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Benchmarking

Benchmarking in simplistic terms is the process where you compare your process with that of a better process and try to improve the standard of the process you follow to improve quality of the system, product, services etc.

Benchmarking (also "best practice benchmarking" or "process benchmarking") is a process Copernicus will  use as part of the strategic evaluation process, in which we evaluate various aspects of your processes in relation to best practice, usually within your  own market  sector. This then allows us  to develop a strategy with you which adopts such best practice, always with the aim of increasing specific aspects of performance important to your customer and your profitability.
Benchmarking may be a one-off event for some, but at Copernicus it is treated as a continuous process in which we continually seek to challenge perceived best practices.

Benchmarking is a powerful management tool because it overcomes "paradigm blindness." Paradigm Blindness can be summed up as an all too familiar way of thinking, "The way we do it is right because this is the way we've always done it." Benchmarking opens you to new methods, ideas and tools to improve your effectiveness. It helps crack through resistance to change by demonstrating other methods of solving problems than the one currently employed, and demonstrating that they work, because they are being used by others

Types of Benchmarking

  • Process benchmarking – Copernicus will focus our observation and investigation of your business processes with the goal of identifying and observing the best practices from one or more benchmark firms. Activity analysis will be required where the objective is to benchmark cost and efficiency; increasingly applied to back-office processes where outsourcing may be a consideration.
  • Financial benchmarking - performing a financial analysis and comparing the results in an effort to assess your overall competitiveness.
  • Performance benchmarking - allows the Copernicus to assess your competitive position by comparing products and services with those of your competitors.
  • Product benchmarking - the process of designing new products or upgrades to current ones. This process can sometimes involve reverse engineering which is taking apart competitors products to find strengths and weaknesses.
  • Strategic benchmarking - involves observing how others compete. Copernicus can bring best practices from other industries and apply them to yours to give you a competitive edge.
  • Functional benchmarking – Copernicus will focus on benchmarking a single function in order to improve the operation of that particular key role in the business. However complex functions such as Human Resources, Finance and Accounting and Information and Communication Technology are unlikely to be directly comparable in cost and efficiency terms and may need to be disaggregated into processes to make valid comparison.


Sales benchmarking is a process used by Copernicus to compare your company’s sales force against other individual companies or against industry performance. The purpose is to identify opportunities to improve performance and to focus the efforts of a sales team as a whole. Like process benchmarking, a we will compare you against other companies that are in similar industries or circumstances. The benchmarking process is also similar. We identify metrics, collect internal data, find external data sources, and compare their performance.


Process benchmarking has most frequently been used to compare financial, manufacturing, or other operating metrics and processes. But even though customer relationship management (CRM) systems have expanded the raw data available to sales organizations, many sales organizations have still not created consistent metrics or a way of organizing their performance data. Sales benchmarking has several key challenges which Copernicus can help you with:

1. Choosing the right metrics is essential to identifying real problems, and focusing efforts to create improvement.
2. Data in many CRM implementations is not accurate, so it may be necessary to scrub the internal data to get valid results.
3. Many companies are sensitive to sharing their sales data, so finding external data can be challenging

Benchmarking should be part of your standard working practices. If it isn’t, and your competitors take the initiative before you, let’s just say we wish you well. Don’t leave the future of your business in the hands of your competitors. Contact Copernicus today, and let us help guide and benchmark you to success

info@copernicus-consulting.com

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