WO2007065195A1

WO2007065195A1 - Real-time automated benchmarking system

Info

Publication number: WO2007065195A1
Application number: PCT/AU2006/001336
Authority: WO
Inventors: Adam Turner; Michal Postula; Ken Holder; Tracy Mccormack; Kurt Lovell; Robert Pogainis; Somya Jain; Paul Francis; Matt Martin; James Cowie; Andrew Brown; Sally Stevenson; Richard Webb; William Feng; Bruce Fikkers; Frank Volckmar; Michael Baldwin; Michelle Horner
Original assignee: Citect Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2005-09-12
Filing date: 2006-09-12
Publication date: 2007-06-14

Abstract

A benchmarking system and method for providing a benchmarking service is described that is remotely accessible by an organisation and included a computer server controlled by a third party organisation, wherein the computer server is adapted to be configured by at least one organisation to receive data from that organisation relating to a plurality of predetermined benchmark indicator data that stored and managed by the server. The benchmarking server makes the results of the managed benchmark indicator data accessible to the remote organisation so that they can have a central benchmark indicator repository, conduct user-defined analytics, build customisable graphical displays in the form a dashboards, automate and extract data flows and can monitor performance and benchmark that performance over time. The computer server can also manage the benchmark indicator data of two or more organisations and thus be able to provide managed benchmark indicator data so as to allow comparison between the same or similar benchmark indicator data to one or more said organisations as part of the service provided by the third party organisation. Graphical displays of the benchmark indicator data is made available by a variety of means, including but not limited to, electronic mail, WEB access and RSS feeds.

Description

REAL-TIME AUTOMATED BENCHMARKING SYSTEM

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to benchmarking across and within, but not limited to markets, industries, organisations and assets and more particularly to an application and method for automated real-time, on-demand performance benchmarking services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Benchmarking is a proven and well accepted means for providing information that assists businesses (which generally includes markets, industries, organisations and assets) to improve their performance compared to prior performance or the performance of separate groups within the same business. Benchmarking can also provide relevant information from other businesses and thus provide an indication about how other businesses perform the same or similar tasks. Ultimately, a business can then continue the same or apply different techniques to increase efficiency, cost-savings and competitiveness.

Capturing business critical data, identifying key attention areas, understanding future trends and appreciating a businesses performance relative to others in the same industry are challenges faced by every performance focused organization.

Further, as the pace of business increases so to does the amount of performance related data that is available from within the business.

Historically, methods available to compare one or more industry based businesses were limited, because each business and its particular tasks were dealt with in isolation of even the same business and very rarely were the same characteristics collected and collated and compared between businesses in the same or related industries. In the case of capturing business critical data, the benchmarking approaches of markets, industries, organisations and assets, have been achieved at a relatively high cost, are of questionable integrity, and arguably result in inconsistent and reactive solutions. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are but one method of trying to standardize measures but can be essential to understanding the operational health of an organisation. Measuring performance using one or more KPIs allows an organization to objectively determine what is working and what is not. Adopting a practice of continuous improvement through benchmarking promotes a common culture because everyone in the organisation must agree on a common set of KPIs.

Benchmarking results being made available within the organisation can also capture the attention of selected staff, managers and stakeholders. Employees and managers tend to focus more on their results when their performance is being measured, and now in many cases that performance is directly linked to their compensation. Additionally organizations who adopt initiatives and assess performance at site level inherently find themselves looking for the next step that will bring improvement. Each industry" has different KPIs. For example, the construction industry looks at hours and rates of manpower, water utilities tend to look to pollution indicators, the food and beverage industry has customer satisfaction as a KPI and the automotive industry places importance on warranty costs and line failures. However, predominantly each organization starts with the core benchmarks of quality, safety and performance and from these indicators as a starting point the KPIs become more granular and unique to the organisation, then industry specific. This is not to say that the ability to compare common KPIs across industries is not useful as it can be of some interest to governments both State and Federal.

Organizations continue to use paper based solutions and spreadsheets (Excel or Access) for their continuous improvement decisions. In addition to Excel, organizations tend to use several independent systems for managing information flow through stakeholders, particularly between corporate and plant level personnel in industry. This non-streamlined approach has made collecting and interpreting data costly, tedious and often untimely and unreliable.

Industry benchmarking has suffered due to the difficulties of collecting the data required to provide any real value to the process. In particular making sure each business has a common understanding of indicator measurements and questions and that the response is a true reflection of the information sought.

