Keep up-to-date, competitive and outperforming competitors every day: these are routine questions for managers of IT companies, aren’t they? And this can be quite complicated without being able to compare with what is being done in the market today.
Therefore, knowing how to benchmark can be an important differential for this moment. Have you heard about this strategy?
If not, we will bring you all the information you need to know about it and help you in this process. Good reading.
What is benchmarking?
Benchmarking is a strategy to compare your company with others in the market, whether they are competitors direct or indirect of your business.
Its name came from the term “benchmark”, which is the English word for “reference”. That is, you use other companies in the area as a guide to identify important issues, such as trends, positives, negatives, actions that have become successful cases, among other possibilities.
From that, it is possible to evaluate, by comparison, which are the points analyzed in your competitors and that can be implemented in your business, helping to bring more effective strategies for the day to day.
What is the importance benchmarking in the IT area?
Benchmarking is important for many companies in the IT area, regardless of their size. And as the IT area is highly competitive, this can be an important point to get ahead of other players in the market.
For example, if you identify that your competitor does not operate with good certificates of security in your solutions and, therefore, you are suffering from a series of cybersecurity problems, you will see that this is an alert point that deserves attention in your business and will outline the necessary measures to minimize the chances of similar problems happening in your company. .
That is, from it it is possible to analyze your company’s current approach and identify points of improvement that can put it ahead of competitors, in addition to finding important inspirations that can be incorporated into your business.
Another point is to analyze both what is trending today in the market and also check what may have been outdated and need to be replaced.
How benchmarking efficiently?
Okay, now that you understand I used the term and understood its importance mainly for the IT area, it is time to outline the most efficient strategies for its adoption in the company’s routines. To help you, we have prepared a step-by-step guide. Check it out below and clear your doubts.
Identify who can really be a reference for you in the market
Not every company (whether it is a direct or indirect competitor) that must be observed. For example, if it is a business that is below yours in the market and that does not offer risks, it may not be a good option to be part of your benchmarking scope.
Therefore, analyze: who are the market leaders? Who is successful in your area and who can bring important insights in comparison? Usually 3 businesses are chosen in this process.
Choose analysis indicators
What is the objective of the current benchmarking action? What should be noted? Tracing specific points of analysis allows the professionals involved not to get lost in the process.
For example, what is being observed? Intercurrence numbers? Vulnerability indices? Customer satisfaction? Deadlines for delivery of the service or product to the customer?
Each of these objectives will have their own observation indicators and, consequently, will have certain specific data that must be collected and analyzed.
Collect the data
This is an important point, as the benchmarking process can only be done if you have the essential information at hand. For this, it is important to seek reliable sources of research for this purpose.
Some data are public – the chosen companies themselves usually provide some interesting information that may help you. In other cases, the analysis of the solution, website or platform can already provide important information for specialized professionals.
For example, it is possible to identify the infrastructure used and, thus, check if this confers any type of advantage or point of vulnerability for the business. But this is part of the next step.
In addition, some information can be deduced or obtained from repositories such as GitHub. Some professionals of the analyzed business may post their projects on site for analysis, thus
Compare and analyze information
From the information collected from competitors, it’s time to compare them with those that exist internally in your IT company and analyze the relationships between them.
Always remember to consider any peculiarities, if any, in these comparisons. Otherwise, comparisons may be distorted.
Define highs and lows
Define positives and negatives in the comparisons made between your company and the analyzed competitors, to identify what works and what does not and, thus, provide chances for more strategic actions.
For example, if the use of a certain methodology makes your competitor’s processes more efficient and faster, generating shorter delivery times than your business, this is a high point for them (and low for your business). From this, it is possible to identify what can be done to match or surpass them.
Trace action plans
Benchmarking needs to be practical, it can’t just be in the reports. Based on what was previously defined, it is necessary to consider guidelines to be implemented in the organization.
Remember that for this it is also necessary to draw up an action plan and also define metrics to monitor the changes. This is because, in some cases, measures that are implemented in similar companies can generate different results between them. Therefore, it is essential to keep monitoring up to date to make customized changes for your business, if necessary.
Knowing how to benchmark in IT can bring several benefits to your business, including:
- identify new practices and methodologies;
- avoid making mistakes that can seriously damage your name in the market;
- use innovative trends in the market;
- overcome your competitors in the market;
- identify points that can help establish partnerships with other technology players in the market;
- analyze what has already been overcome and make the necessary replacements, if the operation demonstrate this need.
Therefore, knowing how to benchmark can be strategic and provide many benefits to the your business in the IT field. We hope that this content has been useful and will allow you to maximize your results.
Do you have any questions about the issue? Leave it in the comments!
