The PIAA is offering a benchmarking service as part of its Future Print transformation project, free for all Australian printers and print-related businesses. The benchmarking, sponsored by Media Super, is offered online through benchmarking.com as a quick and confidential means of measuring, monitoring and improving business performance. Richard Rasmussen, Future Print advisor, says, “Without an accurate comparison measure most of us tend to be overly optimistic about our position. “Benchmarking is a reality check – it provides a clear picture of how your business is tracking against other similar organisations across key performance indicators so you can assess your situation, see where improvements can be made and set goals for your business.
Input data, output analysis: free benchmarking service through Future Print
“Research shows that benchmarking is linked strongly to both business performance and operational performance.” He says the process should take printers less than an hour to input KPI data from 2013-14 financial reports online. Printers can find their local Business Advisor through the Future Print website, who will take them through the registration process and forward access details for the benchmarking service. Rasmussen says, “Registration and setup can be done efficiently, and then you can instantly see your strengths and weaknesses compared with businesses like yours from across the industry in key areas like sales, gross profit, outsourcing, wages and other overheads as a percentage of sales, debt days and net profit to owner, among other things. “You will also get a snapshot of how your business is tracking against businesses in other industries which share similar characteristics like size and turnover, based on KPIs gathered from the ATO. “It is not a one off, either – business owners can go back and enter new data as their plans progress to check how they are going on addressing their weaknesses and building on their strengths.” Future Print says the data is secure and confidential; the programme is run by an external specialist and a secure login is required to access the site. The PIAA and Future Print advisors do not have access. Those who want to take advantage of the first round of the Media Super Benchmarking service have until 31 January 2015 to enter their 2013-2014 data, after which Future Print will conduct an analysis and provide participants with a report specific to their sector of the industry.
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