Case Studies

Abstract

In Chap. 2, different types of benchmarking practices—such as, strategic and operational, external and internal, domestic and global, enterprise and sectoral, product and process benchmarking practices were discussed. Since this thesis is on assessment of practice of benchmarking productivity, an attempt was made to find out which kind of classification was most suitable for consideration for study of benchmarking practices. Based on discussions with some top IT managers, it was observed that the source-based classification, such as internal and external benchmarking, was the mostly talked of classification for benchmarking. The intensity of difference between external and internal was also very pronounced and relevant for understanding benchmarking process. On the other hand, classifications such as domestic and global, enterprise and sectoral, product and process benchmarking were not felt as very relevant by these managers. Hence, external and internal benchmarking classification was considered for the purpose of this study. In the following sections, several cases of such external and internal benchmarking have been discussed. Many software companies in external benchmarking use forum data for benchmarking. Such benchmarking to be effective, forum data should be accurate and reliable. These characteristics will be possible if the forums follow proper processes. Therefore, it is essential to understand the processes prevalent in the forums. These have been presented through case studies in this chapter.