Custom Benchmarking Research

When the benchmarks don’t exist, we build them.

You know your industry. You probably also know that no one has ever built a rigorous benchmark for it. That gap costs you every time you make a budget decision, defend a strategy, or explain your performance to a board or investor.

That is what custom benchmarking research fixes.

Start a conversation See how it works
When custom research is the right choice
Your situation:
Your industry does not file 990s or equivalent public data
You need operational metrics beyond financial data
You want to be the first to have reliable benchmarks in your sector
You represent a trade association or industry body
You need benchmarks your competitors can’t simply purchase

A research cooperative, purpose-built for your industry

Custom benchmarking research at Benchlytics follows the same cooperative model as our nonprofit cohort programs. Organizations in the founding cohort fund the research collectively, shape the metric design, and receive a personalized benchmark report comparing their organization against cohort peers on the agreed-upon metrics.

The result is an industry benchmark your peers helped build and trust, updated annually, with a methodology that is transparent and practitioner-validated.

This is a research engagement, not a software subscription. You are commissioning the creation of a benchmark dataset that did not previously exist for your industry.

Who commissions custom research

Organizations that commission or participate in custom benchmarking research are typically one of the following:

  • Technology vendors who want objective performance benchmarks in their market
  • Operators who want to benchmark themselves against industry peers
  • Trade associations and industry bodies serving a sector that lacks benchmark data
  • Private equity firms and investors who need operational benchmarks for portfolio assessment
  • Foundations that need to benchmark their grantee portfolio against sector peers
  • Corporations seeking competitive benchmarks in their market or industry segment
The process

How a custom benchmarking program works

01
Research foundation
We review existing research, industry standards, and practitioner literature to identify what metrics are already validated before designing anything new.
02
Metric design with your input
Founding cohort members review and shape the draft metric set before data collection begins. Every metric is defined with a precise operational definition before any data is requested.
03
Data collection
Participating organizations submit performance data through a secure, anonymized survey. Your identity is cryptographically separated from your data before it enters the benchmark dataset.
04
Benchmark delivery
Founding members receive the inaugural benchmark report. Annual updates follow. As the cohort grows, the data becomes more statistically precise. We typically need 10 to 25 participants to produce a statistically credible inaugural dataset. We understand that some market sub-segments are small, and we can develop cohorts with a smaller number of participants in some situations.
Active and upcoming verticals

Industries we are building

Each vertical is a purpose-built research program. Founding cohort participation shapes what gets measured.

Custom Research
Cruise & Ferry: Customer Engagement & Middleware

Consortium benchmarking for customer engagement platforms and middleware vendors in the maritime passenger sector. Founding cohort forming now.

Join the cohort →
+ Your Industry
Don’t see your sector?

We design benchmarking programs for any industry where rigorous peer data is missing. Contact us to discuss your industry.

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Engagement models

Two ways to commission research

All pricing is engagement-specific. Contact us to discuss scope and investment for your industry.

Cohort Benchmarking
Contact us for pricing
Organizations fund the research collectively. Founding participants receive the benchmark before it is published publicly and are credited in the methodology. We typically need 10 to 25 participants, though we can develop cohorts with a smaller number in some situations.
10 to 25 founding participants
Pre-publication access (60 days before release)
Individual benchmark report included
Named as founding research partner
Annual update option
Inquire about cohort benchmarking
Commissioned Research
Contact us for pricing
A single organization, such as a trade association, private equity firm, or industry body, commissions the full research program. Exclusive or semi-exclusive rights to the data for the first 12 months. Ideal for proprietary competitive intelligence or association member value.
Exclusive data access for 12 months
Full methodology documentation
Anonymized raw data delivery
Custom metric design with Benchlytics support
Presentation-ready deliverables
Inquire about commissioned research