Digital Benchmark Index

Benchmarking has a long standing, positive reputation for driving improvement in a variety of areas. Globally it has year on year been recognised as the number one management tool utilised by businesses across the world. Its reputation is based on driving positive change in many areas, including productivity improvement.

For over two decades, this powerful approach has been harnessed in the Benchmark Index service that has benefitted many thousands of SMEs. It is this platform we will use to create a next generation benchmarking tool designed to encourage businesses towards technology adoption.

This will be achieved through a process that assists SMEs to measure their current position, compare how they stack up against others, and then create impactful action plans to integrate digital products and methodologies into their everyday operations.

Why is this a good thing? Independent research has shown that businesses embracing digital achieve significant productivity benefits. Examples of the tools adopted that make such a difference are Cloud based computing, CRMs, e-commerce, web based accounting software, and computer aided design.

This project focuses on 3 questions:

Can benchmarking motivate businesses to adopt new to firm digital technology?
Does demonstrating the potential benefit of digital adoption (e.g. impact on turnover per employee/profitability) increase adoption?
Does demonstrating the potential and tangible 'loss' (e.g. lost profitability, turnover growth etc) of not keeping pace with peers motivate the adoption of digital technology?
Our approach to finding answers will be to design and create a Digital Benchmark Index. This will be founded on contemporary research, but will be shaped to be jargon free and user friendly. It will help participants to understand best practice, find out what financial gains they could make from adopting technology, help them find suitable tools/solutions, and, most importantly, guide them how to do it.

Winning Moves is proud to be leading a stellar group of partners in this project. Aston University will provide academic and intellectual rigour. North East LEP, Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP and Sheffield City Region Growth Hub will identify 90 businesses to receive support. This will be delivered through their experienced business advisers who will look to ensure that businesses participating gain maximum benefit. This is essential as interventions should have a positive and long lasting effect. In addition, the data captured will help to inform the future roll out of this service so the approach can benefit many other SMEs.