The value of industry benchmarking is also dependant on the quantity and quality of the businesses willing to become involved in the benchmarking process, meaning that too few businesses or poorly understood questions or framed responses mean that the results will suffer. Industry benchmarking will often proscribe constraints to the applicability of the analysis provided due to the quality of raw information collected. Most importantly the collection of that data is expensive to the businesses involved and ultimately the data has been out of date soon after it was collected and even more so due to the delays involved in the analysis process and report generation steps.

Extracting this information often requires advanced analytics, several people working to pull the information together and then putting it into one source to then again be disseminated out among those who require it, a time consuming and costly initiative.

Even attempts to automate the information collection process by using the Internet to provide an information gathering portal fail to provide industry with enterprise benchmarking in a manner that results in up to date information because of the ad hoc manner of its collection and reliance on human input of data and interpretation. Ultimately, the processes currently available are time consuming, burdensome and expensive.

The invention disclosed herein provides an alternative to the systems provided previously and the disadvantages and problems associated with prior benchmarking applications and methods can be substantially reduced or eliminated. SUMMARY OF INVENTION

In broad aspect of the invention a benchmarking system remotely accessible by an organisation includes a computer server controlled by a third party organisation adapted to be configured by at least one organisation to receive data from that respective organisation, including a plurality of predetermined benchmark indicator data, wherein the computer server manages stored benchmark indicator data, and makes the results of the managed benchmark indicator data accessible to the remote respective organisation. In a further aspect of the invention the computer server manages the predetermined benchmark indicator data of two or more organisations and provides managed benchmark indicator data so as to allow comparison between the same or similar benchmark indicator data to one or more said organisations. In an aspect of the invention the management of the benchmark indicator data includes calculation.

In an aspect of the invention the management of the benchmark indicator data includes aggregation over time.

In an aspect of the invention the management of the benchmark indicator data includes aggregation of benchmark indicator data over two or more said organisations. In an aspect of the invention the management of the benchmark indicator data includes storing in predetermined stores of benchmark indicator data. In yet a further aspect of the invention the predetermined benchmark indicator data includes an industry predetermined Key Performance Indicator (KPI).

In an aspect of the invention the server receives predetermined benchmark indicator data substantially at the same time as the benchmark indicator data is accessible at the respective organisation.

In an aspect of the invention a connection between the server and the organization is a computer network.

In a further aspect of the invention the computer network is a network selected from the group of networks including an intranet, an extranet and the World Wide Web of computers and network hardware. In an aspect of the invention the connection between the server and the organization is secure.

In a further aspect of the invention a method for benchmarking predetermined indicators of a predetermined organisation remotely accessible by that organisation includes the steps of:

receiving at a computer server controlled by a third party organisation configurations determined by at least one organisation that enable the server to receive data from that respective organisation;

receiving at a server adapted to receive from at least one predetermined organisation at least a plurality of predetermined benchmark indicator data of a respective organisation; and managing benchmark indicator data, wherein the results of the management are available to a remote respective organisation.

In yet a further aspect of the invention managed information is provided in a graphical format.

In yet a further aspect of the invention managed information is provided in a data format suitable for distribution by RSS. In yet a further aspect of the invention managed information is provided in a data format suitable for distribution by Short Message Services using a cellular telecommunication service.

In yet a further aspect of the invention managed information is provided in a data format suitable for distribution by electronic mail service.

In yet a further aspect of the invention managed information is available after the execution of a program resident on a computer at a respective organisation arranged to access managed data on the server.

In an aspect of the invention the server provides a plurality of predetermined data presentation options for one or more selected benchmark indicator data and each option is associated with one or more manipulations conducted by the server on the benchmark indicator data to present the benchmark indicator data in accordance with a chosen presentation option. Through the incorporation of market, industry, organisation and asset specific data and analysis, this invention enables organizations to recognize relative performance with respect to themselves and others. This invention presents a central data repository that is preferably accessible via an on-demand, real-time service provision model. The service preferably enables anytime-anywhere viewing of benchmarking indicator data over the Internet. The service through the provision of appropriate software and hardware is configurable by both its developer and service user, and services the needs of different organisations in industry, industry organisations and government.

The service includes a simple to manage user interface, and a clear representation of the data allowing for sharing and comparison, which when used appropriately can engender continuous improvement.

