Benchmarking - what is it, types of benchmarking and an example of its use. Benchmarking - a definition of what it is in simple words Benchmarking concept and types

“Benchmarking - what is it in simple words” is often searched on the Internet by aspiring entrepreneurs and marketers. There are several options for explaining this term, classifying its types and examples of successful application. Within the framework of this article, we will explain in an accessible way what benchmarking is, who needs it and how to apply it.

In a broad sense, benchmarking is the study of the successful experience of competing firms in order to use the data obtained in their own business. This is a process in which an entrepreneur analyzes and implements the best achievements of firms operating in the same areas with him (however, not always, sometimes they use the experience of successful leaders from completely different areas). And then, based on the data obtained, he develops his own development strategy. This definition quite fully reflects the essence of this process.

Wikipedia explains benchmarking a little more complicated - "this is the identification and adaptation of examples of the effective functioning of the company to improve one's own work." The goal of benchmarking is to find a role model, avoid mistakes, adapt successful methods of work for your own success.

Benchmarking is often confused with marketing intelligence, but this concept is much broader. Intelligence involves the extraction of any classified, secret information, and benchmarking is the analysis of open information. Among his tasks is not the destruction of a competitor or damage to his reputation, this is exclusively analytical and organizational work for the purpose of modernization.

The foreign concept of "benchmarking" should not frighten. In fact, most entrepreneurs regularly do it, learning the details of how competitors do business and thinking about what they can implement from their practice. This method entered the list of important marketing tools around the 1980s and has not left it since. The most daring experts even consider the Soviet exhibitions of achievements of the national economy as an example of benchmarking - as an option for demonstrating the best examples.

Benchmarking is the analysis of open information

Goals and objectives

home the purpose of benchmarking is to identify the need for modernization and changing the approach to their own business based on the analysis of the best experience of other businessmen. All data in this case must be considered solely through the prism of the possibility of using it in your business. The following questions will help you conduct a proper analysis:

1. How are certain processes organized by competitors?
2. What are the differences and where did they come from?
3. Do differences provide benefits?
4. Is it worth / is it possible to use this experience and improve your business?

Who can apply benchmarking

All entrepreneurs who plan to stay in the market and make good profits should analyze the successful experience of competitors. This is not to say that it is only useful in one particular area and useless in another. Benchmarking is equally in demand in manufacturing industries, in the service sector, and even when working on the Internet.

A comprehensive study of the work and organization of other enterprises contributes to a deeper understanding of the business as a whole.

By constantly monitoring the state of your own and related industries, you can achieve a complete understanding of the entire operation of the market as a whole, predict certain scenarios, and ultimately reduce costs, avoid mistakes and achieve leadership.

Benchmarking allows you to reduce costs, avoid mistakes and achieve leadership

What are the types of benchmarking

Researchers and marketers conditionally distinguish several types of benchmarking:

1. Internal or production - when processes and indicators are compared within the same enterprise. Relevant for firms specializing in several activities, having several divisions or structural industries, to determine the effectiveness of each of them and uniform development.
2. Functional - comparing the success of performing the same functions by different enterprises.
3. Competitive - a large-scale comparison of all indicators of specific organizations.
4. Commodity - comparison of individual goods and services from different manufacturers.

Sequence of analysis steps

Benchmarking is a whole complex of methods and approaches. For clarity, we divide the whole process into stages:

