Benchmarking: What is it and how to apply it?

The term ‘benchmarking’ refers to the process by which a company compares its processes, products and results, mainly. Translation in Spanish of the term ‘benchmarking’ is a point of reference or comparison of standards. Do you ever heard? We are confident that the students of the Marketing and Advertising distance learning Certificate of Higher Education you will find in benchmarking a useful source of inspiration to create innovative campaigns. Our students Business Activities distance learning VET you also get a solid understanding of the business operations are essential. This is the key to develop a benchmarking utility! Also, the graduates in the Double Degree in Marketing and Advertising and Sales Management and Commercial Spaces distance learning develop a comprehensive overview of all the business strategies.

Benchmarking allows you to improve and enhance the performance through structured observation and the analysis often than you consider to be the best practices of other companies. The benchmarking is not duplicate what others do! It is a strategic approach by which to identify opportunities for improvement and incorporate, where possible, to the specific needs of the organization. As you can imagine, this is important information to optimize operations and boost the growth of your company.

It is a dynamic process that evolves constantly! This valuable method, which can be managed with a variety of programs, will help you to learn more about online and offline to improve your own performance.

Now that you know what is benchmarking, to begin to make yours, you must first determine the focus of your analysis. According to your needs, you will choose one type or the other! In fact, you can combine them according your requirements. Below, we discuss the most commonly used:

·Competitive benchmarking

This ranking takes care of the closest competitors! This is the approach most common in terms of the development of a benchmarking. The main objective is to track very detailed which makes the competitors in the most important aspects, with the goal of exceeding them or keep leading, in your case. With all of this learning is sought to promote strategies to develop actions advantageous.

·Internal benchmarking

The information that is discussed in this case is the one of the own organization. Observe and reflect on internal data is very useful to improve internal workflow. In the majority of cases, the source of most valuable information is within your own company. Eliminate duplication and sharing knowledge, for example, are measures that yield benefits in the whole of the company. ¡In this way increases the productivity of the entire organization!

·Functional Benchmarking

This type of benchmarking comparisons with corporations that are not part of the industry that is part of the company. To perform this type of assessment encourages the identification of best practices in key areas that are cross-cutting. Regardless of the sector they belong to other companies, if they are related, they become examples that you can learn a lot. These reports provide broader perspectives and the opportunity to incorporate innovative ideas of other settings to your own context.

·Collaborative benchmarking

For the development of this type of benchmarking is necessary to involve the direct cooperation with other entities with which we share information. The joint collaboration leads to the search for solutions that are more effective and cost saving in shared processes. The benchmarking collaborative is particularly appropriate in complex situations where you face challenges collective.

Now that you already know about the types of benchmarking, we enter the next phase. We tell you what would be the most important steps that you should not leave aside the time to make your own benchmarking. Take note!

• – Step 1. Define clear goals. Identify specific goals will help you. What would you like to improve? What indicators you want to optimize? Considering questions like these will guide you to get to know the focus of the whole process.
• – Step 2. Identify the referents. To detect the other entities that serve as a role model is one of the most important tasks of benchmarking. To be leaders in the areas that you want to improve. The choice of the reference points will determine the information base of your analysis.
• – Step 3. Collect data in a rigorous way. This is another of the most critical parts of the entire process. To gather relevant information on your references and your own company is the material you will use to perform the benchmarking.
• – Step 4. To analyze and compare the data. What areas do you include your references? Analyzes the data, and compares the results with those of the leaders. You will find similarities, differences and areas of improvement. It is a continuous process, or that need updating on a frequent basis.
• – Step 5. Adapt learnings and implement them. Put into practice what you've learned! Develops a plan of action in which you consider the changes necessary to continue improving your processes.
• – Step 6. Share knowledge and improvements. Work in a culture of continuous improvement facilitates helps the team focus its efforts in the best direction. The internal learning is essential for the commitment to continue to increase.

The benchmarking has an extensive list of benefits that help to transform your company. It is not only a technique of analysis, but it is also a tool that stimulates the improvement in the processes, as well as the inspiration. These are just some of the reasons why you should take this into account:

• – Informed decision-making
• – Efficiency and savings in resources
• – Boost creativity and differentiation
• – Increased awareness competitive
• – Ability to foster continuous improvement
• – Reinforcement of the collaboration and shared learning