In benchmarking, you compare yourself to the best known example of how some other organization creates a product or service. The "best practice" provides a reference point against which to evaluate your own performance.2 For example, if a county jail wanted to evaluate its recordkeeping procedures against a benchmark, it might investigate the fastest or most efficient examples across all county jails and take the best as the benchmark. Such a benchmarking framework has the advantage of using organizations that are similar in mission and basic technology. However, such a narrow framework might result in missing important lessons or improved methods to be found by a wider view. You may want to look outside your own "industry" for better examples. When Xerox Corporation wanted to improve its order fulfillment process, it did not use another copier company for a benchmark, but instead used LL Bean.

Select an appropriate benchmark. Identifying and selecting the appropriate benchmarks is a critical part of the process. The news media, professional publications, and competitions are good ways to identify possible benchmark candidates.

Compare yourself to the best. Organizations that develop effective innovations and approaches to a particular problem typically publicize it. Most professional organizations and many publications sponsor annual competitions for best practices and noteworthy innovations. There are also databases of benchmark and best practice information for the public sector (see Keehley et al. below).

Requires consensus and support from team. Selecting the benchmark also requires consensus and support within your organization. In addition, you may have to establish a partnership with the benchmark organization.

Thorough analysis and understanding of business process. You need a thorough analysis and clear understanding of the business process and/or product to be evaluated. Without it, the lessons or innovations revealed by using the benchmark may be missed or misapplied.

Learn how to improve efficiency and performance. The central benefit of good benchmarking is learning how to improve efficiency and performance. Benchmarks achieve their superior performance by innovative, often highly creative ways and offer rich opportunities for learning and gaining new perspectives. These new ideas, perspectives, and techniques can be learned through benchmarking much more efficiently and quickly than by self-study alone, formal research, or evaluation projects.

Take advantage of other group's investment. By using another organization as a benchmark, you're benefiting from its considerable investments in research, testing, training, and experimentation. Use the knowledge you acquire to help avoid mistakes and achieve higher performance.

Information sharing and collaboration. Benchmarking also involves information sharing and potential for collaboration. The process may start an ongoing exchange of performance ideas and innovation among organizations, providing greater opportunities for performance improvements.

Positive publicity and recognition for participants. Successful benchmarking efforts can also lead to public recognition for the participants. The potential for performance gains can be substantial, resulting in opportunities for increased public support and rewards.

Once-in-a-lifetime experience. The outstanding performance of the benchmark may be due to special circumstances or factors that you can't replicate.

Lack of good information. Locating adequate information about the benchmark may be difficult because of proprietary restrictions, poor documentation and recordkeeping, or lack of cooperation from the benchmark creators.

Can you live up to this standard? The high standards and great success of the benchmark organization can raise unrealistic expectations among your project participants.

Need solid support and good resources. Trying to replicate the success of the benchmark requires political support and consensus within your organization. In addition, you need adequate resources to respond appropriately to the challenges produced by using a benchmark for assessment.