Benchmarking (management)

Benchmarking is the systematic comparison of an organization’s processes or performance with standards or other organizations to identify gaps and guide improvement.

Key performance indicator: A measurable value used to track progress toward an organizational objective. KPIs turn broad performance questions into measures that can be compared.
Competitive benchmarking: Comparison of an organization’s performance or practices with direct competitors. It reveals relative position against rivals in the same market.
Xerox: An American technology company known for pioneering photocopiers and office document systems. Xerox's 1970s competitive comparisons are a prominent model for modern benchmarking.
Business process reengineering: The radical redesign of business processes to achieve major improvements in performance. Reengineering redesigns processes directly; benchmarking first identifies comparison-based opportunities.
Performance measurement: The process of quantifying an organization's activities, outputs, or outcomes. Benchmarking relies on performance measures before it can compare results.
Internal benchmarking: Comparison of performance or practices across units within the same organization. It uses internal variation to find practices that can be transferred between units.
Robert Camp: An American quality-management expert who developed and popularized Xerox’s benchmarking process. His framework made benchmarking a structured management practice.
Business intelligence: Methods and technologies for collecting and analyzing data to support business decisions. Business intelligence analyzes organizational data without necessarily comparing practices with peers.
Process mapping: A visual representation of the steps, decisions, and flows in a process. Mapping makes internal workflows comparable with external practices.
Functional benchmarking: Comparison of a particular business function with similar functions in other organizations. It allows learning across industries when organizations perform comparable work.

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No-free-lunch theoremRelated: Benchmarks define the problem distribution on which an algorithm’s advantage is measured.