APQC and Noted International Organizations Form Collaborative to Create First Worldwide Standard Benchmarking Measures.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 19, 2004

Publicly Available Benchmarks and Surveys Help Organizations From All

Industries Measure Performance

The American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), together with some of the world's leading organizations, today announced that it has joined forces to revolutionize the way organizations worldwide measure and improve organizational performance. The Open Standards Benchmarking Collaborative seeks to establish, lead, and promote an open, universal process framework and related performance measures and benchmark data, created by industry for industry.

The APQC Process Classification Framework(SM) (PCF) is the first, open standards-based framework for measuring performance in key areas such as supply chain, financial management, information technology, customer service, marketing, and sales efficiency. The PCF is available at no charge at www.apqc.org and serves as an industry-neutral enterprise model that allows organizations to see their activities from a cross-industry process viewpoint, benchmark against organizations globally, and adapt best practices.

"Today, organizations rely on third-party evaluations of their performance, with no real view of the accuracy of that analysis or beyond their industry or geography. Most crave a better way to compare and benchmark themselves openly with their peers," APQC President Carla O'Dell said. "The Open Standards Benchmarking Collaborative introduces a much higher level of performance quality to organizations worldwide. We're transforming how organizations realize bottom-line savings through process improvement."

As part of this initiative, APQC also announced today the formation of an advisory council of committed industry experts to ensure relevancy to all business groups. Advisory council members include:

-- Alvarez & Marsal: Tom Elsenbrook, managing director of The

Business Consulting Group

-- Boehringer Ingelheim: Kirk Shepard, vice president, clinical

and scientific affairs

-- Booz Allen Hamilton: Dermot Shorten, vice president

-- CEMEX: Armando Garcia, executive vice president, development

-- Fuji Xerox: Yotaro Kobayashi, executive chairman

-- Gartner Consulting: Steve Keener, group vice president

-- IBM: Ginni Rometty, managing partner, Business Consulting

Services

-- PeopleSoft: Bill Hewitt, group vice president, global industry

solutions

-- Procter & Gamble: James Flannery, director customer

development

-- Raytheon: Don Ronchi, vice president of Raytheon Six Sigma,

supply chain, and chief learning officer

-- Shell Oil Company: Guy Cowan, vice president and chief

financial officer

-- University of Texas M. D. Anderson: Leon Leach, executive vice

president

-- U.S. Navy: Vice Admiral Alfred Harms, commander, naval

education and training command

-- World Bank: John Wilton, vice president of strategy, finance

and risk management

PowerMARQ(TM), APQC's comprehensive database of standardized process measures and benchmarks, collects performance data from participating organizations using a consistent set of common processes and measures to accurately compare performance within and across industries. The development of standard worldwide benchmarking measures is expected to give performance improvement greater visibility, leading to productivity, quality, and innovation improvements for all organizations.

Organizations using PowerMARQ will confidentially enter their quantitative and qualitative performance data based on approximately 1,000 commonly used measures and benchmarks that track performance. Data is verified for accuracy by APQC. Participating organizations then have access to blind and aggregate data for all other participants to compare performance, understand best practices, and identify weaknesses. For more information on the Collaborative, to download the Process Classification Framework, or to complete a PowerMARQ benchmarking survey, please visit www.apqc.org.

American Productivity & Quality Center

A recognized leader in benchmarking, knowledge management, measurement, and quality programs, APQC helps organizations adapt to rapidly changing environments, build new and better ways to work, and succeed in a competitive marketplace. For more than 25 years, APQC has been identifying best practices, discovering effective methods of improvement, broadly disseminating findings, and connecting individuals with one another and with the knowledge, training, and tools they need to succeed. APQC is a member-based nonprofit serving organizations around the world in all sectors of business, education, and government. APQC is also a proud winner of the 2003 North American Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) award. Learn more about APQC by visiting www.apqc.org or calling 800-776-9676 or 713-681-4020.