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Benchmark methodology

How a benchmark is earned

A benchmark is only useful if you know what it is a benchmark of. Every distribution dilynx publishes states its peer set, its source class and its as-of date — and none of them come from a vendor.

IndependentEvidence-backedReviewed Jul 2026Methodology

The peer set

Current peer set: 58 organisations — mid-market B2B software companies of comparable revenue and stage. A comparison against the wrong population is worse than no comparison, so the population is always stated alongside the number, never behind it.

What we publish, and what we don't

Median and top quartile

Both, always. A median tells you what is normal; the top quartile tells you what is achievable. A transformation case needs the second.

The interquartile range

Published so you can see the spread. A tight range means the metric is well understood; a wide one means context dominates and a single number would mislead.

Never a vendor figure

Independent — no paid placements. Rankings are never influenced by commercial relationships. A vendor is authoritative on what its product does — never on how a market performs.

The maturity spine

Capability maturity →

Alongside the quantitative distributions, every finance capability is graded on one shared 1–5 spine — Manual, Standardized, Automated, Optimized, Intelligent. It is deliberately a single spine across all nine finance domains, so a position in the close is directly comparable with a position in procurement, and a roadmap can sequence work across both.

Benchmarks are one input to the Executive Finance Assessment's reasoning — not the product itself. The assessment's output is a decision, with the benchmark as its evidence. The full research methodology →
Executive Finance Assessment

Benchmark your finance organisation.

Research explains the market; the Executive Finance Assessment personalises the decision. Before you commit budget to software, consulting or transformation, benchmark your finance organisation and see where the highest-impact opportunities are.

Begins with a free Executive Brief — about five minutes, anonymous, no account. Full assessment €59, one-time. It complements the research; it does not replace it.