1. Stage of selection of competitors. To begin with, it is important to understand which information about organizations should be analyzed. In some industries, this is easy: coffee shops collect information about other coffee shops, hotels and restaurants about other restaurants, and so on. But it is worth considering not only direct competitors, but firms from related industries. The fact is that they can use the same marketing techniques, ways to optimize production and reduce costs.
2. Collection of information. Since in this case we are not talking about the extraction of confidential information, the recommendations are quite simple. It is necessary to study all the information about the company that is publicly available on the Internet and the media. It is useful to read the interviews of the owners and employees in order to get some details firsthand. If possible, you need to visit the company, buy its service or product. Please note that this is not a one-time process, it is not enough to go online once and download all available information. It is important to do this regularly, especially with regard to prices, production volumes and so on.
3. Data analysis. At this stage, you need to explore all the information collected, filter out the useless from the useful, perhaps create tables and short texts. The better you work through the material, the more useful it will bring and the easier it will be to use in the future.
4. Applying the experience of competitors. At the final stage, you need to choose what you can apply in your business from the results of benchmarking. Most likely, you will be able to find 2-3 options, at best 5-6. Don't expect discoveries and innovations, nowadays all entrepreneurs use the same tricks. The information received will not give you a ready-made answer, but rather will become the basis for a creative search.

Benchmarking is a whole range of methods and approaches

How to choose a partner for analysis

A competitor for analysis in benchmarking is often referred to as a "partner". It is not difficult to find it, as successful entrepreneurs always know their competitors well. Selection usually occurs in 3 stages:

1. Quick review and listing of all firms for analysis. It is necessary to find out whose experience, in addition to direct competitors, can be useful.
2. List filtering. Initially, it is better to make a large list so as not to miss anyone, and then weed out the excess. Keep in mind that in some industries it is useful to study the experience of other regions and even countries, in some it is absolutely useless.
3. Ranging. All firms in the list should be divided into three levels: best, average and worst. To study, of course, first of all, you need the experience of the best, and then the average. However, do not rush to discard the worst, in your opinion, organizations. Learning from their experience can help avoid mistakes and ill-conceived development strategies.

What to compare and analyze

Benchmarking compares not profits and capitals of enterprises. First of all, the quality of products and services is compared. But the comparison does not end with the identification of the best one. It is important to understand exactly how and with what help the competitor managed to achieve the highest quality.

Besides, Entrepreneurs often compare production processes and looking for ways to optimize. Ways to save money, logistical tricks, staff motivation techniques and much more are borrowed. Absolutely everything that helps the market leader to be successful immediately falls into the focus of attention when benchmarking.

It is important to understand exactly how and with what help the competitor managed to achieve the highest quality.

Joint benchmarking and business meetings

At present, benchmarking is not a closed and independent process. Many entrepreneurs have realized that it is sometimes in the common interest to unite and analyze information together. This can be done both in a personal meeting, for example, by organizing excursions to the production site, and in the virtual space, exchanging data and answering questions.

A joint meeting in the format of a tour, brainstorming or other form of teamwork allows entrepreneurs to get to know each other better, make useful contacts and make a large-scale list of innovations for implementation. Remember that it is not necessary to gather representatives of the same industry. There are many moments in running a business - marketing, information technology, recruitment - where businessmen of different levels and different directions can share their experience.

The formats of such meetings are already quite popular and are liked by most of the participants. With proper organization, they become a significant business event in the life of the city and region. Many successful people do not hide their experience and are ready to share it with beginners.

A great idea for a meeting of entrepreneurs can be a seminar, during which specialists from different fields are working on a solution to a single problem. Depending on the chosen topic (marketing, production optimization, software), you can involve not only entrepreneurs, but also employees of their companies (programmers, marketers, coaches, and others).

If company representatives do not have the opportunity to meet in person, it is possible to transfer the analysis and discussion to an electronic format. Groups and collective chats on social networks or instant messengers are excellent time savers and, most importantly, allow you to modernize your business without being distracted by travel.

Even the undisputed market leaders regularly have to compare themselves with competitors and look for ways to improve

Examples of successful benchmarking

Even the undisputed market leaders regularly have to compare themselves with competitors and look for ways to improve. For example, at the end of the 20th century, Ford began to significantly lose ground and even faced the threat of bankruptcy. Then the experts decided to analyze all models of cars produced by this company (more than 50), in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages. This extensive work helped determine the parameters of the "ideal" car and develop a new Tauru model s. This car received the title of "best model of the year" and saved the company from losses.

