XEROX - The Benchmarking Story

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Benchmarking at Xerox Contd...

Following this, Xerox defined benchmarking as 'the process of measuring its products, Services, and practices against its toughest competitors, identifying the gaps and establishing goals. Our goal is always to achieve superiority in quality, product reliability and cost.' Gradually, Xerox developed its own benchmarking model. This model involved tens steps categorized under five stages - planning, analysis, integration, action and maturity (Refer Figure I for the Xerox benchmarking model). The five-stage process involved the following activities: • Planning: Determine the subject to be benchmarked, identify the relevant best practice organizations and select/develop the most appropriate data collection technique. • Analysis: Assess the strengths of competitors (best practice companies) and compare Xerox's performance with that of its competitors. This stage determines the current competitive gap and the projected competitive gap.

• Integration: Establish necessary goals, on the basis of the data collected, to attain best performance; integrate these goals into the company's formal planning processes. This stage determines the new goals or targets of the company and the way in which these will be communicated across the organization.
• Action: Implement action plans established and assess them periodically to determine whether the company is achieving its objectives. Deviations from the plan are also tackled at this stage.

• Maturity: Determine whether the company has attained a superior performance level. This stage also helps the company determine whether benchmarking process has become an integral part of the organization's formal management process.

Xerox collected data on key processes of best practice companies. These critical processes were then analyzed to identify and define improvement opportunities. For instance, Xerox identified ten key factors that were related to marketing. These were customer marketing, customer engagement, order fulfillment, product maintenance, billing and collection, financial management, asset management, business management, human resource management and information technology.

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