Benchmark Analysis

A Benchmark Analysis Chart is used to compare an organization’s performance, financials, or processes against internal targets, historical results, competitors, or industry standards. By highlighting minimum, maximum, and quantile values, this chart helps uncover gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement. Benchmarking is critical for tracking productivity, guiding strategic decision-making, and ensuring compliance with industry regulations.

When to Use a Benchmark Analysis Chart

Use a Benchmark Analysis Chart when you want to:

• Performance Evaluation – Identify gaps in productivity, efficiency, or profitability compared to peers or standards.

• Spot Improvement Areas – Detect inefficiencies and adopt best practices to improve processes, products, or services.

• Strategic Decision-Making – Guide expansion, product launches, or restructuring by aligning with industry leaders.

• Cost Optimization – Compare operational expenses with industry norms to uncover efficiency gains.

• Customer Satisfaction – Benchmark service quality against peers to improve strategies and retention.

• Innovation and Development – Gain insights into competitor offerings for informed product innovation.

• Compliance and Risk Management – Ensure compliance with industry standards while mitigating risks.

Examples:

• Performance Tracking: Compare sales or employee productivity against set benchmarks.

• Financial Analysis: Evaluate profit margins or expenses versus industry standards.

• Operational Efficiency: Monitor production metrics against targets or benchmarks.

Note: For best results, select date ranges with sufficient data (e.g., yearly data) to accurately display min, max, and quantile values.

Chart Properties

General Settings

• Exclude Global Filter

  • When enabled, the chart will not be affected by any global filters applied at the dashboard or report level.

  • Useful when you want this chart to always display the full dataset, regardless of global filters.

• Order

  • Defines how the data is displayed.

  • Options include None (default), Ascending, or Descending.

  • Helpful for controlling the sequence of categories or values in the chart.

• Show Data Validation

  • When checked, the chart will perform and display data validation details.

  • Ensures that the data used in the chart follows defined rules or constraints.

• Stroke Color

  • Sets the border/outline color for chart elements (e.g., boxes, shapes).

  • Improves visibility and separation of data boundaries.

• Upper Box Color

  • Defines the fill color of the upper box (often used in box plots or similar charts to represent the upper range of data values).

• Lower Box Color

  • Defines the fill color of the lower box (used to represent the lower range of data values).

• Opacity

  • Controls the transparency of chart elements.

  • A value between 0 (fully transparent) and 1 (fully opaque).

  • Example: 0.8 makes the boxes slightly transparent, allowing overlaps or background details to remain visible.

View Filter

• Filter – Select a condition from the drop-down to restrict the displayed dataset.

Category Axis (X-Axis)

• Title – Add a descriptive axis title (e.g., Year, Department).

• Axis Label – Enable and customize labels to improve readability.

• Label Angle – Adjust label orientation (0°, 45°, 90°) for better spacing.

Primary Value Axis (Y-Axis)

• Title – Add a descriptive Y-axis title (e.g., Revenue, Efficiency %).

• Axis Label – Enable or disable axis labels.

• Format Type – Select how values are displayed: None, Auto, Percent, Thousand, Lacs, Crore, Million, Billion, Trillion, Quadrillion.

• Currency Type – Select a currency symbol: None, Rupees, Euro, Pound, USD, Yen, Cent.

• Precision – Control decimal precision (up to 5 places).

Insights

• Text – Add annotation text to highlight insights (e.g., Top Quartile, 70% improvement). Use asterisks to emphasize terms or values.

• Font Size – Set or modify annotation size.

• Font Color – Select text color.

• Text Align – Align text: Left, Right, Center.

• Position – Place annotations at the Bottom or Right of the chart.

Best Practices

• Use quantile values (25th, 50th, 75th percentile) to highlight distribution ranges.

• Apply consistent colors for benchmarks vs. actuals for clarity.

• Add insights annotations to emphasize critical gaps or areas where benchmarks are exceeded.

• Select longer timeframes (e.g., yearly data) for stable benchmarking comparisons.