The largest smartphone manufacturers Apple and Samsung regularly study the experience and new features of competitors. They strive to repeat any novelty of the opponent in their next model, but it is better to come up with something that performs the same function, but better. And in the future, smaller manufacturers repeat them in their devices.

Examples of benchmarking in other large companies - Nokia, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard - can be easily found on the Internet. Even large and successful companies regularly have to resort to anti-crisis measures and look for ways to improve. The same applies to medium and small enterprises that plan to stay on the market for a long time and make significant profits.

Conclusion

Benchmarking is an effective way to modernize your own business by analyzing the most successful practices of competitors. This is a reliable and inexpensive way to constantly stay in the trend of all the achievements of production and marketing, have a good understanding of business processes and get high profits.

Hello! Today we will tell you in simple terms what benchmarking is and how this tool is useful for business.

At present, in any field of activity has taken on a global scale. The leaders of many companies understand that it is necessary to comprehensively study the positive experience of competitors in order to predict their own successful future. To keep up with more successful competitors and apply benchmarking.

What is benchmarking in simple words

The term "benchmarking" is very close to the concept of "market intelligence", but marketing intelligence is the collection of almost confidential information, unlike benchmarking.

Benchmarking - this is a way to study the activities of competing companies in order to adopt their positive experience and apply data about it in their activities.

The purpose and objectives of benchmarking

The main purpose of benchmarking is to establish how likely a particular activity is to be successful.

To fully cover this concept, it is worth considering in more detail the main tasks of benchmarking:

• Determine how competitive the company is, what are its weaknesses;
• Determine what changes need to be made;
• Develop a plan to improve the company's activities;
• Develop new approaches to doing business;
• Set long-term goals that are more global than current ones.

Types of benchmarking

Benchmarking can be divided into several types:

1. Functional - allows you to compare how individual functions of a particular manufacturer or seller work with more successful sellers, but working in similar conditions;
2. General benchmarking - is a comparative analysis of the indicators of production and sales of goods of one manufacturer, with similar indicators of another, more successful manufacturer;
3. Competitive – comparison with competitors who operate at a higher level of the market. For example: a company that operates in the regional market chooses for comparison a company that has already entered the international level. These data can be considered more important, but they are not easy to obtain;
4. Interior - comparison is made between processes within the company that are as close as possible to each other. Data in this case is easy to collect, but the information is quite biased;
5. Strategic benchmarking – it is a procedure for finding a new development strategy that will ultimately lead the company to achieve the highest level of performance. It is he who determines the goals that the company will have to achieve;
6. Cost Benchmarking – if carried out correctly, it allows to reduce costs, as well as to determine the factors that affect their formation.

How sources of information use publications, various lists of prize-winners and winners in the "quality" category of various awards, as well as various databases (auditing, consulting).

To conduct benchmarking, a special working group is usually created. It is better to include specialists from different structural divisions of the company in the composition of such a group. This increases the chances of an objective assessment of the information received.

Methods and stages of benchmarking

The benchmarking methodology includes certain steps:

1. A specific function of the manufacturer's or seller's business is selected;
2. Select the parameters to be compared. It may be one criterion, or it may be a group;
3. Information is collected about similar manufacturers or sellers;
4. The information received is carefully analyzed;
5. A draft of the changes that will be made to this function is being developed;
6. A business case for the planned changes is being prepared;
7. Changes are introduced into the practical activities of the company;
8. The progress of the implemented changes is monitored and a final assessment is given to them.

The result will greatly depend on how well the collection of the necessary information is organized.

What indicators are compared in the benchmarking process

Can be compared:

• Volumes of manufactured products or rendered services;
• Financial efficiency;
• Business processes.

Benchmarking is not industrial espionage

Benchmarking and industrial espionage should not be confused. These are two completely different and dissimilar concepts. Benchmarking compares your products or services with similar ones. There are also situations when competing companies exchange experience at their mutual desire.

