IT benchmarking is a strategic management method which compares IT services of various companies. Performance is compared in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. Comparisons can be made on a broader scale including cross-industry basis.

The objective of IT benchmarking is to identify potential optimization and performance enhancing methods. The benchmark known as the 'best practice' is the company which meets most of the defined efficiency and effectiveness requirements.

Benchmarking can be used by businesses to stay updated in terms of ICT expenditure and to address strategic issues such as outsourcing. Many decisions to outsource are made due to lack of understanding the potential of company ICT departments to deliver services under appropriate circumstances.

Persia Telecom benchmarking methods have enabled corporate leaders to recognize the impact of their ICT investments have on business performance and whether their investments and performance is above and below industry average. These methods also enabled company management to compare their ICT decisions with competitors and other organizations.

Persia Telecom realized under-investments in the ICT field across the Middle East and poor performances by ICT departments in meeting customer requirements and corporate goals. This was a result of poor investments rather than lack of expertise and enthusiasm. Our benchmarking methods can be used to overcome historically poor relations between IT departments and customers and open the communications process which leads to improved alignments with user needs and understanding of IT services.

Benchmarking can provide a common platform for ICT and business management to meet and make positive decisions on resource allocation for gaining strategic advantages. Persia Telecom suggests companies to answer the following questions to measure the alignment between businesses and their strategies:

1. Does the IT department understand and support the business model and strategy?
2. Are your IT investments appropriately aligned with business objectives?
3. Is the IT department improving and managing capabilities required to deliver values to the company?
4. Is your IT performance sufficient in enabling continuous alignment?

After responding to these requirements, our customers should consider the following issues to improve their strategic alignment:

1. Understanding business strategy
2. Establishing organizational objectives
3. Determining the best fit
4. Assessing alignment

 This procedure provides companies with a unique perspective of how well the business regards its current information capabilities along a number of axes in particular:

•  Management value which indicates to what extent the information systems support the business functions from a
   management perspective.
•  Importance / performance (of standard data sets)
• Technical quality which indicates to what extent the systems are technically sound, in terms of their quality, reliability
  and ease of operation.
• Scale and annual costs of IT systems

Customer satisfaction including customer perception of IT department services, its ability to provide new functionality, correct and accurate data, availability of services, responsiveness and user support.

Advantages of IT benchmarking

From an economic point of view, IT benchmarking replaces the market which is often subjected to an obligation to conclude a contract or does not exist due to lack of comparable services. Benchmarking therefore supports pricing and improves the efficiency of services which is not directly subjected to market mechanisms.