The question about the value contribution of the IT inevitably leads to the demand for greater economic efficiency and simultaneous reduction of unit costs. As always, these two aspects represent the primary goals and challenges confronting IT. The benchmarking of IT services is a tried and proven management method to ensure prices usual on the market which, in turn, contributes positively to value-oriented control of the IT budget.

Types of IT benchmarks

Various forms of benchmarking are carried out in many different areas in today’s world. The types of benchmarks used in these diversified applications differ with re­spect to the subject of the examination, type of examination, and target variables. Suitable subjects for examination include processes, methods, and services. The decision regarding the type of examination must be based on a distinction as to whether the benchmarking will be conducted strictly internally or in collaboration with external parties. In the latter case, a further distinction can be made between different forms of benchmarking such as database-based and consortial benchmarking. All of the measurement variables which can be collected as operational data such as throughput times, rejection rates, and costs are appropriate for use as target var­iables.

In IT, benchmarking is used as an instrument for the optimization of the internal or­ganization, as a controlling aid, or in other capacities. In the first case, benchmarking serves primarily to identify and quantify potential. So it enables the identification of best practices and can be utilized within the scope of service excellence initiatives and other areas. As a controlling aid, it provides the basis for setting prices for intern­al or external cost allocations. Yet another area of application is the price bench­marks which will be considered in greater detail below; they are used to determine the current market price level of an IT service. But price benchmarks can also be used as input for target costing – retrograde calculation – but in this case presume the existence of an effective controlling model.