In addition, most often, benchmarking uses information that is in the public domain, that is, it can be obtained using surveys, analyzing pricing policy.

The thin line between industrial espionage and research can be called competitive intelligence.

In our country, several companies often unite in order to resist competitors using benchmarking. Examples include the experience of several pharmaceutical companies that have established the exchange of information among themselves, while blocking access to it to foreign competitors. Or the same cooperation in the banking sector: in order to solve the problem of long queues, a large bank adopts the experience of another bank (increasing the number of ATMs, reducing fees for using online banking, developing the automation of many processes).

Disadvantages of Benchmarking

• Search for a benchmarking partner;
• Sometimes consulting services are required;
• If an organization does not have experience in benchmarking, significant costs will be required in the early stages;
• Not always the necessary changes are welcomed by the employees of the organization and accepted by them, although they are aimed at increasing the level of productivity;
• Not all general methods may apply to a particular organization.

How to benchmark a company yourself

There is simply no procedure that would suit any company. Each company develops it itself.

There are only a few tips that you can rely on in the process:

• Select for comparison only those processes or services, the quality of which is unsatisfactory. Comparing indicators with which everything is in order will only entail a waste of time and money;
• Do not select too broad a list of indicators or processes for analysis;
• Prepare the company or enterprise for the fact that changes in activity are planned;
• Gather a group of highly qualified professionals;
• Use the appropriate software to make the process easier.

An example of benchmarking in an enterprise

The example of the automobile company Ford is very indicative. In the 90s of the last century, benchmarking was carried out in order to raise the shaken position of the company in the market. The company's specialists conducted an internal study of a large number of car models in order to study the advantages of each and identify the models that consumers preferred.

For each criterion, the best car in its class was identified, based on this, a strategy was developed to surpass the highest performance.

The result of the analysis was a car that received the title of "Car of the Year". Gradually reached peaks were again lost.

The company's management, in the end, came to the understanding that benchmarking is an ongoing process, it cannot be considered a one-time one.

Summing up, I would like to say that benchmarking allows you to find out why a competing company has achieved significant success in its field of activity, what actions led to a positive result. An analysis of only one of these indicators will not give a complete picture of the company's activities. Comparisons should be based on similar indicators in similar areas of activity.

The term "benchmarking" came into our language from the West. They actively use this approach to improve their business. In this article we will talk about this term, consider how to carry out the analysis step by step, what information to collect.

1. What is benchmarking in simple terms

Benchmarking(from the English "bench" - "level", "mark" - "mark") is the study of other companies in order to obtain knowledge and information from them to improve their business.

I am sure that "benchmarking" was used by almost every businessman. After all, before entering the market, everyone looks at the market, where there are already competitors (the exception is business with revolutionary ideas, where there are no competitors in principle).

Agree, adopting experience from successful companies is generally a good thing, because the quality of services / goods is improving, the cost in the market is decreasing due to competition. Moreover, benchmarking is used in almost all areas of business. It is difficult to name an industry in which this approach would not work.

You don't have to look far for examples. Surely you have noticed that any new ideas in smartphones quickly appear in other models (for example, two SIM cards, two cameras, fingerprint lock, etc.) The same is true in any household appliances, in cars, in computer programs, and etc.

Most companies draw successful and good ideas from each other. The result is high quality products.

What are the goals of benchmarking

• Avoid past mistakes
• Identify weaknesses and problem areas in your business
• Adapt the successful techniques of competitors for your own success
• Increase the characteristics of products/services by reducing cost, improving functionality and quality
• Maintain a high level of competitiveness

As you can see, the goals are very good. However, some think that one of the goals may be "destroying a competitor" or "damaging reputation." However, it is not. Successful people never wish someone "evil", they work in fair competition.

Note

Benchmarking is not "market intelligence" because it only analyzes open sources of information.

