This report is prepared by focussing upon the matter for the improvement of the company which has underperformance in the market. The company, therefore, need to reach up to the successful benchmark set up by other successful companies. In this context the company that has been lagging behind from its success is Xerox. It is the company that is has been established in 1960 and further being stylized in 2008 (Xerox, 2017). The company is an American global document that handles the selling document solutions as well as services along with other products of document technology in almost more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk but its most of the employees reside in New York. With its growth the company plan to make the separation of its part with document technology and the other part with the document outsourcing business.
This separation made Xerox in maintaining two different business types. Along with this Xerox made these companies as the publicly traded organizations. For that reason, Xerox made the wide expansion in its business and many investors also taken the decision of investing on Xerox. But after the year 2008, the stocks of Xerox started falling apart and the investors started panicking due to many reasons.
At that time the underperformance of Xerox is widely attributed due to the setting of various benchmarks of other successful company like Amazon. Mostly it is assumed that some of the benchmarks of Amazon have created a particular benchmark which is widely attributed. This attribute of underperformance laid down the banks to inject the liquidity into the markets with their regular efforts (Amazon, 2017). Therefore the benchmarks of Amazon laid down the foundation of underperformance caused in Xerox. Amazon with its emergence is quite well known for its customer service as well as product delivery on time. Moreover, the important part that Amazon takes care is the checking complaints of customers. All these set a benchmark for Xerox.
Benchmarking is the process that makes sure the exact process for the triggering of best performance within the organization. It is the process by which a particular standard has been set by any company or any competitor or anything else. That particular standard or process is particularly used further for the identification of gaps within various processes of the organization for achieving an exact competitive advantage (Benavides-Velasco et al., 2014).
In other words, the benchmarking is the procedure that provides the essential insights that will further help in providing the understanding of the comparison in between a particular organization with its similar organizations. This benchmark is judged by three basic elements, leader, measurement, and insight (Dale, 2015).
The report engrosses the consideration of the company like Xerox which is lagging behind in its functions like customer service, delivery time and checking complaints of the customers. In these aspects, Amazon is one company that has set specific benchmarks in these services. Therefore Xerox needs to develop its services as per the standards of Amazon to again initiate the growth of the company and success of the company. Further, there are various reasons why the companies should choose the weapon of benchmarking for their development (Ebrahimi & Sadeghi, 2013).
The most crucial reason is the benchmarking can be a specific tool for the research upon the competitors within the market. Other reasons to choose to benchmark is making the development of the product, making the realignment of the business as well as developing the internal processes of the business (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
By going through the above section it became clear that the benchmarking develops the product quality as well as realigns the manufacturing process. The benchmark set by considering the leader; measurement and insight pave the way for development in varied regions of business. In that case, the leader benchmark shows the comparison up to the best in the market. The measurement benchmark needs the presence and tally of the actual data obtained from the companies that to be compared (Gimenez-Espin, Jiménez-Jiménez & Martínez-Costa, 2013).
Similarly, the insight makes the keen observation of the market and provides a proper education to the business for its growth and sustenance. Further, the benchmarking are three types which show the way that has to be developed. These are the process benchmarking, performance benchmarking and strategic benchmarking (Gilmour, 2013). All these help in the implementation procedure by which the Xerox can get developed up to the benchmark set by Amazon.
Xerox carries its customer service as well as customer support in various numbers of ways by providing peace of mind to the customers but in some instances, it lacks the maintenance of its value added services (Jiménez-Jiménez et al., 2015). By that period the emergence of Amazon posed a threat to the processes of Xerox. Therefore Xerox must go through the services that are the benchmark for many of the companies within the market.
With this observation, Xerox found some lacunas in its customer support as well as handling customer complaints and finding the delivery within time. In this process, Xerox can be able to find these lacunas through the implementation of some key steps of benchmarking. These key steps are the 5 phases of benchmarking that engross the whole process starting from planning to development by making the analysis, integration, action as well as maturity. By following these five phases the actions must be accomplished by Xerox to bring the improvement within its business like Amazon (Katki et al., 2013).
The whole process of bringing improvement within business starts with the determination of what to be benchmarked. Thereafter the team is formulated making an aim towards the development. Next is to make the identification of the partners which is further followed by the collection and analysis of data. Afterward, the implementation of plan and monitoring of results is done.
These five phases of benchmarking, therefore, is divided into particular phases.
Xerox formulated the plan for benchmarking in this phase where it has to decide regarding the products that have to be benchmarked. Therefore Xerox needs to take care of its retail services online. The selling of the products through online retail is the part which is the matter of concern for Xerox. While determining the matter of concern Xerox found that Amazon is the best competitor against it. It is because it has set a benchmark in handling the customers by excellent manner in online retail. Further, Xerox will plan to take the decision of process of data collection by which it can clearly know how and what is the benchmark running within the market. In that case, Xerox considers the measurement, leader as well as the insights to do the right way for benchmarking.
This phase is for analyzing the data that has been collected by the proper research of the market. The details of both the companies, Xerox and Amazon are analyzed keenly. For that reason, this phase will help Xerox in knowing the strengths, as well as weaknesses of the performances of Amazon, are identified (Johnson, 2014). The identification of the strengths helps Xerox in assessing their process with respect to the performance of Amazon. Therefore the analysis phase will help in realizing the exact value of competition and how the competition is really better. The phase will also describe the reasons why Amazon is better and what Xerox will learn from them. In addition, this phase will provide the essential factors that will help Xerox in acquiring the best factors of Amazon within its business. This will help in the identification of a gap in between both the companies as well as the reduction of these gaps between Xerox and Amazon.
