What Is Benchmarking

Local governments participate in benchmarking mission

A CONTINGENT of local government officials from Zamboanga del Norte's DDPKaRoMa Alliance participated recently in a benchmarking mission in Siay town, Zamboanga Sibugay province.

DDPKaRoMa stands for Dipolog, Dapitan, Polanco, Katipunan, Roxas and Manukan, which comprise the agro-industrial corridor (the economic zone) of the province of Zamboanga del Norte.

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The mission's objective is to learn from Siay's experience in implementing its electronic business permit and licensing system (eBPLS), a project the DDPKaRoMa Alliance wanted to replicate in its respective local government units (LGUs).

Siay was chosen as the model town because it was among the pioneer LGUs in the region to have adopted and made use of the National Computer Center's (NCC) eBPLS software to successfully automate its permits and licensing system.

"There are many other LGUs in the country far more advanced in eBPLS implementation but we choose Siay because it has a similar profile to the DDPKaRoMa LGUs, except of course Dipolog," said Ma. Teresa de Jesus, head of the DDPKaRoMa Project Management Office (PMO).

"Besides, we will be using the same eBPLS software to computerize our permitting system -- for one, because it is free, and secondly, we have the assurance of NCC's help via trainings and technical support," De Jesus added.

The PMO, according to De Jesus, has been assisting the DDPKaROMa Alliance, one of only four alliances in the country, for several years now with funding from Canada's Local Government Support Program-Local Economic Development (LGSP-LED) initiative.

Siay treasurer Susan Bayawa, who facilitated the briefings, said the benefits from the eBPLS project in her LGU were immediate, such as: drastic reduction in processing time; a huge increase in collection (made possible because of increased tax base, and minimized discretion from tax collectors in the assessment of taxes/surcharges/penalties); and, automatic tracking of delinquent taxpayers.

Bayawa said the processing time for business permits in Siay used to reach at best, three days.

"Now it's down to at most, 20 minutes," Bayawa said.

"This is precisely what the National Government wants all LGUs to do to improve the country's competiveness in attracting investments," said Maridel Palpagan, chief of the Department of Trade and Industry Business Development Division in Zamboanga del Norte.

What is Benchmarking?

Benchmarking is a straightforward dynamic management process adoptable to all functions of your business. It can be defined as “the continuous process of measuring your products, services and practices against your toughest competitors or those companies known as leaders in their fields”.

Benchmarking is a structured approach for looking outside your organization or just to look outside the box by studying other organizations and adapting their “best practices” in order to improve your business and help assure your survival and prosperity.

Your goal must be superiority in all areas – quality, product, reliability, and cost. Everything is important and you have to be very careful and constant in your efforts. You can use benchmarking as a tool by which you can identify, establish and achieve the highest standards of excellence – standards based on the realities of the market. It will easy help you to realize and correct your mistakes, and it will definitely push your business forward. As you know, the market is always changing, so you have to be aware and ready to react.

Benchmarking is a learning experience. You can observe what the competition is doing now and project that potential change in performance into the future. You should look at how they operate, and where it makes sense, adapt and build upon their practices for your own use. Ultimately, benchmarking provides useful information that can set your performance goals for attaining leadership, as well as developing and implementing action plans to achieve that position.

It is also important to understand what benchmarking is not. First, it is not simply a mechanism for determining “head count.” You may find that the process results in a reassessment of assigned resources, but its aim is to ensure that your company survives the changing business climate and remains a competitive business.

Benchmarking is not a program or campaign. It is not a one -time quick fix or cure-all. It is an ongoing management process that requires constant updating and integration of competitive information, practices, and performance into the decision making and communication functions at all levels of your business.

Benchmarking is the means by which you can establish continuously your priorities, targets, and practices that will lead to competitive advantage in the changing marketplace. Benchmarking is a survival strategy and not just a cost reduction effort. Benchmarking is a continuing process, not an end product.It will greatly help you to survive in time of crisis and to achieve leading positions following your competition and learning form their mistakes and achievements.

What is benchmarking?

Best practice benchmarking, a management guide

The Basics of Benchmarking

Sentinel events, evaluating cause and planning improvement

Fundamentals of Total Quality Management, Process Analysis and Improvement