2. Types of benchmarking

There are the following types

1. Internal (production, how the process works)
2. Functional (comparison of the functions of the enterprise)
3. Competitive (based on publicly available metrics)
4. Commodity (comparison of products)
5. Averaged (when it is difficult to choose the clearly best indicator, average values ​​​​between several companies are taken)
6. Business Process Benchmarking

3. Stages of benchmarking

Benchmarking will require a number of successive steps. There are 5 steps in total.

1 The problem area of ​​the company is determined. Sometimes it's hard to do it ahead of time. In this case, you can analyze your direct competitors.

2 Selection of competitors.

Select a step-by-step set of actions

• A list of all firms is compiled for analysis
• Filtration
• Ranking (successful, average, poor)

3 Compiling a team for comparison (selection of professionals who will be involved in the comparison)

4 Collection and analysis of information. We will talk about this point further.

5 Implementation of the experience of competitors.

Competitors are not always taken for analysis. Perhaps some elements of the business are implemented in completely different areas of activity.

Perhaps in your area there are circles, clubs where entrepreneurs exchange data and experience. Look for one like this. This is an opportunity to spend time with benefit and benefit for yourself. Moreover, such events are free in most cases.

4. What information to collect and analyze

Since everyone's business is different, the nuances are all different. Let's highlight the basic information that can be collected for most companies in the benchmarking process.

1. Quality of products and services
2. Manufacturing processes and looking for ways to optimize
3. The cost of manufacturing products or services
4. Production speed and efficiency
5. Advertising and marketing expenses
6. Expenses for the sale of goods, works or services
7. Target Audience Satisfaction

5. Pros and cons of benchmarking

• Improving the quality of your services and products through the experience of others
• Improving the competitiveness of goods
• Opportunity to increase profits
• Market expansion
• Process optimization
• Cheaper development approach since you can look at the results of others

• Time and money costs for analysis
• It is not always possible to implement successful experience due to specifics or other circumstances.
• Old "chips" will no longer give such an effect as soon as they first appear

See also the video "competitor analysis: Benchmarking".

Benchmarking(from the English "bench" - level, height, "mark" - mark) is a mechanism for comparative analysis of the performance of one organization with the performance of other, more successful enterprises. Benchmarking finds practical application in many areas of activity of economic entities.

The founders of benchmarking are the Japanese (late 50s), who learned to perfectly copy other people's achievements. It was during this period that Japanese specialists actively visit the most famous companies, mainly American and Western European ones, in order to perceive ideas that are immediately put into practice. In Japan, benchmarking is related in content to the Japanese word "dantotsu", meaning "effort, worry, care of the best, to become even better." In China, the rule of the Chinese general Sun Tzu is known: "When you know your enemy and know yourself, you are not afraid of the result of a hundred wars." In 1972, benchmarking for the first time, in the literal sense, appeared at the Institute for Strategic Planning of Cambridge (USA). Thus, benchmarking is one of the oldest self-improvement tools.

In Russia, certain provisions and aspects began to be promoted since 1996 in the works of prominent scientists G.L. Bagieva, A.K. Kazantseva, I.A. Arenkov.

The benchmarking process, i.e. activity aimed at finding, studying patterns and ways of high-quality work, their evaluation and learning from the best examples (the process of finding the best and achieving it) is absolutely natural for the growth and development of organizations. Today, companies are aware of the need for a comprehensive and detailed study and subsequent use of the best achievements of competitors for their own survival.

At first glance, benchmarking and industrial espionage are one and the same. In fact, the difference between these methods is fundamental. Benchmarking is a method of studying someone else's experience, which is not a secret. If the information is retrieved from the source legally and ethically, then the method of obtaining can be considered as a method of corporate competitive intelligence. Otherwise, espionage.

In the most general sense, benchmarking is a way of clarifying the situation, determining one's own and others' capabilities, and setting one's own goals.

