What is a digital twin of business processes?
There are three main types of digital twins: the asset twin (a machine or building), the system twin (a chain of assets, such as a factory as a whole) and the process twin. The latter is what most operations managers are looking for when they search for 'digital twin of business processes'. A process twin captures how work actually flows: which steps are taken, how long they take, where delays occur, and which decisions are made at what point. The digital copy is continuously fed with transaction data from your ERP, TMS, WMS or production system. This allows you to simulate a new way of working, identify a bottleneck or calculate the impact of a capacity change, without using your real operation as a test environment.
What are the types of digital twins and which one fits processes?
The confusion around 'digital twin' arises because the term is used for very different applications. Geographic twins, such as a 3D model of a city or port area, are visually impressive but have nothing to do with process management. Asset twins for machinery are closer to operations: they predict when a component will fail. Process twins go a step further and model the behaviour of people, systems and goods flows together. That combination is precisely what makes them both valuable and expensive: you need reliable source data from all systems involved. If that data is absent or inaccurate, the model will be too.
Which Dutch companies can build a process digital twin?
In the Netherlands there are roughly three categories of providers. Large technology companies with a Dutch office, such as Siemens Digital Industries, deliver integrated simulation environments for the manufacturing industry, but focus on complex, capital-intensive production environments and rarely work with SMEs. Specialised process modelling companies supply software with which you draw and simulate process models yourself; the end result is a model, not a running system. The third category, which includes Bonsai Software, builds a domain-specific core system that inherently functions as a digital twin: the data flowing through the system is simultaneously the model of the operation. This makes sense if you already want to replace or rebuild your ERP, TMS or WMS. If your existing systems work well and you simply want insight into your processes, a dedicated process modelling provider is often a better choice.
When does a digital twin of business processes make sense, and when does it not?
A process twin delivers the most value when your operation is complex enough to justify simulation and when your existing data is structured and reliable. Think of a logistics company with dozens of variables per planning run, a food producer that wants to link batch control and traceability, or an industrial company that wants to synchronise maintenance schedules with production planning. A process twin is less useful when your basic data registration is not in order. Building a model on data maintained manually in spreadsheets produces an expensive but unreliable system. In that case, a better core system solves more than a twin built on top of it. An honest provider asks that question before issuing a quote.
How do you select a provider and what does it cost?
Ask every provider three questions. One: who owns the model and the underlying data? Some providers build a twin inside their own platform, keeping you dependent on their licence. Two: how is the twin fed? A model that needs to be updated manually is not a twin but an expensive diagram. Three: which specific decision will you make better with this? If a provider cannot answer that question concretely for your sector, the answer is probably 'none'. Indicative costs vary widely: a straightforward process modelling environment can start at tens of thousands of euros per year in licence fees, while a fully custom-built domain-specific system that functions as a process twin typically requires a development trajectory of six months to a year. Always ask for phased go/no-go milestones, so you are not locked into a project halfway through if it fails to meet expectations.