Benchmarking:

The continuous process of measuring producers, services, and practices against strong competitors or recognized industry leaders. It is an ongoing activity that is intended to improve performance and can be applied to all facets of operation. Benchmarking requires a measurement mechanism so that the performance "gap" can be identified. It focuses on comparing best practices among dissimilar enterprises. 

(A) a structured approach for identifying the best practices from industry and government, and comparing and adapting them to the organization's operations. Such an approach is aimed at identifying more efficient and effective processes for achieving intended results, and suggesting ambitious goals for program output, product/service quality, and process improvement..
(B) performance comparison of organizational business processes against an internal or external standard of recognized leaders. Most often the comparison is made against a similar process in another organization considered "world class."