There are several types of benchmarking:

Internal - comparison between different departments of the organization (due to the simplicity of its organization and the conduct and collection of information, it has become most widespread);

Competitive - comparing the activities of the enterprise with one or more competitors (the main problem is the confidentiality of the necessary information);

Functional - involves a comparison with organizations that are not among the intra-industry competitors, but carry out functional activities in which the enterprise is interested in improving (example: storage, transportation, maintenance, etc.);

General - the most complex and difficult to implement type that allows you to compare business processes in organizations belonging to different industries.

Thus, benchmarking is, firstly, a concept that involves the natural development of the desire for continuous improvement in companies, and, secondly, the process of improvement itself. This is a continuous search for new ideas, their adaptation and subsequent use in practice.

Benchmarking is based on the following principles:

Reciprocity, i.e. benchmarking is an activity based on mutual relations, agreement and data exchange, which provide a "win-win" situation for both parties;

Analogy, i.e., the production processes of partners should be similar;

Measurement, here we are talking about the fact that benchmarking is a comparison of the characteristics of several enterprises, the goal is to establish why there are differences in characteristics and how to achieve their best value;

Concentration on quality, i.e. continuous work in the field of quality in all aspects and functions of the company's organizational activities;

Reliability, i.e., benchmarking should be based on actual data, accurate analysis.

Depending on the goals of implementing benchmarking projects, various planning technologies are used for the latter. Nevertheless, in any case, a clear plan for the future project is needed, containing a detailed description of all stages, among which the following must certainly be present: the stage of choosing the subject of benchmarking; stage of internal research; the stage of choosing an organization for comparison (partner organization); the stage of collecting external information; data analysis stage; stage of implementation of improvements.

The choice of a partner company comes from the choice of the type of benchmarking. The main question is: “How do you know if the chosen organization is the best example?” The process of finding a benchmarking partner can be endless. It is important to suspend research in time, at least temporarily, and start implementing the identified improvements.

The main types of sources of information about competitors: primary sources(information obtained directly from the exchange with other organizations); secondary sources(Internet, scientific conferences, scientific and technical publications in newspapers and magazines, patent information, libraries, Goskomstat data, seminars, specialized databases, reference books, etc.). Practitioners advise to precede visits to potential partners with careful analytical work with secondary information, which will significantly increase the efficiency of collecting primary data. For the same purpose, it is recommended to send questionnaires to the companies scheduled for visits with a request to fill them out and return them before the date of the scheduled visit. The list of potential partners for benchmarking research is compiled on the basis of data obtained from the results of multiple discussions and discussions held among the employees of the organization. Success in obtaining the necessary external information largely depends on the ability to convince potential benchmarking partners of the mutual usefulness and benefits of information exchange. At the same time, personal contacts and a personal, informal approach to solving a problem play an important role.

The data obtained from the results of benchmarking studies can be divided into two categories: company performance - what has been achieved; how and by what methods and technologies it was achieved. Analysis of only one category of data will not give a complete picture of the company's activities. Each indicator in the first category must be compared with a similar indicator of the activity of the parent company conducting benchmarking. Comparison should be carried out on the same indicators and in the same areas. Similar comparisons should be made for the second category.

This raises two questions: “How big is the difference between the compared companies?” and “How applicable are the technologies of the partner organization to the parent company?”. If the data about the partner company collected during the benchmarking study can be compared with similar data from the parent company, the value of the results obtained is enormous. Even if the parent company outperforms the partner in most performance indicators, there will always be something to learn from or learn from. Nevertheless, as a benchmarking partner, it is more logical to choose a company that excels in one or another area (areas) of activity. In this case, formulating an answer to the question: “Where do we want to go?”, Detailed by quantitative goals based on knowledge of the leader’s results and technologies for achieving them, will not be difficult.

