Fit for Service. Benchmarking in the Service Economy

This report documents the objectives and the progress of the "Fit for Service" benchmarking project sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology as a part of its initiative for the service economy. The report explains the concept of the Competence Card, a basic element of the project, the strategic approach of which takes up ideas from the Balanced Scorecard and complements the business benchmarking perspective with the superordinate levels of market and politics / government / society. The report also presents the international research, application, and learning network formed by national and international experts, scientists and business users as well as the work conducted in the benchmarking clubs. The communication, information and knowledge distribution processes of this network rely on an electronic platform, electronic assessment tools and a benchmarking database, the design and use of which is described in the report.