Benchmarking Update
A Global Benchmarking Newsbrief - February 2006

*** THIS IS AN ARCHIVED COPY OF A PREVIOUS NEWSLETTER.
MEMBERS CAN CLICK HERE FOR THE MOST CURRENT (MAY 2006) NEWSLETTER ***

This is a summary newsletter covering the most recent activity in the benchmarking and business process improvement community.

  1. Do you Benchmark?
  2. Benchmarking - Past, Present & Future
  3. Searching the Internet for Benchmarking Information
  4. Benchmarking Surveys, Metrics, Studies and Reports
  5. Recent News, Announcements and Articles
  6. We're Number One! (Again)


Do you Benchmark Survey

Total Number of Responses: 11976

Total Yes (6576) Responses 55 %
Total No (5400) Responses * 45 %

* Note: A No answer is also considered just getting started with benchmarking.


Benchmarking -
Past, Present and Future

Top-10 Benchmarked Business Processes

The following chart shows the most actively benchmarked business processes members of The Benchmarking Exchange (TBE) are engaged in. The data is collected from thousands of TBE members and ranked by the most benchmarked business process within the last twelve months. The purpose of this ranking is to show what business processes are being focused on the most and to provide a bit of insight as to what to expect in the near future. The top-10 Business Processes shown are among hundreds of business processes and sub-processes tracked in TBE's Posting Board(sm) database. This report is real-time so you know exactly what is being benchmarked NOW!

TBE Members may click on any Business Process in the chart below to display a summary of postings then drill down to view details of each posting. If you are interested in learning more about the project or study contained in the posting simply contact the member/author in the posting for more information. This is an excellent way to learn improvement ideas without having to start a study of your own. If a posting is already in the database then chances are the Member has information they can share with you. Use the information from others so you don't have to re-invent the wheel.

Business Process Ranking
MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS POLICY LEADERSHIP 1
BENCHMARKING 2
PROCESS IMPROVEMENT MANAGEMENT 3
COST CONTROLS MEASURING 4
EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT TRAINING 5
EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION 6
EMPLOYEE SUGGESTIONS 7
ENVIRONMENT HEALTH SUSTAINABILITY SAFETY 8
PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IMPROVEMENT 9

TOP-10 Benchmarking Organizations

The following is a ranking of organizations that are heavily engaged in benchmarking. These member organizations have implemented internal benchmarking methodologies and practices to support their entire organizations' efforts to improve their products and services for both internal and external Customers.

These organizations are excellent role models for you to learn how to deploy benchmarking throughout your workgroup, department, division or entire organization. They are the leaders! To contact someone from one of these organizations visit the Member Directory. (Note: the ability to access this directory is available to Members only).

Organization Ranking
Xerox 1
U.S. Army 2
Corning 3
Internal Revenue Service 4
United Technologies 5
Battelle 6
DynMcDermott 7
U.S. Navy 8
Allergan 9
IRS 10

Copyright © 2010 The Benchmarking Exchange - All rights reserved


SEARCHING THE INTERNET

Benchmarking information continues to proliferate on the Internet. We asked our members what were the main search engines they use for benchmarking, process improvement, best practices and business excellence research. We monitor these top search engines each month and count the instances of benchmarking material available from each search engine. There is a lot of information out there on benchmarking. Many other search engines are very useful for benchmarking related information including, www.HotBot.com , www.AOL.com , www.MSN.com to name a few. Here's a revealing finding: If you AskJeeves "who has the best benchmarking service?" the answer is - The Benchmarking Exchange (BenchNet)! Yes, there we go again!

Number of hits for Benchmarking
Search Engine Nov 05 Dec 05 Jan 06

www.google.com

22,300,000 21,900,000 19,300,000

www.yahoo.com

17,500,000 20,700,000 18,700,000

www.askjeeves.com

2,129,000 2,277,000 2,442,000


BENCHMARKING SURVEYS, METRICS, STUDIES AND REPORTS

These studies/surveys touch virtually every industry and business process area. Click on any one of the following survey titles to participate in the survey. Each month TBE opens up access to Everyone for selected surveys and studies. Members have full access to all online surveys and studies. Click here to see a current list of ongoing surveys and studies available in Surveyor.

