The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants has forged an alliance with Hackett Benchmarking & Research that gives chartered accountants access to Hackett’s Web-based best practices benchmarking tool.

“Through research, we found that our members look to CICA for services that help generate new ideas for adding value to business functions,” said Cairine Wilson, vice president, innovation, CICA. “Benchmarking — with its ability to provide objective organizational analysis — was identified as a specific area of interest among our members.”

The benchmarking program offered through the Hackett/CICA alliance allows CAs a quick way to pinpoint improvement opportunities by comparing their company’s performance in up to 60 discrete finance and related processes with average and world-class companies in Hackett’s comprehensive best practices database. The comparisons allow companies to set realistic targets for improvement.

“CICA members who take advantage of this alliance will be able to quickly identify a path toward organizational improvement backed by empirical data relevant to their particular situation,” said Richard T. Roth, managing director of Hackett Benchmarking & Research. “Using proven best practices data and reliable metrics as a guide, these executives no longer have to make critical decisions based on gut instincts or unsubstantiated information alone.”