Paragon Consulting

Benchmark Toolkit

At Paragon we believe benchmarking is a critical step to enabling change. In order to assist clients in this area we have developed the Paragon Benchmarking Toolkit which leverages Paragons years of extensive research and experience in the Performance Management area. This area includes:

• Close Cycle Rankings – extensive research into the global trends and best practices in company close cycle times. The research covers the year end close cycle metrics for the 2006, 2005 and 2004 reporting season for 527 of the world’s largest multinational corporations, including 390 European Corporations and the US Top 100

• Group Reporting Study -  to date we have surveyed over 150 large international groups across Europe to examine current best practice in the Group Finance function and to provide meaningful, detailed and relevant benchmarks for use by the participants

External Benchmarking

A vital step for any organisation committing to change is to benchmark performance against other organisations and to understand the characteristics of best practice performers. We have developed a number of tools which can allow you to benchmark your performance externally:

• Close Cycle Rankings – benchmark how your close cycles metrics compare to the US Top 100 and European 390 Corporations

• Group Financial Consolidation and Reporting Survey – conduct our survey and receive an individual personalised report detailing how your core Consolidation, Close and Reporting processes benchmark against 150 large international groups from across Europe

• Group Budgeting and Forecasting Survey – conduct our survey and receive an individual personalised report detailing how your Group Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting processes benchmark against 150 large international groups from across Europe

Internal Benchmarking

While external benchmarks are important in providing context, a critical step in enabling change is to understand and benchmark internal processes. This provides context in understanding what needs to change in order to improve.

In order to assist clients in this area we have developed a number of internal web surveys which can deployed internally across organisations. These provide a cost effective way of understanding and benchmarking internal processes and identifying issues and opportunities.

Because we understand different industries have very different characteristics we have defined a number industry vertical surveys. They include:

• Financial Consolidation and Reporting Surveys for Consumer Products, Pharmaceuticals, Telecoms and Financial Services

• Group Budgeting and Forecasting Surveys for Consumer Products, Pharmaceuticals, Telecoms and Financial Services

To find out more how you could deploy these surveys across your organisations:-

Please Contact:  Sue Shaw
Telephone:         +44 (0)207 580 8938
E-Mail:                  Info@paragonbpm.com