Benefits from benchmarking - an Austrian case study.

The aim is to figure out the benefits of Benchmarking in the water supply sector. A survey was launched among the participants of the Austrian metric benchmarking project to answer specific questions from the perspective of the participating water supply utilities. The result was clearly positive. It shows that the expectations of the utilities were largely met. But also from the consumer's point of view the participation of supply utilities in benchmarking projects is to be seen as a benefit. Last but not least benchmarking is an important issue related to public relations of the entire water supply sector. If utilities are willing to trust in the method of benchmarking and to actively implement measures leading to improvements, benchmarking is creating benefits for all stakeholders.