Choice "C" is correct. Benchmarking would be used by a company in comparing its financial data to published information to determine if optimal results had been achieved. Benchmarking is the process often used to identify standards that define or quantify critical success factors.
Choice "b" is incorrect. Budgets are comparisons to internally developed standards not published standards.
Choice "d" is incorrect. Forecasts are internal predictions and not published standards.
Choice "a" is incorrect. Use of best practices represents the implementation of procedures or modifications to operations, not the pure comparison of data to externally-published benchmarks.