The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that such prior art forms part of the common general knowledge of the respective art. Throughout this specification and the claims that follow unless the context requires otherwise, the words 'comprise' and 'include' and variations such as 'comprising' and 'including' will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described in some further detail with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying figures. These embodiments are illustrative_/ and not meant to be restrictive of the scope of the invention. Suggestions and descriptions of other embodiments may be included within the scope of the invention but they may not be illustrated in the

accompanying figures or alternatively features of the invention may be shown in the figures but not described in the specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

Fig. 1 depicts a system diagram depicting the client/user with a connection to a central hosted benchmarking service computer server controlled and operated by a third party benchmarking service provider;

Fig. 2 depicts a system diagram of the computer server of the third party benchmarking service provider; Fig. 3 depicts a system diagram of the user visualisation arrangement of the computer server;

Fig. 4 depicts a system diagram of the connector arrangement of the computer server;

Fig. 5 depicts an example of a dashboard (indicator graphical display) composed of a number of customisable parts including gauges as one form of graphical display of an indicator value or set of values; Fig. 6 depicts gauges with various customisable options including the number and colour of zones, and the placement of these zones within the gauge; Figure 7 depicts a line chart that displays a result set of data with a smoothing algorithm applied;

Figure 8 depicts a bar chart with two zones wherein the placement and colour of each zone is user definable;

Figure 9 depicts a line chart that displays raw data points along with straight line trend information; Figure 10 depicts a line chart with raw data points and plot lines wherein this view highlights missing data points as gaps in the plot lines;

Figure 11 depicts a bar chart with a defined target level; Figure 12 depicts a line chart with plot lines and multiple zones defined and also depict a user defined alert level associated with the particular indicator;

Figure 13 depicts a line chart with data points and plot lines, showing a period on period comparison;

Figure 14 depicts a line chart with data points and plot lines, showing an indicator on indicator comparison;

Figure 15 depicts a pie chart representation of various indicators;

Figure 16 depicts an area chart representation of various indicators; and Figure 17 depicts a radar chart representation of various indicators.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The invention disclosed in the embodiments described herein provides an option to the existing methods of collection, presentation and analysis of benchmark performance indicators. The various embodiments of the invention described provide visually based, configurable displays available anytime anywhere, through for example the international collection of computers and computer networks known as the Internet, providing organizations a balanced perspective across the enterprise for both plants, departments and regions of their own organisation, resulting in a more strategic and forward looking approach to their continuous improvement initiatives. The term organisation will be used for convenience for organisations, industry, enterprises and government or any user of the service that wishes to improve their performance by using benchmarking indicators and their comparison in a benchmarking manner.

Figure 1 depicts but one embodiment of a system configured to provide a benchmarking system remotely accessible by an organisation, for example a company in an industry, such as a foods processing producer within the food and beverage manufacturing industry.

The system includes a computer server, such as for example a WEB server accessible via the world wide web of computers commonly referred to as the Internet, wherein the computer server is controlled by a third party organisation, such as for example a company with computer hardware and computer software competencies that is not one of the one or more organisations wanting a benchmarking service. Wherein the computer server is adapted to be configured by at least one organisation, for example one of many food processing companies to receive data from that respective organisation, in one example that data including a plurality of predetermined benchmark indicator data and possibly other data such as comments relevant to the benchmark indicator data.

The predetermined benchmark indicator data being in one example Key Performance Indicator data of relevance to that organisation, and the computer server is arranged to manage the benchmark indicator data and other data. The nature of the management of the data is in some examples, storing in predetermined stores (for example in a Industry, Enterprise, Configuration and/or Advisory Services related store - of course such stores may be virtual but physically on the same device or separate devices), calculating (SUM, AVERAGE, SORT, FUNCTION(X), MODULUS, etc), aggregate over time or category, etc. and makes available the results of the management of that data to the remote respective organisation at substantially the same time as the respective benchmarking indicator data is received by the service.

In another aspect of the system the computer server manages the predetermined benchmark indicator data of two or more organisations and provides managed benchmark indicator data so as to allow comparison between the same or similar benchmark indicator data to one or more organisations. Importantly, the data supplied to one organisation is not directly available to any other organisation but comparison with a set of organisations is possible. Furthermore, the timing and manner in which the data is made available can be chosen by the organisation allowing for a variety of comparisons not readily available, if at all, in any current arrangement. Yet further as the volume of benchmark indicator data accumulates with the third party service provider the quality of the comparisons between organisations improves.

