Are you hitting the right benchmarks? Find out when you use ACA’s free, members-only Benchmarking Intelligence platform. The next data submission period runs March 1-31—get started today!
02/23/2024 12:45 P.M.
3 minute read
ACA International company members have until March 31, 2024, to complete their Benchmarking Intelligence submission so they can receive the next free benchmark report. Start the year off with actionable data you can use to drive a higher profit margin in your business.
Each quarter, ACA company members who sign up for our Benchmarking Intelligence platform and enter their data by the deadline receive a benchmark report with anonymous, aggregated industry information, allowing them to see how their operations stack up against those of their peers.
Comparing your agency’s performance to that of your peers, anonymously and by business vertical (e.g., health care, utilities, credit cards, etc.), can help you identify potential gaps, highlight achievements and more.
“The data in this system is so important to identifying areas where you might be underperforming or overperforming, as well as how to capitalize on those things,” said Courtney Reynaud, president of Creditors Bureau Services USA and an ACA board member. “I know a lot of people look at their P&L, monthly collector reports, monthly sales reports and things like that to get a sense of how they are doing. But this platform goes so far beyond that. It is a culmination of all of that information and more that will help you drive business decisions as you go forward as well as correct any issues that you might find along the way if you spot outlier trends.”
Interested in accessing this valuable data? Attend our upcoming office hours events to learn more about getting started with the program:
- March 7: 1–2 p.m. EST
- March 19: 2–3 p.m. EST
Vendor Support
Compiling and entering the required data into the Benchmarking Intelligence platform can take a bit of time, especially at first.
“You’ll probably want to create custom reports for this process—a task you’ll only have to do once that will make things much easier in the following quarters,” said Nicole Succop, an account manager with Dynamic Benchmarking. “That will help to cut down on the amount of time spent searching for some/any of the data.”
Succop also encouraged ACA members to reach out to their collection platform provider, who might be able to help set up custom report parameters to match the data being requested in the Benchmarking Intelligence platform.
For example, Beam Software is helping its customers gather the data from their collection database to populate the Benchmarking Intelligence tool by running reports on their system for the various requirements.
“If you are a Beam client and wish to participate in the Benchmarking Intelligence project, please reach out to our Support Department to make those reports available in your Web Portal,” said Tom Noble, general manager at Beam Software.
Program Enhancements
We appreciate your feedback on our Benchmarking Intelligence program and are excited to announce some new enhancements!
- We’ve added Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) reporting. What does this mean? After you complete your data submission, in addition to seeing your trended quarterly results, you’ll also see TTM results and be able to compare them.
- Coming soon: We’re launching a new community for participants who want to talk about the program.
Get Started
If you signed up to participate but have questions about how to get going, this article contains a handy week-by-week checklist to help you get started. Read through it to get a sense of what is required.
If you haven’t signed up to participate yet, reach out to ACA’s Member Services team here and let them know that you want to participate in the Benchmarking Intelligence program. (You must be a Company Division member of ACA to participate.) You’ll need to sign and return an agreement before you are granted access to the secure platform.
Remember, subscribe to ACA Daily and Member Alerts under your My ACA profile when logged in to acainternational.org to receive updates on the ACA Huddle.