EY and BlackLine form strategic alliance to offer finance process automation to organizations worldwide

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Feb 15, 2018, 04:10 ET

LONDON and LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ernst & Young LLP (EY) and BlackLine, Inc. (Nasdaq: BL) have today announced a new strategic alliance that will expand EY process automation capabilities and finance transformation services offered to clients to improve finance and accounting operations.

BlackLine, a leading provider of enterprise-class financial automation software solutions, is working with EY to help companies govern and automate their finance and risk processes. This alliance is an extension of an existing collaboration between EY and BlackLine to help companies across industries automate their formerly manual and spreadsheet-driven processes and help finance transformation through BlackLine implementations.

Bill Thomas, Ernst & Young LLP Principal, EY Americas Financial Services Organization and executive sponsor of the alliance with BlackLine, says:

"Finance process automation is a complex problem to solve and requires specialized tools to deliver a complete solution, especially with growing volumes of financial data that is increasing the strain on finance departments to manage and certify reported results. As customers embrace the digital future, they need solutions that deliver timely and accurate financial information without the costly maintenance of on-premises solutions. EY and BlackLine are uniquely positioned to help provide a foundation for continuous improvement that supports a company's strategy and responds to rising competitive and regulatory pressures."

Through the alliance, EY can help modernize enterprise business processes using BlackLine's Continuous Accounting capabilities. The offering leverages emerging robotic process automation tools, traditional enterprise resource planning systems and the capabilities of BlackLine's cloud platform to help clients:

Automate manual-intensive finance and accounting processes for increased efficiency and a more predictable workload for finance professionals.
Continuously improve the quality and accuracy of reported financial information, and increase visibility and control over critical finance and accounting data.
Govern and automate the management of intercompany transactions and respond to increased regulatory scrutiny in this area.

Greg Sarafin, EY Global Alliances Leader, says:

"Chief financial officers are at the center of driving performance improvement across the modern enterprise. The EY and BlackLine alliance can help CFOs and their organizations to lead by example through the improvement and automation of critical finance operations like accounting, financial close, inter-company processing, reconciliations and tax management. By improving and automating finance operations, we help CFOs reduce cost and risk and free up resources to spend more time on financial planning and analysis, providing higher levels of insight to business decision-makers."

Under the terms of the agreement, EY will provide its experience in data integration, finance and ERP technology and experience in audit, framework-as-a-service, tax, and finance advisory to develop an end-to-end solution and a sustainable foundation for continuous improvement. EY will also provide insights into product enhancements, alignment with EY digital transformation and intelligent automation initiatives and systems, integration, implementation and deployment support for BlackLine's cloud-based portfolio.

Therese Tucker, CEO, BlackLine, says:

"The BlackLine Strategic Alliances are an integral part of our go-to-market strategy. We continue to seek out and build relationships with leading organizations such as EY, whose software and services experience, deep technical skills and global reach complement our own. EY was one of the first consulting organizations we worked with, and we've collaborated on many joint projects over the years where EY's in-depth experience and hands-on advisory services have helped us meet the strict requirements of global customers. In addition, EY is a leader in financial fraud advisory services, an area that we believe will become an increasingly critical resource for customers going forward."

For more information, visit ey.com/blackline.