It is difficult to find answers to the following questions: “What needs to be done so that the company can achieve results, or at least get closer to the results of a benchmarking partner?”, “What needs to be done first of all to reduce the difference between them?”, “How far is the company willing to go in the adoption and implementation of new technologies, approaches, methods?”, “What or who needs to be involved, how much will it cost and how long will it take?”, “What are the possible areas of application of new technologies, processes in the source company?”. These and many other equally important issues should be decided by groups, including, firstly, those who are really professionals in the areas of the company's activities under consideration, secondly, those who are responsible for planning the future of the company, and, thirdly, those who has the authority to make the necessary changes.

Once a decision has been made to continue the benchmarking activity, a process of change and improvement should be planned and worked out in detail. Progress towards new goals must be constantly monitored, and the leadership of the organization has a major role in monitoring the process of implementing the developed plan.

By the time improvements are introduced, they are usually out of date. It is important to keep looking for better partners. Thus, the most important thing in benchmarking should be a clear understanding that this is an ongoing process, and not a one-time event.

Let's list the components of an external comparable analysis: selection of a partner company for conducting an external comparable analysis; collection of information about the prospective partner; compliance with ethical standards; establishing contact with a partner company and its first visit.

When embarking on an external comparable analysis, it is necessary to have absolute confidence in its legality and ethics. Here are examples of unethical, and in some cases illegal actions: cooperation with suppliers (the requirement to provide information about a competitor should not be put forward as a basic condition for continuing cooperation); photography (hidden photography, including aerial photography, is a violation of the law), etc.

When establishing contact with a partner company (especially when visiting it for the first time), one should not forget about the norms and rules of conduct: one should be friendly, extremely polite, ready to cooperate; one should not play a double game by pretending to be a representative of a third organization or hiding one's true intentions; when requesting the data of interest, one should be prepared to provide data in return, etc.

The evolution of benchmarking must be considered in the context of early quality concepts: from the development of a static approach to quality control to the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM), and subsequently to the Japanese concept of benchmarking. In fact, benchmarking can be called the product of the evolutionary development of quality concepts.

Faced with the fact that the cost is rising, and sales are falling? Have customers gone to competitors despite the fact that their prices are not lower, and sometimes even higher, than yours? So something needs to change! Learn the secrets of those who are now leading the market, and take their place with the help of an effective analysis tool - benchmarking! What is this method, and how to apply it correctly - read in our article!

Benchmarking (English bench - level, height and mark - mark) is a technique and a set of activities aimed at collecting and analyzing information about effective ways of doing business to implement successful strategies in your own enterprise. This technology is used in the field of management, marketing, business processes in various areas of commercial activity.

In simple words, benchmarking is the study of the successful experience of competitors or enterprises from other industries in order to apply it in your company. Using other people's achievements allows you to learn from the mistakes of others, adopting successful experience to optimize your own business processes.

Benchmarking needs to be distinguished from marketing intelligence. in the first case, open reporting is used for analysis, and in the second, any useful information, including confidential information, is obtained.

The goals and objectives of benchmarking are the improvement of certain performance indicators. These can be: optimization of material consumption or the use of new technology to reduce costs. You can increase profitability not only by reducing production and other costs, but also by increasing sales by attracting new customers, by improving product quality or adding new services.

The main parameters that are used when comparing the performance of different companies.

1. The cost of manufacturing products or providing services, labor productivity indicators, cost structure. It analyzes direct and indirect labor costs, the cost of paying production personnel, the speed and efficiency of certain business processes.
2. quality parameters of products. Design, functionality, usability and other important characteristics are compared.
3. Marketing expenses. Such an indicator is considered not only in monetary terms, but also in the effectiveness of using a particular promotion tool.
4. Expenses for research and implementation of innovations.
5. Expenses for the sale of goods, works or services.
6. The level of satisfaction of the target audience. It is determined by conducting a survey of the target audience.

In the process of analysis, the most significant deviations are identified and recorded, and differences are found that affect the level of efficiency of certain business processes. Next, the best experience that can be transferred to your company is determined.