QPR Software and 30 Years of Process Excellence

QPR Software provides solutions for process mining, process & enterprise architecture modeling, and performance management, with its R&D located in Helsinki and Oulu, Finland.

• Has served +2000 customers worldwide, sold +1 million software licenses, and led +400 process mining projects.
• Has a network of partners and local support in over 50 countries.
• Has been awarded more than 70 Gartner recognitions throughout the years.
• Owns several patents in the US for process mining technology.
• Celebrates its 30^th anniversary in 2021
  
  

Watch QPR Software - 30 Years of Process Excellence video

The pioneer DNA of QPR Software

“QPR has evolved a lot since 1991, but we still keep this pioneering attitude towards technology and thirst for innovation.” - Kari Junkkonen, Founder and Product Owner, QPR Software

To Kari Junkkonen, one of the founders of QPR Software, the company’s DNA lies in how its talented and dedicated employees are determined to create innovative and practical solutions for their customers. In many instances, QPR employees have successfully achieved goals that seemed impossible at first. “QPR has evolved a lot since 1991, but we still keep this pioneering attitude towards technology and thirst for innovation, which I treasure. I am proud of QPR Software and our people.” – says Kari.

QPR’s story started back in 1991 when Kari and his three colleagues got the idea of starting a company to offer consultancy in Management Information Systems and operational analysis. They were among the pioneers in developing a software product for Activity Based Costing. “In 1991, we at QPR Software started our mission of providing our customers with quality, fact-based insight into their processes to help them achieve outstanding operational results.” – Kari recalls. Soon afterward, they started looking for partners and expanding their operations abroad. In 1993, QPR successfully signed its first partnerships with companies in Sweden and the Netherlands.

For the past 30 years, Kari has been involved in software development every day. As a product owner, he’s responsible for improving and designing new features in the software. “I'm a software guy. New technologies fascinate me. To me, coding is also creative work. It’s rewarding to find the solution to a new challenge.” – Kari adds. This urge to apply new ideas in real life is reflected in each and every QPR employee. Together as a team, they discover and implement new solutions to help their customers run their businesses in a better way.

Process Mining and QPR ProcessAnalyzer

“QPR ProcessAnalyzer helps transform your business by giving comprehensive answers to your business questions, leveraging your existing process data.” - Matti Erkheikki, Senior Vice President in Global Process Intelligence Business, QPR Software

Since 1995, QPR Software has adopted a strong focus on Business Process Management (BPM). Having numerous customer projects allowed QPR to encounter unique business struggles in BPM. Driven by the company’s tenacious DNA, QPR experts felt an urgent need for an innovation to address and overcome these challenges. Within the next decade, QPR was fully committed to developing software specializing in process excellence.

Teemu Lehto, now Vice President in Process Mining at QPR Software, was appointed to lead a research team at the time. “Continuous improvement of business processes is essential - but often difficult and slow. In particular, documenting the current state of processes and identifying problems through workshops and interviews is challenging and ineffective, often leading to an incomplete, inaccurate, or even false understanding of the situation.” – Teemu explains.

There were company-wide “innovation day” meetings where all QPR experts shared, discussed, and experimented with new ideas together. They often recalled how troublesome it had been for the customers to create their own accurate process models in an efficient and automated process. But how? As the idea of inventing a mind-reading sensor was obviously out of the question, they arrived at the second-best option: using existing data.

“During a QPR innovation workshop meeting on April 16, 2009, we documented our innovation of using event log data for drawing flowcharts. I started to lead the product development project with the code name QPR Automated Process Bottleneck Remover. Six months later, we began our first customer pilot projects, and the official QPR ProcessAnalyzer 2.0 product launch for international markets took place on 15th February 2011.” – says Teemu. That’s how QPR Software became one of the first companies to bridge the gap between theory and practice in process mining.

Due to their extensive experience in customer projects, QPR experts understand how the business architecture varies significantly from one company to the next, demanding different approaches to process excellence. This has inspired QPR to develop QPR ProcessAnalyzer with flexibility in mind. This flexibility aspect is twofold. Firstly, users are given customized support to operate QPR ProcessAnalyzer differently depending on their distinct business process landscapes. Secondly, QPR offers tailor-made solutions using QPR ProcessAnalyzer and corresponding commercial models suitable for each customer’s unique needs. “The customer can get exactly what they need when they work with QPR: the most practical and efficient solution to their unique business problems.” – says Matti Erkheikki, Senior Vice President in Global Process Intelligence Business, QPR Software.

The next generation of Process Mining

“A tool so intelligent and powerful that it’s a must-have for successful process automation and business transformation. I think we’ve only just seen the beginning.” - Matti Erkheikki, Senior Vice President in Global Process Intelligence Business, QPR Software

The future of QPR ProcessAnalyzer is full of exciting possibilities. As the world is changing rapidly and businesses facing new obstacles on their process excellence journeys, QPR is constantly improving its solutions to stay ahead. The core of QPR Software’s innovation has always been intellectual curiosity and the willingness to help the customers. “Process automation and digital transformation are among the fundamental topics that our customers currently focus on. QPR ProcessAnalyzer is a crucial tool to help transform your business by giving comprehensive answers to your business questions, leveraging your existing process data.” – Matti adds.

As QPR experts prioritize understanding the customers’ needs, they’re aware of the rigidness of today’s ERP systems, which potentially hinder the desired business transformation. That’s why they’re developing QPR ProcessAnalyzer as an intelligent, AI-powered process mining platform that can understand past incidents, predict, and recommend future actions. “Machine learning algorithms can give users new meaningful information from the same process mining source data. You can receive recommendations for future actions and train the machine learning-based orchestrator to become an even better assistant for your operation management.” – says Teemu.

The advancement in QPR’s process mining software is truly promising. According to Matti Erkheikki, the intelligent orchestrator in QPR ProcessAnalyzer is on a development path towards what he describes as “self-healing processes.” Matti envisions: “Giving the software more autonomy and ability to ensure frictionless operations. QPR ProcessAnalyzer can become a tool so intelligent and powerful that it’s a must-have for successful process automation and business transformation. I think we’ve only just seen the beginning.”

Another untapped future potential for QPR lies within the process improvement business that the company has many years of experience in. “We have the ability to revolutionize this niche business by combining our knowledge of process mining technology and process modeling. That could be an interesting alternative.” –Matti suggests. One thing is for sure: whichever future direction QPR Software decides to take, it would become one of the pioneers in that area, thanks to its priority in innovation and bringing value to its customers.