Survey Title / Sponsor
Accounts Payable - Payment Processing / Depaul University
Achieving World-Class System Integration / Manufacturing / Eastman Kodak
Administrative Professionals / Eastman Kodak
Apprentice Programs and Training / Eastman Kodak
Asset Management / Microlease
Benchmark metrics for IS/IT costs / Bayer HealthCare
Benchmarking - Implementing a Successful Program / The Benchmarking Exchange
Benchmarking - How do you do / The Benchmarking Exchange
Benchmarking - Managing / American Express
Benchmarking for Best Practice / European Centre for TQM
Best Practice - Defining / MJS Associates
Call Center Employee Training / Avaya
Call Center Performance Standards / William M. Mercer
Call Centers, Dispatch Centers and Service Technicians / Fundy Communications
Change Capability / Johnston Smith International
Change Capability - The Organisational Capability for / Atticus Ltd
Change Management / United States Department of Energy
Change Management / Transitions Optical
Charge Backs / British Columbia Provincial Government Ministry of Transportation and Highways
Concept Development / Prorad
Contract Labor / MSX International
Contractor Site Management / Eastman Chemical
Corporate E-mail Policies & Practices / Bank of America
Corporate Services / British Columbia Provincial Government Ministry of Transportation and Highways
Credit & Collections / Central and South West Services
Crisis Management / Corning Incorporated
Customer Billing Practices / Las Vegas Valley Water District
Customer Complaint Management & Problem Resolution Process / Applied Materials
Customer Satisfaction Measures / Standard Life Assurance Company
Customer Service / Warner Lambert
Customer Service / Information Systems / Johnson & Johnson
Customer-Driven Company / Samsung Group
Document Shredding / Nationwide Insurance
E-business Strategy / General Management Technologies
e-Business: The Organisational and Personal Impact of / Atticus Ltd
Employee Performance Management / Dolby Laboratories
Employee Recruitment / Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (PSB)
Employee Satisfaction / Siemens Energy & Automation
Employee Teleworking / Telecommuting / The Benchmarking Exchange
Environmental, Health and Safety / Eastman Kodak
eProcurement / University of St. Gallen
Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) / Eastman Kodak
Escalated Complaint Handling / AT&T
Expansion into New Market Areas / Performance Dimensions Group
Facilities Management and Office Support Services / Arthur Anderson
Facility Cleaning / United States Army Child and Youth Services
Facility Management / Eastman Chemical
Field Services / Hewlett Packard
Flexible Work Alternatives / Eastman Chemical
Graduate Scouting & Recruiting Development Scheme / Vertex Data Science Limited
Human Capital / Naval Support Activity Mid-South
Human Error Issues Impacting Information Security / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Human Error Vulnerabilities in Networked Information Systems / Army Research Laboratory
Human Resources / Eastman Kodak
Indirect Spending / Cargill Incorporated
Information Systems Benchmarking / Herald Ltd
Internal Auditor Competency and Training / The Benchmarking Exchange
Internal Communications / Tennesee Valley Authority
Internet and Electronic Commerce Systems / Siemens Building Systems
Inventory Benchmarking / CNH
Job Designing / GMAC Mortgage
Knowledge Management / The Benchmarking Exchange
Knowledge Management - Enabling Success / European Centre for TQM
Labor Flexibility / CNH
Logistics / Panasonic
Logistics and Supplier Management / EDS
Mail Functions and Processes / Tennesee Valley Authority
Management Development Program / Eastman Chemical
Marketing Communications / Hewlett Packard
Marketing Intelligence / Arthur Anderson
Material Planning / Inventory Control / Salt River Project
Materials Management / Eastman Kodak
Operating & Business Plans - Develop and Monitor / Saudi Consolidated Electric Company
Order Fulfillment / Directed Electronics
Organizational Design and Infrastructure / Donatos Pizzeria
Organizational Structure / Leonisa
Outsourcing Desktop Services Experiences and Lessons Learned / The MITRE Corporation
Payment Processes / Bank of America
Payroll Processing / William M. Mercer
Plant Engineering and Maintenance / Eastman Kodak
Printing (In-house) / Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
Procedures Management / Walmart
Process Improvement / The Benchmarking Exchange
Producibility / Best Manufacturing Practices
Project Execution Management / Eastman Kodak
Project Management / Lloyds TSB Group
Project Management Scheduling / United States Department of Energy
Project Quality Management / Saudi Aramco
Promotional Premiums / Quaker Oats
Purchasing Performance Metrics / Hexcel
Quality (Business) Improvement Council / Canada Post - Quality (Business) Improvement Council
Records Management / US West
Reengineering / Tennesee Valley Authority
Responding to Customer Tenders / Bids / Infineum
Sales & Operations Planning / Eastman Kodak
Service Delivery Method / JDS Uniphase
Six Sigma / DynCorp
Skill Assessment and Training / Eastman Kodak
Sourcing and Outsourcing / Teaming
Staff Scheduling / United States Army Child and Youth Services
Staff Training / United States Army Child and Youth Services
Strategic Planning / Gtech
Supplier & Material Management / Lockheed Martin Hanford
Supplier Management / Nokia
Supplier Management / Compaq
Supplier Management / Michigan Consolidated Gas Company
Supply Chain Management / Raytheon
Team based Improvement / CDI Corp
Total IT Cost of Ownership (TCO) / The MITRE Corporation
Total Quality Management / Transnet
Training / Vertex Data Science Limited
Training - Classroom / The MITRE Corporation
Training Performance Measurement / American Express
Vacation Policy / Washington Post Newsweek Interactive
Warehouse Best Practices / The Benchmarking Exchange
Web-Based Business Process Best Practices / The Eastern Management Group


