In its most general term a benchmark represents a point of reference from which measurements can be conducted. Translated into a business context, benchmarks may thus serve as “measurements to gauge the performance of a function, operation, or business relative to others” (Bogan & English, 1994, p. 4). Based on that understanding of performance measurement, the essential business concept of the activity of benchmarking can be defined as the continuous and systematic process of improving strategies, functions, operations, systems, products or services by measuring, comparing and analyzing relevant benchmarks in order to produce superior business performance and outperform competitors (Böhnert, 1999; Ellis & Moore, 2006; Guo, Abir, Thengxiang, & Gelfin, 2007; Haverty & Gorton, 2006; Purdum, 2007; Schmitz, 1998; Spendolini, 1992). As human resource information systems (HRIS) are generally regarded as a key facilitator in promoting and securing the efficiency and effectiveness of the human resource (HR) function and are therefore also thought to represent a performance-critical key element of contemporary human resource management (HRM) (Cummings & Marcus, 1994; Hendrickson, 2003; James, 1997), benchmarking activities show the potential to generate valuable information for the management of HRIS. This information derived from the process of comparison to other business information systems or functions may support the buying decision for a new HRIS and represent an essential stimulus for implementation, design, or maintenance activities in order to ensure superior HR and overall business performance.

The Austrian Health 2006 Structural Plan of 28 June 2006 requires that reference centres for heart surgery 'participate in result-quality registers (e.g. cardiac registers)'. The aim of the present study was to identify a suitable scoring model for the Austrian register during the run-up to its creation. During the period from November 2004 to December 2005 a survey was done of the actual situation, the organisational and economic possibilities, and the requirements of all Austrian heart centres. General and also specific Austrian basic conditions were defined. Scoring models were then classified and evaluated. The characteristics 'national and international comparability', the associated 'distribution of the scoring system' and 'detailed scientific discussion of the applicability' were found as the main criteria for selection. Economic aspects such as survey and analysis costs, and the everyday practicability of gathering data in the actual situation revealed by the survey, were also included in the evaluation framework. It could be demonstrated that under the given circumstances, the EuroSCORE represented the suitable predictive model.

Businesses are subject to a constant process of change irrespective of whether this change is intended or not. Along with incorporating basic strategic management ideas into overall business thinking in the 1980s, companies worldwide have tried to influence these change processes as well as determine their corresponding objectives and underlying decisions on a time-axis and have hence taken efforts to methodically anticipate organization evolution (Hamel & Prahalad, 1994; Porter, 1980). Depending on the size and industry of the company, this strategic approach to corporate management may be highly complex as the intended anticipation of the company’s future development demands considering periods of time instead of single dates and furthermore involves integrating variants, prospects and threats in order to increase the company’s capability of action (Chakravarthy, 1986; Kappler, 1995; Perrow, 1984; Steinmann & Schreyögg, 2000).

The management of the information technology in a virtual medical service centre is subject to different requirements than the IT-management of a hospital resembling more a closed shop. Building a virtual centre calls for performance of an open shop principle, because the entire treatment chain cannot be mapped within one single institution, but requires integrated cooperation in order to manage a patient’s clinical pathway. Not only the spatial displacement, but also the unavoidable higher process orientation within a virtual cooperation deserves particular consideration. Additionally, the information management is challenged by the fact that the provision of relevant information in standardised form is an indispensable element of a virtual centre. In this context, the question about potential structural assembling, and organisational principles and elements of virtual medical service centres has to be answered in order to conclude on the basic requirements of data management and the appropriate solution approaches. This shall be presented partly using the example of the virtual oncological medical centre in Tyrol.

Adopting a holistic sociotechnical perspective, healthcare systems do not merely exhibit complex structures and functionalities but are also affected by the differing expectations, claims, and concerns of the systems’ stakeholders (Guba & Lincoln, 1989; Haux, Winter, & Ammenwerth, 2004). Furthermore, the issues addressed at healthcare systems are not limited to the concerns and requirements of health service providers, whose primary and most fundamental concerns in general terms represent the assurance of their own economic well-being and ability to proactively operate as well as the development of sustainable strategies in order to realize their own interests whatever they may be (Carsten, Hankeln, & Lohmann, 2004; Kappler, 1994). Furthermore, the objectives of other health systems stakeholders such as hospital operators and financiers as well as (health) politicians, which may well be in contradiction to the objectives of mere health service providers, have to be incorporated when systematically analyzing healthcare systems (Horev & Babad, 2005; Peltier, Kleimenhagen, & Neidu, 1996; Staudinger, 2004a ).