Research

The research and study of internal controls are fundamental to safeguarding assets, ensuring the integrity of financial information, and promoting the efficiency and effectiveness of operations. It forms the backbone of sound financial management and corporate governance and APQC is conducting new research to provide timely, relevant, and actionable insights.

By delving into the expense reimbursement process, this research project aims to provide valuable insights and recommendations that can help organizations improve their financial operations.

This research showcases findings from APQC's Current State of the HR Function Survey. Use the resources in the collection to understand how top performing HR functions handle core aspects of HR, including strategy, structure, staff, processes, technology, and analytics.

Companies are increasing their focus on improving and expanding their DEI efforts across the organization. Using a survey and case studies, this research examined common DEI practices and challenges and identified key requirements for supporting DEI in spirit and practice. Using the research findings, organizations will be able to benchmark their DEI practices and progress against peer and best-in-class organizations.

APQC’s Current State of Learning and Development Survey gathered L&D practice and performance data from 300 L&D leaders. The survey collected benchmarks related to the drivers of learning needs in organizations today, current levels of L&D staffing and spending, and commonly used L&D methods and technologies. The findings also reveal how organizations are measuring learning and the extent to which today's L&D functions are delivering the learning their organizations need.

APQC recognizes eight organizations for their Excellence in Knowledge Management. As part of the research, APQC aims to highlight how successful KM programs use expert communities, embrace innovation, and measure their value. Take advantage of the insights and best practices of the Excellence in KM class of 2023.

To operate effectively, organizations need both business processes and associated knowledge. Process and knowledge management (KM) teams aim to document, standardize, and optimize how work gets done. Still, they often operate in their own “improvement silos” instead of collaborating on an integrated approach.  In this research, APQC researched ways organizations aligned process and knowledge management to improve process performance, reduce risks, and increase employee engagement.

APQC’s Knowledge Flow Process is a seven-step cycle describing how knowledge is created, identified, collected, reviewed, shared, accessed, and used within organizations. This collection brings together articles and resources related to the Knowledge Flow Process, including a framework to help you understand and manage knowledge flow and best practices for each of the seven steps.

As a result of content overload, disordered repository structures, and difficult search processes, many organizations are rethinking their approach to content management. Best practices for managing high-value content, formulating content strategies, monitoring execution, and optimizing search and discovery across channels are examined in this study.

The content within the collection will teach you about key performance indicators (KPIs) for information technology, as well as proven performance improvement drivers and best practices. This content is derived from an analysis of APQC’s Open Standards Benchmarking® in Information Technology Organization Performance assessment and is a collection of benchmarks and metrics, as well as best practices and business drivers.

Prepared using data from APQC’s Open Standards Benchmarking® in Sales and Marketing and APQC’s Benchmarks on Demand portal, these collections highlight sales, marketing, and customer service key performance indicators (KPI) benchmarks and practices for organizations across industries.

At the close of 2023, APQC's process and performance management group conducted its annual survey to understand the common challenges and priorities of practitioners in 2024. The survey looked at the top five priorities and challenges in key process and performance topics like business process management, continuous improvement, strategic planning, and data and measurement. It also explores potential changes in the process management discipline and how organizations utilize operational key performance indicators (KPIs).

An end-to-end process mindset is often necessary to help organizations achieve their goals because strategic goals are rarely functional in nature. They are large-scale issues such as improving organizational agility, becoming customer-centric, or entering a new market. Such goals rely on understanding how the organization creates value and aligns the purpose of its processes. This collection includes end-to-end process maps, based on the Process Classification Framework®, combined with related KPIs and benchmarks for the most common end-to-end processes. To learn more about how to use and apply end-to-end processes, see the Applying End-to-End Processes collection.

As businesses continue to realize the importance of sustainability, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices have become a crucial aspect of supply chain management. The Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI) and APQC have recently conducted research to gather insights from supply chain leaders on the role of ESG in managing their supply chain and relationships with suppliers.

As part of ongoing research into product development and innovation, APQC has gathered information on the latest trends in connected product development. This collection of research provides a snapshot of the current state of connected product development, including Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, data monetization plans, data use trends, challenges, skills needed, and software-enabled customization.

APQC conducts periodic quick polls in supply chain to learn about the latest trends in emerging technologies and key practices. This research from APQC gathered insights from supply chain professionals on a variety of topics, including Digital Transformation in Supply Chain, Big Data and Advanced Analytics, and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).