, indicate Cost per hour and Currency sections in the Cost center management window mentioned in the previous subsection.

Invoke the Performance filter and choose Case cost from the Performance measure drop-down menu.

Decide whether to retain or remove the cases that fulfil the cost condition set in the filter criteria. Create a filter by clicking Apply.

In the example below, we retain all the cases which cost more than 300 $ to be executed. Click OK.

For ease of analysis, the higher the activity cost, the darker is the colour on the process map.

To visualize cost distribution of cases using dashboards, select the log and click on Analyse - > Launch dashboard.

Dashboard window opens. Click Add view - > Create from scratch.

Click Add new chart. Select a chart and choose the type of chart from the Chart type.

Select Case attribute from the X-Axis drop-down list and choose the X-Axis attribute. Choose Case cost from the Y-Axis drop-down menu. In the example below, you can view the average case cost per country.