How to Use the EFQM Excellence Model for Strategic Service Reviews: A Cross-Functional Case Study

CIO Guidance

Organizations often struggle to evaluate their internal services objectively, especially when those services are complex, cross-functional, or critical to strategic execution. While many frameworks offer theoretical direction, few translate into a practical structure that guides real-world performance reviews. This case study demonstrates how one organization used a structured excellence model to conduct in-depth reviews, prioritize improvements, and align service delivery with strategic goals—creating a model applicable across industries.

Facing growing expectations to modernize and deliver better value, this organization sought a method to integrate service quality, performance metrics, and continuous improvement into a unified process. The chosen framework offered a comprehensive, balanced approach by focusing equally on how services are delivered (enablers) and what results they achieve. By using a nine-criterion model spanning leadership, strategy, people, processes, and outcomes, it enabled both strategic alignment and operational clarity.

Yet the effort to evaluate performance was fragmented. Managers often assessed services based on local knowledge or gut feeling, leading to inconsistent priorities and missed opportunities. Feedback loops were informal, data often lacked structure, and staff perspectives weren’t systematically captured. Without a reliable way to connect day-to-day service delivery with overarching business objectives, improvement efforts stalled or fell short of expectations.

This inconsistency created deeper challenges. In one initial exercise, scores for customer satisfaction ranged from 25 to 74 across senior managers—highlighting misaligned interpretations of performance and success. Some leaders assessed services based on their own departments, others lacked clarity about broader goals. The absence of shared assessment criteria made it impossible to benchmark meaningfully or track progress over time. Without a common language for performance, even well-intentioned reviews failed to result in coordinated action.

The structured application of the EFQM Excellence Model changed that. A high-level leadership self-assessment was combined with a bottom-up service-level review, each using a common scoring framework and shared terminology. The process was collaborative, inclusive, and grounded in practical use: over nine weeks, one review team produced nearly 200 specific recommendations—later distilled into 53 prioritized actions embedded in the next year’s service plan. A complementary staff survey added a human-centered perspective, surfacing actionable insights around communication, collaboration, and improvement readiness. Changes were implemented through local action teams and reinforced with performance-linked goals.

This structured, dual-level approach provided a robust foundation for service transformation. It not only revealed performance gaps but also built a culture of self-evaluation, learning, and accountability. For CIOs, this case study underscores how applying a tested excellence model to internal service reviews can clarify priorities, boost engagement, and link operations directly to outcomes. Whether you’re modernizing IT services, managing flat budgets, or integrating change across silos, this model offers a proven path to results.

Main Contents

1. Overview of the EFQM Excellence Model’s structure and scoring criteria

2. Background on performance review challenges in service-driven organizations

3. Step-by-step description of a high-level leadership self-assessment process

4. In-depth breakdown of an operational review with team-based scoring and survey data

5. Implementation strategies, improvement planning, and organizational learning outcomes

Key Takeaways

1. A dual-level review approach—top-down and bottom-up—provides a balanced performance perspective

2. The EFQM model enables structured, repeatable service evaluations across departments and sectors

3. Involving cross-functional teams increases ownership, engagement, and the relevance of recommendations

4. Scoring inconsistencies can highlight gaps in shared understanding and guide calibration efforts

5. A well-executed review process leads to actionable improvement plans and measurable progress tracking

CIOs and IT leaders constantly face the challenge of aligning IT services with strategic goals, demonstrating value, and leading change in a measurable, inclusive way. This EFQM Excellence Model case study provides a clear, real-world example of how a structured performance framework can help address these demands while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

• Assess IT service maturity objectively: Use the model’s nine criteria to evaluate current capabilities, identify performance gaps, and benchmark against high-performing teams or industry standards.

• Foster cross-functional accountability: Engage stakeholders from different roles and levels in collaborative assessments, helping teams take ownership of service delivery and improvement.

• Drive evidence-based IT governance: Replace subjective or siloed evaluations with data-backed insights that inform strategy, resource allocation, and prioritization.

• Embed improvement into performance management: Translate review findings into actionable initiatives tied to individual and team objectives, helping connect daily operations to strategic results.

• Standardize review practices across departments: Scale the approach to multiple functions—security, support, cloud services—using a common language and structure for enterprise-wide service evaluation.

By applying the practices detailed in this EFQM Excellence Model case study, CIOs can introduce clarity, structure, and discipline into how IT performance is reviewed and improved. This creates not just a more responsive IT function, but a more strategically aligned and results-focused organization.