RECENT NEWSWORTHY ANNOUNCEMENTS AND ARTICLES

The following list of news items have been collected for your review. These news items cover all types of business processes and cover virtually all industries, worldwide. To view more details about any one of the items members can simply click on more shown at the end of each item.

Note: When you click on more associated with each article you will be automatically routed to the website that has the article. When you have finished reading the article click the BACK button on your browser to return to this newsletter.

Fast-track learning - Intel staff are treated to a pit-crew education. What does NASCAR racing have to do with computer chips? Plenty, it turns out... more

HMCwiki™ allows hospital managers and executives to collaborate on lowering healthcare costs across the healthcare industry.- The Healthcare Management Council, Inc. (HMC), a non-traditional benchmarking firm that fosters collaboration in hospital performance management announces its HMCwiki™ site... more

PricewaterhouseCoopers has introduced a new human capital measurement and benchmarking product to boost the management of human resources.- With this week’s launch of Saratoga Human Resources (HR) and Human Capital Metrics companies can measure human capital in qualitative and quantitative terms, benchmark their... more

How to: benchmark- Do you know how your business is performing in comparison to other businesses? Wouldn’t it be useful to be able to plan the development of your business and identify some priorities based on this kind of information? Debbie Lee from Business Link looks at how benchmarking can help your business be more productive... more

Why Customer Data Integration Projects Fail- Recent CDI Benchmarking Results have demonstrated that high performance and scalability can be achieved while maintaining an adaptive, extensible architecture... more

More Than 100 Hospitals to Study Best Practices During Site Visit To McLeod Health, Top-Performer in Premier Project- ...to learn how the hospital has achieved top performer status in a national pay for performance project run by Premier Inc. and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services... more

HDI Introduces Customer Satisfaction Index Service- Support Industry's Association Harnesses Cooperative Power of Members and the Industry to Develop Secure, Reliable, Robust, Statistically Valid Customer Satisfaction Measurement Service... more

Hospitals Save $11 Million in Three Months of Premier's Supply Chain Breakthrough Series- Hospitals and healthcare systems participating in Premier Inc.'s Fifth Annual Supply Chain Collaborative Breakthrough Series already have achieved nearly $11 million in supply chain cost savings -- 40 percent of their combined goal -- in just the first three months of the nine-month effort... more

Benchmarking is key- Profiling candidates for recruitment jobs before hiring them could give employers as high as an 80% chance of avoiding hiring the wrong people, researchers say... more

D.W. Morgan And Redback Networks Selected By Aberdeen Group As Winners Of Best Practices In International Logistics- How Top Companies Use Technology and Logistics Partners to Improve Performance... more

Cohasset sees how it measures up- When buying a new car, consumers often complete side-by-side comparisons with similar models to ensure they will get the most for their money. In Cohasset, that same practice... more

Retail Benchmarks Adds over 100 New Members and Launches Store Labor Management Study at NRF 2006- Excited new members from the U.S. and International line up to participate in study and leverage retail best practices in store labor management... more

USCG Operations Systems Center Receives its Second Center of Excellence Award- U.S. Coast Guard Operations Systems Center, Customer Support Division in Kearneysville, WV received its second certification from BenchmarkPortal and Purdue University's Center for Customer-Driven Quality, a premier benchmarking organization within the call center industry... more

AT&T and Motorola Visionary Executives to Speak at the QuEST Forum 8th Anniversary Annual Meeting in San Diego- ...highlights of the meeting include new offerings from QuEST Forum such as Performance Benchmarking and "Path to TL 9000 Success" mini-presentations that showcase the processes, lessons learned, and successes of newly-registered TL 9000 companies... more

Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study Now Available- Hospitals and health systems across the country have the opportunity to measure their information technology efforts beginning today with the availability of the 2006 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study at... more

Ward Group Kicks-off New Benchmarking Program for Claims Operations- Ward Group, the leading provider of benchmarking and best practices consulting services to the insurance industry, kicks-off a new benchmarking program for claims operations... more

Northrop Grumman Earns National Acclaim for Manufacturing Processes- Electronic Systems sector have been nationally-recognized as Best Manufacturing Practices (BMP) as part of a unique industry and government cooperative technology transfer effort... more

Measure What Matters- We asked the leaders of 12 organizations...to identify the metrics that matter most to them. What indicators do they track to determine whether their organization measures up?... more

Hiring, Training and Performance Best Practices for Front-line Customer Service Employees- The Ascent Group announces the availability of a new benchmarking research report--Improving Front-line People Processes... more

Iris launches benchmarking tool for firms- Iris has launched a benchmarking tool that will enable practices to provide clients with more analysis and advice on their business' performance by comparing it with others in their sector... more

New Analyst Report on New Product Development and Innovation Cites 'Best-in- Class' Companies as Four Times More Likely to Use PLM Tools- In its new report, Aberdeen cites data from its Product Innovation Agenda benchmark report which concludes that organizations experienced a 19 percent increase in product revenue; a 15 percent decrease in product cost... more

Customer Service Benchmarkers Launch in NZ- One of Australia’s leading Customer Experience research companies has launched its unique benchmarking service in New Zealand... more

BC Progress Board Releases 2005 Annual Benchmarking Report - Volume I, External Performance Review- Volume I of the comprehensive two volume report benchmarks British Columbia's performance against other jurisdictions nationally, internationally, and regionally on measures of the economy, innovation, education, environment, health and society... more

Prosci Research Releases 2006 Version of the Change Management Pilot Professional- With a focus on change management, Prosci has conducted research studies with over 900 organizations in 59 countries worldwide since 1994. "This research foundation has enabled... more

Intranet Benchmarking Forum Update- An Annual Public Sector Benchmarking Project to evaluate and benchmark major public sector intranets... more

Disaster recovery review highlights operational risk issues- More than 60 key firms and financial infrastructure providers from the UK volunteered to take part in the Resilience Benchmarking Project... more

Emulating Best Practices in Biotech: The Value Mantras- Benchmarking is an essential tool that needs to be used at every stage of an industry’s life cycle in order to stay ahead of competition... more

EchoT Helps Contact Center to 26% Increase in Customer Satisfaction- Echo™ is a web-based application designed to help companies continually improve the service they provide by collecting and leveraging the voice of their customers... more

Netscribes Launches Unique Knowledge Platform for Global Benchmarking and Best Practices Analysis- Netscribes plugs the key loopholes in the delivery of existing benchmarking and best practices solutions in the market. Netmarkers ushers in a completely new era of online collaboration and learning for individuals and organizations across the globe that rely on benchmarking research to compare themselves with their industry peers, and continuously improve and innovate... more

Global Best Practices Statistical Yearbook 2005- Now in its third edition, the Global Best Practices Statistical Yearbook is the culmination of 10 years of firm-level research into the competitiveness of automotive component manufacturers... more

Learn Ways of Advancing Your Organization Performance, Through Meaningful Measures, Evaluation, Benchmarking, and Identification of Areas That Need to Be Developed- Designed for supply chain executives and managers who want to understand meaningful measures adopted throughout a wide range of industries, evaluate performance through benchmarking, and identify areas of improvement... more


WE'RE NUMBER ONE! (Again)

For the sixth year in a row TBE's BenchNet is voted #1 for online benchmarking information and communication services. But don't take our word for it, see for yourself by visiting any of the leading search engines and search on the keyword benchmarking. You'll find us at the top. Or ask any of the thousands of members who use BenchNet for their organizations' process improvement efforts. Some have been using our service since 1993! Now that's a no brainer.

We are the best online benchmarking and best practice community and service and we work hard to stay that way. How do we keep it up for over 12 years? We continuously benchmark too! We're always getting better! We have to because we practice what we preach. Come see for yourself by visiting www.benchnet.com and take a tour!


NOTICE

If you have an email address or list of addresses you would like TBE to send copies of Benchmarking Update to, please send an email to service@benchnet.com containing the addresses of the people you want to receive this newsletter.

If you have news items you feel the benchmarking community could benefit from, please send an email to service@benchnet.com and we will do our best to include it in future newsletters.


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