Can I model processes retroactively for audit or forensic analysis?

Yes. Nodinite supports reindexing to create new BPM views over historical data. This page explains:

• What reindexing is and how it reconstructs process views
• Architecture showing historical data → reindexing → new BPM perspectives
• Comparison matrix of reindexing use cases and benefits
• Real-world scenarios with compliance (GDPR, SOX, HIPAA) and forensic analysis
• Time savings compared to manual reconstruction

Create audit trails for past periods, analyze incident root causes, discover process patterns, and satisfy compliance requirements—all without replaying messages or disrupting production systems.

Quick Answer

Reindexing = Creating new BPM views over historical log data. Since Nodinite stores log events independently of BPM definitions, you can build process visualizations retroactively. This enables forensic analysis after incidents, compliance audits for past periods, and process discovery from real-world execution patterns—without replaying a single message.

Reindexing Architecture

Historical log events remain unchanged—reindexing creates new perspectives over existing data.

Historical log events remain unchanged—reindexing creates new perspectives over existing data.

Reindexing Use Cases Comparison

Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: SOX Compliance Audit - Invoice Approval Trail

Business Context: Public company faces SOX 404 audit. Auditor requires proof that all invoices > $10,000 in FY 2023 had proper dual approval before payment.

Challenge: BPM wasn't configured for "Invoice Approval" workflow during FY 2023. Finance team has fragmented logs across SAP, approval email trails, and payment gateway records.

Traditional Approach:

1. Export SAP invoice data to Excel (2 days)
2. Manually match email approvals (5 days)
3. Cross-reference payment gateway transactions (3 days)
4. Assemble evidence document with screenshots (3 days)
5. Deal with gaps and missing data (2 days)

Total: 15 days, high risk of incomplete evidence

With Nodinite Reindexing:

1. Day 1: Create "Invoice Approval" BPM targeting FY 2023 date range
2. Define process steps:
   • Step 1: Invoice Submitted (SAP)
   • Step 2: Manager Approval (Email gateway log)
   • Step 3: Finance Approval (Approval system log)
   • Step 4: Payment Authorized (Payment gateway)
3. Configure Search Fields: Extract Invoice Number, Amount, Approver IDs
4. Run reindex: Nodinite processes historical logs (30 minutes)
5. Export BPM report: All invoices > $10,000 with approval timestamps

Result:

• 847 high-value invoices processed in FY 2023
• 98.7% had dual approval within policy (< 48 hours)
• 11 invoices flagged for missing 2nd approval (escalated to CFO)
• Audit evidence delivered: 8 hours (vs. 15 days manual)
• Auditor comment: "Most complete audit trail we've seen"

Scenario 2: Forensic Analysis - Production Outage Root Cause

Business Context: E-commerce platform experienced 4-hour outage on Black Friday. Order processing froze. CEO demands root cause report.

Incident window: Nov 24, 2023, 14:00-18:00 UTC

Challenge: No BPM configured for "Order Processing" at incident time. Logs scattered across Azure Logic Apps, SQL databases, payment gateway, warehouse API.

Traditional Forensic Investigation:

1. Collect logs from 4 systems (6 hours)
2. Correlate timestamps manually (8 hours)
3. Reconstruct event sequence (12 hours)
4. Identify failure point (4 hours)

Total: 30 hours, incomplete picture

With Nodinite Reindexing:

1. Hour 1: Create "Order Processing" BPM for Nov 24, 14:00-18:00
2. Define steps: Order Entry → Payment → Inventory Check → Fulfillment
3. Run reindex: Process 4 hours of historical data (15 minutes)
4. Analyze BPM:
   • 3,847 orders entered during incident window
   • 100% stuck at "Payment" step at 14:23 UTC
   • Payment Gateway Resource shows "Connection Timeout" starting 14:22 UTC
   • Warehouse continued processing pre-14:22 orders normally

Root cause identified: Payment gateway connection pool exhaustion due to Black Friday traffic spike (3,400 concurrent orders vs. 800 baseline).

Forensic report delivered: 90 minutes (vs. 30 hours manual)

Action plan: Increase payment gateway connection pool from 500 to 2,000 for peak events.

Scenario 3: M&A Integration - Acquired Company Process Documentation

Business Context: Company acquires competitor. Integration team needs to understand competitor's order fulfillment processes to merge systems.

Challenge: Acquired company has no process documentation. Only production logs available from past 18 months.

Traditional Approach:

1. Interview acquired company staff (3 weeks)
2. Review scattered documentation (2 weeks)
3. Manual process mapping workshops (4 weeks)
4. Validate against actual systems (3 weeks)

Total: 12 weeks, high risk of missing variants

With Nodinite Reindexing:

1. Week 1: Onboard acquired company logs to Nodinite
   • Connect to their logging infrastructure
   • Define Message Types for their systems
   • Configure Search Fields for correlation
2. Week 2: Create BPM views targeting past 18 months
   • "Standard Order Fulfillment"
   • "Rush Order Processing"
   • "Returns and Refunds"
3. Week 3: Run reindexing over 18 months of production data
4. Analyze process variants:
   • Discover 3 different fulfillment workflows (standard, expedited, dropship)
   • Identify 47 integration points with external systems
   • Find exception handling patterns (inventory shortage, credit holds)

Process documentation delivered: 3 weeks (vs. 12 weeks traditional)

Benefit: Integration team sees actual process behavior from 1.2 million transactions, not theoretical documentation.

Time Savings Analysis

How Reindexing Works Technically

Step 1: Historical Log Events Remain Intact

• Log events stored in Log Databases with original timestamps, payloads, Search Fields
• No modification or replay required
• Data remains immutable and auditable

Step 2: Create New BPM Definition

• Define process steps, domains, correlation logic
• Set target date range (e.g., "Q4 2023" or "Nov 24, 14:00-18:00")
• Configure which services map to which BPM steps

Step 3: BPM Engine Queries Historical Data

• Execute Search Field correlation over target time range
• Apply BPM process logic to historical events
• Reconstruct transaction flows based on business identifiers

Step 4: Visualize and Analyze

• BPM view populated with historical transactions
• All Search Field Links functional for drill-down
• Export to analytics platforms (Power BI, Tableau, Excel)
• Generate audit reports with timestamps and evidence

What You Can and Can't Do

What You CAN Do:

• ✅ Create new BPM views over any historical period (within retention policy)
• ✅ Apply new Search Field correlation to old events
• ✅ Reorganize process steps retroactively
• ✅ Split/merge BPM perspectives over same data
• ✅ Generate compliance reports for past periods
• ✅ Analyze incidents after they occurred

What You CAN'T Do:

• ❌ Modify historical log event content (immutable)
• ❌ Add log events that were never logged
• ❌ Change timestamps of historical events
• ❌ Reindex data beyond retention period (already purged)

Next Step

Ready to leverage retroactive modeling? Learn how to Add or manage BPM with historical date ranges, or explore BPM changes cause data loss to understand schema-free architecture.

Related Topics

• Business Process Model (BPM) - Main BPM overview
• Add or manage BPM - Create BPM views over historical data
• BPM changes cause data loss - Schema-free architecture explained
• Prove-Compliance Scenario - Audit trail use case
• Log Databases - Historical data storage
• Export BPM data for reporting - Analytics integration
• Search Fields - Business identifier extraction
• Search Field Links - Cross-system drill-down
• All FAQs - See all BPM FAQs