How easy is totalbenchmarking.com™ to use and how quickly can I get my results every
day?
It couldn’t get any easier.
The totalbenchmarking.com™ service is very quick, clear, intuitive and easy to use.
Initial set-up takes approximately 15-20 minutes per business. Then, once registered,
it should take no more than two minutes every day from when a user logs in to have
their totalbenchmarking.com™ benchmarking reports in hand.
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What if totalbenchmarking.com™ is not yet being used by businesses we are interested
in benchmarking ourselves against?
During the set-up process, we ask you to provide the details of other businesses
in your market that you consider yourself to be both directly and partially competitive
to (a minimum of four businesses in total, but you may include as many as you wish).
If these businesses are not already part of the totalbenchmarking.com™ family of
subscribers we will contact them immediately and make every reasonable effort to
get them on board. You give us a list and we will go after it for you.
It is often our subscribers that approach other businesses in their area to become
members. No one knows your market like you. The totalbenchmarking.com™ service offers
subscribers discounts on the annual fee as a bonus for other businesses they have
convinced to register for this service. Each new user referred by you equates to
one month of the totalbenchmarking.com™ service provided to you at no cost.
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How does totalbenchmarking.com™ ‘work’ and how secure is the information we submit?
It doesn’t get any more secure.
The service is on a fully secure https & SSL Encrypted Connection (in layman terms
this means that your data is more secure than 99.9% of the internet). This
is the same level of encrypted hosting and security that VISA™ and MasterCard™ use
for online transactions world-wide. In fact we sit on the same secure server farm
as Lloyds TSB™, CapGemini™ and even the UK MOD (specifically the Defence Communication
Services Agency).
The totalbenchmarking.com™ service works just like your other software, but instead
of installing it on your computer, you access it from a high-speed encrypted internet
connection. The application behind totalbenchmarking.com™ is based on the most up
to date version of Microsoft’s ASP.NET and SQL technology. You also don't need to
worry about the significant infrastructure costs of maintaining or networking any
software, or losing valuable data, as it is ‘backed-up’ often and automatically.
Users can submit information and produce reports from anywhere with an internet
connection - be it on the road, at a client site, or in the comforts of your own
home office after hours. All you need is a high-speed internet connection and your
unique login and password.
Once registered, only the people from within your business or business group (if
using a Group Account) can access your data. We can provide multiple logins
and passwords for different people within a single business if requested. As each
user has a unique login and password we can track their activity for you via the
audit trail and produce an activity report as and when required.
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Can users enter historical information to make ‘same day last year’ comparisons
and fix mistakes in the data they enter?
Indeed they can.
Users have the ability to enter their own historical information up to five years
in the past. The totalbenchmarking.com™ team can do this on behalf of registered
users if this information is submitted to us in an agreed format.
We realize that our subscribers have demanding responsibilities and will sometimes
make mistakes with their input. All totalbenchmarking.com subscribers have the ability
to go back and re-enter any data (whether it’s from last week or last year) by contacting
a member of the totalbenchmarking.com™ team. Whenever historical data is changed
an exception report is generated. Our Administrators will review exception reports
twice daily and will contact the user in question if there seems to be any inaccuracies
or major changes. All changed data is audited by us.
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What about the sharing of competitive information and competition law?
We’ve done the homework for you.
The totalbenchmarking.com™ service has intentionally been developed in such a way
that complies with competition law. By its nature, totalbenchmarking.com™, ensures
an even playing field; as any business that wishes to register and participate may
do so at any time. The number of participants in any given market is unlimited and
not restricted by association, brand, pricing, facilities or location. Therefore
every single business in a given market area can enjoy the benefits of totalbenchmarking.com™.
Every registered user has access to and can produce the exact same information.
It is impossible, simply by the use of the totalbenchmarking.com™ service, for any
one business or business group to have an unfair competitive advantage against another.
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How much does the service cost and how is it billed?
Almost nothing.
The totalbenchmarking.com™ service is offered at an incredibly low price point in
comparison to the significant value it will represent to your business. When you
are contacted by the totalbenchmarking.com™ team, it is very likely that you will
be surprised at how low the cost is. The nominal fee for the totalbenchmarking.com
service is invoiced annually in advance.
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How can we be sure that other users we are benchmarking ourselves against have entered
accurate information?
It’s very simple.
The totalbenchmarking.com™ team review a random yet significant portion of all data
entered daily in every city to ensure accuracy and honesty of information. Where
data appears inaccurate, we will query the subject businesses directly and make
the necessary adjustments. Whenever historical data is changed, an exception report
is generated by our Administrators who will review it and contact the users in question
if there seems to be any inaccuracies or major changes.
To a certain degree (depending on the market) the totalbenchmarking.com™ service
is almost self policing. When a business has not entered their data for the day,
their lack of input will not be permitted to effect the calculations behind other
users’ reports. Users who have not entered their data by a pre determined time daily
are sent a reminder email. If 48 hours pass without input by a certain user, the
totalbenchmarking.com™ team will be in direct contact with the user in question
by telephone.
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Can other users see our specific trading information?
No, of course not.
The only users that can see your specific trading information is you and anyone
you grant access to. Your market reports are presented as market totals, ratios
and averages for your selected competitive set. Users are always required to select
a minimum of four businesses to compare themselves against; and the data is presented
in such a way that it is impossible to ‘work backwards’ and produce the specific
trading information on any one specific business.
The only exception to this would be where your business is part of a Group Account.
Then (if requested by your group’s head office) other businesses in your
group would be able to see specific trading information about the others in your
group. Group Accounts will also allow your head office to see how businesses in
their estate are performing against their general competitive market.
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Will totalbenchmarking.com™ share our trading information with a third party or
sell it for profit?
No, of course not.
We will never share company or business specific information with anyone or sell
it to any third party. Only fully operational businesses can be registered users
of the totalbenchmarking.com service. Businesses under development or construction
cannot register until they are open and have been trading for a minimum of 30 days.
All data is held in a secure hosting environment that only users of totalbenchmarking.com™
can access. While we may occasionally quote market trends and averages in market
reports or industry periodicals, we will never share your business’ specific trading
information with a third party in any way.
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I want my business or group to take advantage of the totalbenchmarking.com™ service.
How do I get this done?
Simple.
Just contact the totalbenchmarking.com™ team on
enquiries@totalbenchmarking.com. Once we have received your request, a member
of the totalbenchmarking.com™ team will be in contact as soon as possible to discuss
this service and guide you through finalizing your subscription.
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Other Questions?
If you any further questions please contact us on +44(0) 207 096 8842 or
enquiries@totalbenchmarking.com. A member of the totalbenchmarking.com team
will be in contact with you as soon as possible.
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