There is also within the operation of the various server devices a method for benchmarking predetermined benchmark indicators of an organisation, wherein the server devices are remotely accessible by that organisation. The steps include a) receiving at the computer server which is controlled by a third party organisation one or more configurations determined by the organisation that enable the server to receive data from that respective organisation (wherein for example the configurations prepare the server for receiving data including benchmark indicator data decided by the organisation to be representative of the benchmarks and respective KPI's that are important to them, as well as other data such as comments and administrative information). A further step includes b) receiving at the server adapted to receive from the organisation a plurality of predetermined benchmark indicator data of a respective organisation; and the further step preformed by the server of c) managing benchmark indicator data, wherein the management of the benchmark indicator data (being one or more calculations, sorts, accumulations, etc,) and the results of that management are made accessible to a remote respective organisation (including the managed data being made available to the organisation via secure communications channels, Internet data delivery systems, etc, and otherwise supplied in a form to suit the organisation.

In Fig. 1 an embodiment of a benchmarking system is depicted showing the client/user having a connection to a central hosted benchmarking service computer server or network of servers (for convenience the hosted benchmark service computer server will be referred to in the singular but it will be understood that there could be multiple servers configured to provide the necessary computer functionality). The computer server is controlled and operated by a third party benchmarking service provider which is an independent organisation or an organisation with an agreement to be independent of all other organisations using the benchmarking service.

The client through a person or group within the organisation uses /accesses the benchmarking service using, in the embodiment shown, a desk top computer. There are however, many forms of access to the service that can be made available to users, that may include for example, but not limited to, electronic mail, Short Message Service using a cellular telephony service or, as is included in the described embodiment, feeds from the server computer acting as what is known as a WEB server (RSS is the acronym for Really Simple Syndication/Rich Site Summary/ RDF Site Summary and one form of how to feed data from a WEB server to predetermined users). In one example an aggregator program running on the user's computer device (which may for example be a desk top or a personal digital assistant or a WEB enabled mobile phone) that polls one or more WEB servers to determine if any new data is available and downloads the new data for presentation to the user in a predetermined form. RSS formats for example are specified in extended Mark-up Language (XML) and delivers data as an XML file commonly referred to as an RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream or RSS channel.

The user or client (100) may use a variety of equipment to accesses the remote computer server as briefly described above. The communication path between the user's computer and the hosted benchmark computer server is nominally across the world wide collection of computer servers known as the Internet that uses TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange, although it is possible that the communication path or link may involve a number of steps and alternatives (for example, a dedicated private communication line in lieu of the Internet, or access via cellular phone networks, satellite networks, or combinations of two or more of them and others, etc).

All data transmissions across a communication path/s are preferably secure even when a dedicated communication path is available.

If the devices at each end of the communication allow data transmissions across the Internet it is preferable to use secure hyper text transfer protocol (HTTPS) messages that provide security of the communication of messages between the user computer and the hosted benchmark computer server. It is also possible to use the complimentary Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol for communications between the user and the hosted benchmarking computer server. When using SSL protocol it should be possible to avoid the overheads associated with its use by not sending content such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and images over SSL. The form of the security of the communications as well as the server and its operations is determined in conjunction with the users and the needs of the service provider and different configurations may apply to different users.

In another embodiment, the following is but one example of a secure method for use with public communication paths, a virtual private network (VPN) technology is implemented across the communication path. Ln one example implementing VPN technology, a software VPN client is installed on the user's computer; and a hardware VPN device at the hosted benchmark computer server. The software VPN client encrypts data messages for transmission using a secure algorithm, and decrypts data messages received. The hardware VPN device encrypts data messages for transmission using a secure algorithm, and decrypts data messages received.

Security measures over and above transmission security are desirable at either end of the communication and it is also desirable to log and audit the use of the hosted benchmarking computer server to allow for billing purposes, authority to use checks (post event) and a roll-back facility that may benefit user administration of their use of the services provided.

The external user (100) may also be configured to make queries of the benchmarking data made available by the central hosted server on an automatic basis. This can be achieved by executing a program resident on one or more of the user's computers. The user's computer may be a networked computer and the network server may execute the necessary program and distribute the received benchmarking data in a predetermined manner within the network. Alternatively, amongst many alternatives, the user may use a portable computer, such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) that can remotely receive the benchmark indicator data.

