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Benchmarking is at the heart of the IBF service. Every year, our team of benchmarking experts will evaluate your intranet or portal against the IBF model of good practice, compare your scores with those of fellow members, and highlight critical areas for improvement.

Since 2002, IBF has carried out more than 400 intranet evaluation and benchmarking exercises in major organisations worldwide. This makes us the leading authority on intranets and portals, and gives us unrivalled insight into best practice.

All our benchmarking is carried out from a neutral stance. We don’t sell consultancy or technology solutions, which means our recommendations are not coloured by any vested interest.

How IBF benchmarking works

Our benchmarking model – the world’s first all-encompassing intranet benchmarking standard – covers five areas:

• Usability: How well designed and usable is your intranet?
• Communication & Culture: How effective is your intranet as communication channel and corporate culture builder?
• Strategy & Governance: How well does your organisation lead and manage its intranet?
• Metrics & Performance: How well does your organisation measure intranet performance and value?
• Financial Value: How much is your intranet worth in financial terms, and what are the key areas of exploited and unexploited value?

For Usability, we carry out an intensive expert review, at least one day of usability testing with a sample of your organisation’s staff, and an optional user survey. For the other areas, we use a combination of interviews, document and data analysis, and a review of key areas of the intranet.

After the evaluation, we report our findings and recommendations via a detailed written report and a face-to-face feedback session.

IBF Global members are evaluated in two areas every year, while members of IBF North America, IBF Asia Pacific and IBF Europe are evaluated in one area. All members can opt to be evaluated in additional areas for an extra charge on top of their annual membership fee. We recommend that members undergo a Usability evaluation in their first year of membership.

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