Accounting Automation Solutions By BlackLine Complement New Rise With SAP® Offering

Rhea-AI Summary

BlackLine (Nasdaq: BL) announced that its cloud-based solutions for financial close complement SAP's RISE with SAP offering. This collaboration aims to accelerate digital transformations for businesses transitioning to SAP S/4HANA® Cloud. With an average payback period of less than a year and an ROI of 2.77x, BlackLine's solutions promise enhanced automation and internal controls. SAP recognized BlackLine with the 2021 Pinnacle Award for Partner of the Year, underscoring its importance in financial process automation. This partnership aligns with a growing demand for efficient financial automation across multiple industries.

Positive

• BlackLine solutions reported an average ROI of 2.77x for every dollar invested.
• SAP awarded BlackLine the 2021 Pinnacle Award for Partner of the Year in Solution Extensions.

Negative

• None.

BlackLine offers cloud-based solutions for SAP® software that enable fast time-to-value for businesses moving to SAP S/4HANA® Cloud

LOS ANGELES, June 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BlackLine, Inc. (Nasdaq: BL) announced today that its market-leading cloud solutions for financial close complement the RISE with SAP offering, building on the company's success providing accounting automation solutions to hundreds of businesses using SAP® (NYSE: SAP) technology, including SAP S/4HANA® Cloud.  The BlackLine solutions, offered as SAP Solution Extensions, align with the value proposition of RISE with SAP to help customers accelerate their digital transformations to become intelligent enterprises.

BlackLine's cloud-based solutions are offered by SAP as the SAP Account Substantiation and Automation application by BlackLine; the premier edition of SAP Account Substantiation and Automation by BlackLine; and the SAP Intercompany Financial Hub application by BlackLine, and they complement functionality in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.  With payback periods averaging less than one year and ROI of 2.77x for every dollar invested (according to a recent Nucleus Research study), BlackLine can help businesses using SAP solutions to automate key financial processes, enhance internal controls and free up resources to support digital transformation – enabling quicker time-to-value and reduced risk for SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementations.

BlackLine helps businesses streamline the financial close and other critical accounting processes by providing automated balance-sheet substantiation and intercompany governance functionality within a controlled, end-to-end solution.

"SAP offers solution extensions from BlackLine that complement RISE with SAP and help bring added value to customers," said Martin Naraschewski, senior vice president, global head of line of business finance for SAP.  "We look forward to our continued partnership with BlackLine to help enable customers on their journey towards digital transformation."

"Any digital transformation journey starts with process transformation," said Mel Zeledon, BlackLine's senior vice president of channels and alliances.  "With BlackLine solutions in their cloud portfolio as they move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, businesses can achieve financial close process transformation – aligning with the value proposition of RISE with SAP and enabling the office of the CFO to lead and drive transformation."

Many of the world's leading companies have leveraged BlackLine as an enabler on their journeys to implementing SAP S/4HANA, and this will likely continue as many more move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud.  Here's what some are saying:

• "It only took us two years to implement SAP S/4HANA across 170 entities. That's pretty rapid. BlackLine definitely made the project better and more manageable and efficient, helping us improve our controls, not just for reconciliations but for the whole close management process. And it served as a source of confidence and continuity during a period of change."
  – Doug Tramp, director of finance systems and operational change at Zurich North America
• "As part of the global transition to SAP S/4HANA, Hershey needed a trusted SAP partner that could help automate an efficient mass global close. We were looking for process efficiency around balance sheet control, preparation and reconciliation. Hershey decided to implement five BlackLine products in a staged approach. We also worked with BlackLine to establish connectors between SAP and BlackLine. All interconnect seamlessly with each other and SAP S/4HANA."
  – John Zimmerman, director of financial data systems at The Hershey Company
• "BlackLine was a key part of preparing for our transition to SAP S/4HANA. We needed to improve the efficiency, accountability and control of the balance-sheet account substantiating process and reporting across the Liberty Group finance function. We also wanted to ensure transparency, better governance and control across the entire record-to-report process. We met our six-week BlackLine implementation deadline. With BlackLine's solutions, we are assured that all reconciled accounts are automatically coming into BlackLine, and we can assign them in real time. Using BlackLine alongside SAP, we've taken a significant step toward automation and modernization."
  – Lisa Bird, lead specialist for internal financial control at pan-African financial services company Liberty Group

Though hundreds of companies currently run BlackLine solutions alongside SAP technology, the solutions are ERP agnostic and integrate with more than 30 different leading source systems – an added benefit for businesses using SAP solutions with multiple ERP systems.

SAP recently honored BlackLine with the 2021 SAP Pinnacle Award for Partner of the Year in the Solution Extensions category, recognizing BlackLine for its "world-class solution extensions."  As a long-standing SAP platinum partner, BlackLine was one of only 21 partners that received an SAP Pinnacle Award from among more than 20,000 SAP partners worldwide.

Learn more online.

About BlackLine
Companies come to BlackLine (Nasdaq: BL) because their traditional manual accounting processes are not sustainable. BlackLine's cloud-based solutions and market-leading customer service help companies move to modern accounting by unifying their data and processes, automating repetitive work, and driving accountability through visibility. BlackLine provides solutions to manage and automate financial close, accounts receivable and intercompany accounting processes, helping large enterprises and midsize companies across all industries do accounting work better, faster and with more control.

Nearly 3,500 customers trust BlackLine to help them close faster with complete and accurate results. The company is the pioneer of the cloud financial close market and recognized as the leader by customers at leading end-user review sites including Gartner Peer Insights, G2 and TrustRadius. Based in Los Angeles, BlackLine also has regional headquarters in London, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, please visit blackline.com.

BlackLine Forward-Looking Statements 
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "plan," anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "intend," "potential," "would," "continue," "ongoing" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding our growth plans and opportunities. 

Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon BlackLine's current plans, estimates, and expectations and are not a representation that such plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith beliefs and assumptions as of that time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize or if any assumptions prove incorrect, actual performance or results may differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the Company's ability to execute on its strategies, attract new customers, enter new geographies, and develop, release, and sell new features and solutions; and other risks and uncertainties described in the other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the risks described under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K. Additional information will also be set forth in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. 

Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Except as required by law, we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. 

SAP Forward-Looking Statement
Any statements in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties described in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 20-F, that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. SAP cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which SAP has no obligation to update and which speak only as of their dates.

SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see www.sap.com/trademark for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

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SOURCE BlackLine

FAQ

What financial benefits does BlackLine offer to businesses using SAP S/4HANA Cloud?

Businesses can achieve an average payback period of less than one year and a reported ROI of 2.77x for every dollar invested with BlackLine's solutions.

What recognition did BlackLine receive from SAP?

BlackLine was awarded the 2021 SAP Pinnacle Award for Partner of the Year in the Solution Extensions category.

How do BlackLine's solutions complement SAP's RISE initiative?

BlackLine's solutions help streamline financial processes, enhancing automation and internal controls, thus supporting businesses transitioning to SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

What is the significance of the partnership between BlackLine and SAP?

The partnership enhances digital transformation for businesses by providing cloud-based solutions that automate key financial processes.