The Internet (104) is depicted generically if Fig. 1 as its form is not being embodied in any particular way.

Once a non-secure connection is achieved the user is provided a login (106) challenge that is designed to restrict access to users that are authorised to use the hosted benchmark server services. The user, gaining access through the security layer (106) enters the hosted benchmark service (122) and all communications are made using secure methods and means. The user is able to begin to use one or more functional /visual tools (108) utilising options available through a variety of options. An Industry based grouping (118) is defined as any grouping of organisations that share a common method of measuring performance, the data is grouped by the commonalities of the specific Industry. There is an Enterprise (organisational) (116) grouping and an Advisory Services (114) grouping which allows the benchmarking service to work with the user(s) to develop findings and recommendations, presented for user decision- making to enhance the user's organisational processes.

All these groups, which as listed above are non-limiting in number and type, form an interface between the visualisation tools provided (108) and the calculation engine (112) used by the hosted computer server (122).

An Application Server is deployed on the hosted benchmarking computer server that sits behind a firewall (part of the Security portion (106) of the hosted benchmarking service computer server), and only accepts connections from the Web Server that receives the user access login. (Note: this may be extended to a list of servers that require a connection to the Application Server). The Database Engine (112) also sits on a machine behind the firewall and only accepts connections from an Application Server. The Database and Application Server may actually reside on the same server. Although this approach suffers from the overhead of communication with remote machines, it is scalable. Web, application and database server(s) can be added to the configuration to handle the processing load as more users access the hosted benchmarking service.

In order to use the functionality of the hosted benchmarking service, data is required (indicator (KPIs, etc and other data) which has been collected or supplied from the user's organisation or other organisations over time prior to the user's benchmarking query. The data (indicator and other) is located in various data stores (120) within the control of the hosted benchmark service server and called upon by the client as required.

All or parts of the benchmark server arrangement may be co-located or distributed for operational or diversity and backup purposes.

The data collected can be verified as being of the type /format it is supplied as and various "sanity" checks can be made to maintain the validity and usability of the data at as high a level as possible. External sources (102) that generate data relating to the user are obtained via the Internet (104). The data may be provided to the benchmark computer server through an automated process that requires no human element or intervention through the secure computing platform (106) designed so that users can only perform actions that have been allowed, through the connector (110). The data may also be obtained after being polled by the benchmark computer server as and when required according to predetermined schedule. The periodicity of the data is determined by the ultimate use that data is required for and is set according to the configuration settings to be described in greater detail later in the specification. Once the data is within the benchmarking computer server amongst other managed steps it is saved to data stores (120) for future availability.

The range of stores includes but is not limited to an Industry related, an Enterprise (Organisational) related stores that form the basis of the benchmark indicator data managed and made accessible to the user or predetermined organisation in response to user queries.

The external system (102) displayed by way of example only as a collection of computer devices associated with the user organisation, is configured to execute programs to perform a variety of separate functions which then communicate data that is within those computers or that has been collected by those computer devices associated with the user of the benchmarking service.

In one example, the data includes records (data types/format including alphanumeric strings, numbers, dates, currency) of employee numbers, job descriptors, wages, hourly rates, employee age, number of injuries incurred by employees over a predetermined time, including where, when, severity, payouts, status of affected employee, penalties incurred by employer, and other benchmark indicator data of relevance to the particular organisation, which in the given example is in the food and beverage industry. There may be other data (the same or similar data types /format) such as comments that further qualify the records made available. There may be amongst the computer device (102) data that has been supplied by manual input or from potentially complicated Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems associated with factory equipment and item counting devices. The data may pass between programs running on the user's computers by performing standardized Input/Output routines and eventually the data can be communicated to the hosted benchmarking server, in particular to the connector (110) within the hosted benchmarking server, which is the interface between different data sources that supply (or are polled) and thereby connect remote user computer systems to the hosted benchmarking service.

Fig. 2 depicts a system diagram of the computer server of the third party benchmarking service provider.

In particular, digital processing Engine (112) of Fig. 1 is depicted in more detail, including Enterprise (116) programming logic that constitutes the enterprise level aspects of the Engine i.e. activities that are specific to enterprise functionality, Industry (118) constitutes the industry level functionality, Analysis Services (208) constitutes services that analyse the data with the system at a higher level.