This phase engrosses the process to make the bringing of the action through various developments and strategies. In this process, it is necessary for the senior managements of Xerox to understand their flaws and accept the developments. With this acceptance, the senior authorities will find the prescribed date as well as conclusions for the beginning of a plan to acquire best strengths of Amazon (Johnson, 2014). The application of methodology by the development of communication is quite essential for the enhancement of customer handling which needs some time.
With the reference from the collected data based on benchmarking Xerox sets its specific goals and objectives to update the perceptions of customers’ satisfaction. For this reason, Xerox makes the arrangement of the survey to know the feedback of the customers (Sallis, 2014). The feedback from the customers will help Xerox in enhance their ways of handling the customers as well as enhancing the business prospects within the market.
This phase is the final stage where the company that is underperforming will get the opportunity through the process of benchmarking. The proper performance assessment and the changes within the processes enhance the business survival management. It is evident that by acquiring the best benchmarks set by Amazon, Xerox cannot be able to be the leader in all places at a time but it will definitely help the company in reaching their goals as well as their objectives. In the whole process, Xerox can enhance them in achieving their superiority in their product delivery to the customers in a cost effective manner (Vinayak & Kodali, 2013).
The major part that is highlighted in this report is the set of the benchmark by one of the leading company Amazon. In that case, the underperforming company Xerox need to develop its condition with the market basing upon the benchmarks set by Amazon. Therefore the benchmark set by Amazon are the customer service, checking customer complaint and the delivery services as well as products on time.
Basing upon this Xerox will develop its activities. The basic recommendations that are to be given for the development of Xerox are to make an excellent plan and proposal to reach each and every customer. This process is collectively known as the total quality management. It is because the first step to improve the business is the maintenance of quality of the products as well as services of the company. Therefore to make the improvement of the business of Xerox it is essential to calculate the efficiency of the product or service quality to the customers.
In this report, the major fact is about to reach up to the benchmark set by Amazon. And depending upon that it is recommended to Xerox that they should get proper surveys and acquire proper feedbacks from the customers. Basing upon those feedbacks they should take care of their quality of their products along with the requirements of the customers. During the surveys, the company must not forget to enquire the details of the requirements of the customers. Further basing upon those needs and demands Xerox should take care of their development. Another basic part is checking the customer complaint.
After the delivery of the product or the services to the customers, it is necessary for the company to know the feedback of the customer regarding the product. It is must to know that whether the customer is satisfied or not. Patiently handling the queries of the customers is quite essential because it will build a strong relationship in between the customer and company. Also, it will help in enhancing the loyalty of the customers. And lastly making the delivery of the product within time also enhances the belief of the customer for the company.
The proper management of the need and requirements of the customers as well as the taking care of their order is specific to the inventory management. Therefore Xerox is recommended to implement the strategic sourcing process to reach up to the benchmark set by Amazon. By this Xerox can be able to enhance their quality and also enhance their standards as per the market value and be the leader competing with Amazon.
Conclusion:
The issues that are highlighted in this report are the matter of concern for Xerox and also that affected the business of Xerox. For that reason, the Company, therefore, need to enhance their business quality by going through the benchmark set by its competitor Amazon. The company Xerox should focus on its total quality management system.
This system basically helps the company to meet the customer requirement in order to increase the satisfaction of the customer. It can be done by implementing the customer focused principles of total quality management. In that context, Xerox had gone through the surveys and attained the benchmarks set by Amazon and further in relation to that Xerox tried to develop itself for their growth and success.
References:
Amazon.com. 2017. Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more. [Online] Available at: https://www.amazon.com/ [Accessed 24 Mar. 2017].
Benavides-Velasco, C.A., Quintana-García, C. and Marchante-Lara, M., 2014. Total quality management, corporate social responsibility and performance in the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 41, pp.77-87.
Dale, B., 2015. Total quality management. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Ebrahimi, M. and Sadeghi, M., 2013. Quality management and performance: An annotated review. International Journal of Production Research, 51(18), pp.5625-5643.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Gimenez-Espin, J.A., Jiménez-Jiménez, D. and Martínez-Costa, M., 2013. Organizational culture for total quality management. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 24(5-6), pp.678-692.
Gilmour, P., 2013. Benchmarking supply chain operations. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.
Jiménez-Jiménez, D., Martinez-Costa, M., Martínez-Lorente, A.R. and Rabeh, H.A.D., 2015. Total quality management performance in multinational companies: A learning perspective. The TQM Journal, 27(3), pp.328-340.
Katki, H.A., Schiffman, M., Castle, P.E., Fetterman, B., Poitras, N.E., Lorey, T., Cheung, L.C., Raine-Bennett, T.R., Gage, J.C. and Kinney, W.K., 2013. Benchmarking CIN3+ risk as the basis for incorporating HPV and Pap cotesting into cervical screening and management guidelines. Journal of lower genital tract disease, 17(5 0 1), p.S28.
Johnson, P.F., 2014. Purchasing and supply management. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
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Psomas, E. and Antony, J., 2017. Total Quality Management elements and results in higher education institutions: the Greek case. Quality Assurance in Education, 25(2).
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