The GQ-AAS benchmarking service is as an initiative brought about by requests from clients for access to a market benchmarking process which would allow them to assess the competitiveness of their telecommunication services contractual arrangements and provide them with guidance in undertaking new contract negotiations. It was important that this process reflect actual pricing received by large end users and catered for the quality of service criteria and value added services commonly demanded by large corporations. Over sixty corporate and government organisations contributed to the development of the database and continue to participate in the benchmarking service.

Since its inception, the GQAAS benchmarking process has been continually revised and updated to reflect current market conditions and incorporate new services as they evolve. Ongoing participation by client organisations in the benchmarking process allows us to keep the database up to date ensuring that only the most current information is used in our reports. Our policy is to only use tariff data that has been refreshed within a twelve month period.

The GQAAS benchmarking database comprises information from corporate and government organisations with annual voice and data telecommunications expenditure ranging from $1 Million to over $200 Million. Commercial organisations in the database represent industries including banking, insurance, finance, manufacturing, transportation, retail sales and energy utilities. Government sector organisations include state governments (including Whole of Government and individual agencies) and the Federal government (including individual agencies and clusters of agencies).

Clients who use our benchmarking services are better informed when negotiating new contracts leading to better rates for their telecommunications services. Benchmark customers can use the service to maintain competitive rates by implementing in-contract price adjustment mechanisms that use benchmarking to adjust rates over the term of the contract in line with market price movements. Such mechanisms help carriers with customer retention while ensuring the customer gets the best possible rates for their services.