There are activities, area (206), that are common/ shared between Enterprise and Industry services such as Support for analytics (246) and Connector Data Processing (242). There are also activities that are common between the Enterprise, Industry and Analysis services such as (248) Data Aggregation.

In the Enterprise programming logic function of the processing Engine is the

Enterprise area (116) which includes the functionality to perform KPI calculations (220) wherein a KPI value is calculated based upon other KPI values.

Also in the Enterprise area (116) is the Alerts functionality (222) that provides predetermined alerts when one or more data is available for delivery via one or more mechanism as previously described (e-mail reports, RSS feeds, etc.).

In the industry programming logic there exists a Index Calculator (260) that calculates an index value for the organisation serving as a weighted performance indicator based upon a number of KPIs and an Industry Data Normalization (262) that normalises the industry data such that industries can be compared against other industries. In the Analysis Services programming logic there exists Industry Analysis (280), that identifies trends and other interesting facts and Extrapolate Best Practices (282) that identifies overall best practices and the results obtained from them.

The common functionality between Enterprise and Industry area (206) provided in the benchmarking Engine (112) preferably includes: a Configuration function

(240) that configures a range of things like Assets, Calculations, Aggregations,

Users etc; Connector Data Processing (242) that processes the data coming into the benchmarking Engine via the connector (110) and adds that data to Data

Stores (120) as depicted also in Fig. 1; a Personalisation function (244) that includes logic tailored to each user (or organisation) that is used throughout the benchmarking Engine; a Support Analytics function (246) that supports Analytics visualization. The Data Aggregation function (248) which is common between the different levels of logic includes a variety of aggregation services to roll up values. There are multiple types of aggregations that can be performed over a set of values such as SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, STANDARD DEVIATION, and

VARIANCE ... etc. These aggregations can be applied in a variety of situations e.g. rolling up values over time, rolling up values in an asset hierarchy e.g. sub-asset to asset, asset values to organization value, organisation values to industry, industry values to marketplace. Furthermore, it is also helpful to rolling up multiple values into a single value for display in gauges and reports as described later in this specification.

Overarching all of the previously described functions performed within the auspices of the Engine are security mechanisms (106) to ensure that access to data in the data stores is authenticated and authorised and as mentioned previously possibly logged and audited.

Rg. 3 depicts a system diagram of the user visualisation arrangement of the computer server. This system is provided so that each user can decide for how they want to view the various indicators, which are typically, comparisons of KPIs relating their own organisation or their KPI values compared to industry KPIs, over a predetermined time period and at a predetermined interval within the interval.

Dashboards (300) as disclosed in Figures 5 - 17 are examples of the one or more graphical representation of benchmark indicator data or compared benchmark indicator data that can be displayed on a totally configurable surface. One or more drop down option setting fields can be used by the user to configure the look of the dashboard surface.

For each indicator the Analytics function (302) can be used to apply filters to view data in a more detailed form for the purpose of analysis by the user. A Reporting function (304) provides a user tool to retrieve and present data in a user configurable format, usually in a format that can be delivered by the benchmarking service computer server to the user for use within the respective organisation.

A WEB Portal function (306) provides for the benchmarking service provider a publicly accessible WEB portal offering a broad array of services, mainly to attract and retain a larger user base. An Asset Performance Visibility function (308) is provided to the use to facilitate the graphic portrayal of the user's asset performance.

An Alerts function (310) is provided for the use of the user to set a value or values in the form of set points that are used to trigger the benchmarking server to provide visual highlight of selected indicators of the user organisation.

An Asset verses Asset Comparison function (312) provides a user tool to compare one asset to another (both owned by the user) in a visual manner, such as a graph or dashboard display.

A KPI to KPI relations & correlations function (314) that provides a tool for use by a user that places multiple KPIs on a single graph, it is then possible for the user to analyse the KPI to see if there are any correlations, and the mode of comparison may visually highlight a feature that would not have been perceived by comparison of the figures alone or in isolation of other figures. An Initiative Visibility function (316 ) that can be pre-determined and used by a user to highlight and track performance goals and provide an overview of those planned and completed so as to understand and compare overall business potential and thus drive Continuous Improvement . Example of this is illustrated by linking specific KPI's to user-defined initiatives. A further sub-function of the Initiative Visibility function (316) is a continuous improvement visibility supplied by a dashboard. This allows the indicators associated with the initiative to be displayed on a dashboard for the period of the initiative so as to provide visibility and tracking of the Continuous improvement initiatives.

