eBenchmark, which was developed by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC), is a system that measures all types of indicators and offers its users the flexibility in measuring their organisational performance based on their intended purposes.
In 2019, MPC redeveloped this system, adding some new features to accommodate the varying requirements from its users and also making it more user-friendly system.
“For MPC, the next step is to aggressively promote the system, especially since we are in the era of digital transformation. We offer this online system to all industry players as one of the initiatives in digitalising our services. Through this system, MPC has also managed to conduct all sorts of benchmark surveys electronically, which eliminates the need to organise any physical data collection workshops,” said MPC Director General, Dato’ Abdul Latif Abu Seman.
A Community of Practices (CoP), which consists of organisations within similar or different industries who agreed to measure performance based on the selected indicators, must be established prior to the eBenchmark utilisation.
“One of MPC’s roles is to serve as the facilitator that enables the CoP members in utilising the system with minimum supervision. In fact, not only the system can be used to compare an organisation’s performance with other organisations, but also for internal comparison among branches and stations. This, in turn will initiate strategic plans for further improvement internally,” added Dato’ Abdul Latif.
eBenchmark can speed up the process of data collection and benchmark establishment as these are all done through the internet. An individual benchmark report will be automatically generated by the system that allows the organisation to compare its performance against all CoP members or branches in terms of benchmark value, average, minimum and maximum values as well as lower and upper quartile values.
Fully aware of the importance of data security, a password will be issued by the system to each CoP member that will protect their data from intentional or accidental destruction, modification or disclosure. To add more value to this service, MPC has also linked the system with the Benchmarking Online Networking Database (BOND), which allows users to explore a vast database on best practices of exemplary organisations for learning purposes. In future, the connection between both systems will be enhanced with inclusion of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) element that will accelerate the process of obtaining specific best practices information that reflects the eBenchmark findings.
“More than 500 organisations from both private and public sectors have become CoP members and agreed to undertake continuous data collection and benchmark analysis using eBenchmark system. The tremendous commitment shown by all CoP members in optimising the system’s capability for performance gap identification was surprisingly unexpected. We are extremely pleased with this level of cooperation and will continuously use this approach that will help catalyse the broader transformation in boosting productivity performance at the firm level,” said Dato’ Abdul Latif.
Currently, MPC is closely collaborating with various trade associations, including the Malaysian Oleo-Chemical Manufacturers Group (MOMG) and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA), in helping a total of 70 CoP members which are grouped together on a voluntary basis for benchmarks establishment. Through this platform, participating companies are not only able to network widely, but can also gain valuable insights and think differently in scaling-up their productivity efforts and initiatives within their own companies.
MPC is also planning to use the eBenchmark in producing the benchmark report of the participating companies for the Industry Excellence Award program under the purview of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). The findings will then be presented to the council members, which will make the audit report more comprehensive and easier in identifying the winners.
“We would like to encourage all industry players and government agencies to take part in this initiative as the system is not only capable of generating presentable benchmark reports automatically, but also provides a digital platform to share the best practices among the CoP members in a very convenient environment. The efforts to improve national productivity is not an easy feat to accomplish alone. Armed with the participation from the industry players, we believe that eBenchmark is another alternative that will help put our local enterprises on the right path in ramping up their productivity level,” Dato’ Abdul Latif concluded.