A Trends display function (318) that is useable by the user to assist in forecasting future values based on an existing results set.

A Gap Analysis function (320) the allows the user to add commentary to describe the nature of a results set that may then form part of a report generated by the benchmarking service computer server that is delivered by e-mail or other chosen means, as described previously.

A Personalised view function (322) that allows the user to customise their interaction with the benchmarking service into representing information and detail that is only of interest and relevant to their specific business needs.

A Region verses Region KPI Comparison function (324) that allows the user to compare one region of the user's organisation to another in a visual manner, such as a graph. An Asset/Enterprise/Organisation verses Industry KPI Comparison function (326) that allows the user to compare the entire enterprise to the industry in a visual manner_/ such as a graph. A Favourites function (328) allows a user to save a view or report that is useful and easily returned to, in the future.

An Industry verses Industry Comparison function (330) that allows a user to compare one industry to another in a visual manner, such as a graph.

An Unlimited views on industry data function (332) that allows a user to use average and maximum calculations on data associated with their own industry or even across industries, however many other types of calculations could potentially be useful. For example, the third party server service may be able to receive benchmark indicators from industry associations or other sources, such as for example, government bodies and departments, that would permit, with the promise of unanimity (where required) and the permission of the parties involved, the comparison and display of benchmark indictor data to predetermined organisations. Such an arrangement would allow industry, country and international benchmark indicator comparison and display using all the tools described herein.

An Industry Analysis visualisation function (334) that presents the information gathered in the Industry analysis function (280) on the Engine (112).

A Best Practices presentation function (336) that presents the information gathered in the Extrapolate Best Practices function (282) on the Engine (112) Fig. 4 depicts a system, diagram of the Connector arrangement of the computer server. There are various functions within this area of the benchmarking computer server that are used to control the exchange of communications

A WEB Services function (400) is provided to create and sustain connections and data exchange via a WEB based protocol.

An Enterprise Resource Planning function (402) includes data exchange from Enterprise Resource Planning applications used in the user's computers and connected to the benchmarking computer server.

A Business Intelligence (BI) tools function (404) provides tools for the user to exchange data with external BI tools and access data to assist enterprise users make better business decisions, including activities of decision support that are fact based, such as data mining, reporting online and analytical processing & analysis forecasting.

A Data Exchange function (406) which is a specific tool for facilitating the exchange of data between the benchmarking server computer server and one or more data collection and processing products specifically the applicant's own products referred to as Citect products is but one example of such a product.

An Application Exchange function (408) provides connections for data exchange with any other application related to the benchmarking service computer server. A Generic Data Exchange function (410) which is a specific tool for facilitating the exchange of data between the benchmarking server computer server and one or more data collection and processing products. A Batch data load /delivery function (412) provides a batch process for dealing with single communication actions that perform multiple benchmark indicator data collections or downloads from and to the user organisation.

A Hosted Applications data exchange function (414) to facilitate other hosted applications that are not of the hosted benchmark server type. For example, it is possible to connect to a project management hosted service so a user can move or carry over data from particular or selected dashboards through to a detailed project events management application. It may also transpire that there is a need to facilitate data exchange with other hosted benchmarking services that may be tinder the control of the same trusted third party or under the control of multiple trusted third parties. This functionality is provided in the event that there is more than one benchmarking server computer arrangement that may be physically remote of each other and dealing with the organisations of different countries separately and that would need to be able to exchange data for the purposes of providing benchmarking across countries. In another example the benchmarking that can be conducted by remotely and otherwise unconnected benchmarking computer servers so that cross-industry and cross-country comparisons may be possible while still maintaining proximity to the various users, although such an approach is less a requirement as the surety and reliability of the Internet as a communication medium ever improves. Figures 5 to 17 depict various examples of the graphical representation of indicators that show a single or multiple indicators in isolation or compared that assist the understanding of the relevance of the indicators to the user or organisation,

Figure 5 depicts an example of a dashboard (indicator graphical display) composed of a number of customisable parts including gauges as one form of graphical display of an indicator value or set of values. The number and placement of these parts is user definable. The makeup of each part is also user definable.

Figure 6 depicts gauges with various customisable options including the number and colour of zones, and the placement of these zones within the gauge.

Figure 7 depicts a line chart that displays a result set of data with a smoothing algorithm applied. The level of the algorithm is also user definable.

Figure 8 depicts a bar chart with two zones wherein the placement and colour of each zone is user definable.

Figure 9 depicts a line chart that displays raw data points along with straight line trend information. Figure 10 depicts a line chart with raw data points and plot lines wherein this view highlights missing data points as gaps in the plot lines. Figure 11 depicts a bar chart with a defined target level.

Figure 12 depicts a line chart with plot lines and multiple zones defined and also depict a user defined alert level associated with the particular indicator.

Figure 13 depicts a line chart with data points and plot lines, showing a period on period comparison.

Figure 14 depicts a line chart with data points and plot lines, showing an indicator on indicator comparison.

Figure 15 depicts a pie chart representation of various indicators.

Figure 16 depicts an area chart representation of various indicators.

Figure 17 depicts a radar chart representation of various indicators.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention is not restricted in its use to the particular application described. Neither is the present invention restricted in its preferred embodiment with regard to the particular elements and/or features described or depicted herein. It will be appreciated that various modifications can be made without departing from the principles of the invention. Therefore, the invention should be understood to include all such modifications within its scope.

Claims

THE CLAIMS:

1. A benchmarking system remotely accessible by an organisation includes a computer server controlled by a third party organisation adapted to be configured by at least one organisation to receive data from that respective organisation_/ including a plurality of predetermined benchmark indicator data, wherein the computer server manages stored benchmark indicator data, and makes the results of the managed benchmark indicator data accessible to the remote respective organisation.

2. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein the computer server manages the predetermined benchmark indicator data of two or more organisations and provides managed benchmark indicator data so as to allow comparison between the same or similar benchmark indicator data to one or more said organisations.

3. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein the management of the benchmark indicator data includes calculation.

4. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein the management of the benchmark indicator data includes aggregation over time.

5. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein the management of the benchmark indicator data includes aggregation of benchmark indicator data over two or more organisations.

6. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein the management of the benchmark indicator data includes storing in predetermined stores of benchmark indicator data.

7. A benchmarking system according to any preceding claim wherein the benchmark indicator data includes an industry predetermined Key Performance Indicator (KPI).

8. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein the server receives predetermined benchmark indicator data substantially at the same time as the benchmark indicator data is accessible at the respective organisation.

9. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein a connection between the server and the organization is a computer network.

10. A benchmarking system according to claim 9 wherein the computer network is a network selected from the group of networks including an intranet, an extranet and the World Wide Web of computers and network hardware.

11. A benchmarking system according to claim 9 wherein the connection between the server and the organization is secure.

12. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein managed information is provided in a graphical format.

13. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein managed information is provided in a data format suitable for distribution by RSS.

14. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein managed information is provided in a data format suitable for distribution by electronic mail service.

15. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein managed information is provided in a data format suitable for distribution by Short Message Services using a cellular telecommunication service.

16. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 wherein managed information is available after the execution of a program resident on a computer at a respective organisation arranged to access managed data on the server.

17. A benchmarking system according to claim 1 the server provides a plurality of predetermined data presentation options for one or more selected benchmark indicator data and each option is associated with one or more managements conducted by the server on the benchmark indicator data to present the benchmark indicator data in accordance with a chosen presentation option.

18. A method for benchmarking predetermined benchmark indicators of a predetermined organisation remotely accessible by that organisation includes the steps of:

receiving at a computer server controlled by a third party organisation configurations determined by at least one organisation that enable the server to receive data from that respective organisation; receiving at a server adapted to receive from at least one predetermined organisation at least a plurality of predetermined benchmark indicator data of a respective organisation; and

managing benchmark indicator data, wherein the results of the management of the benchmark indicator data are made accessible to a remote respective organisation.

19. A method for benchmarking predetermined benchmark indicators according to claim 18 wherein the managed information is provided in a graphical format.

20. A method for benchmarking predetermined benchmark indicators according to claim 18 wherein managed information is provided in a data format suitable for distribution by RSS.

21. A method for benchmarking predetermined benchmark indicators according to claim 18 wherein managed information is available after the execution of a program resident on a computer at a respective organisation 22. A method for benchmarking predetermined benchmark indicators according to claim 18 further including the step of:

the server providing a plurality of predetermined data presentation options for one or more selected benchmark indicator data and each option is associated with one or more manipulations conducted by the server on the benchmark indicator data to present the benchmark indicator data in accordance with a chosen presentation option.