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Category: Blackline (BL)
Date: 12 February 2021 Stock price of Blackline (BL): $150.37 We take a more detailed look at Blackline (BL) a software firm with comprehensive cloud-based software platform designed to transform and modernize accounting and finance operations for organizations of all types and sizes.
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Our mission is to transform how accounting and finance departments operate. Our approach modernizes what historically has been done through batch processing and manual controls typically applied only during the month, quarter or year-end financial close, and delivers dynamic workflows embedded within a real-time, highly automated framework"
More About Blackline (BL)
We have created a comprehensive cloud-based software platform designed to transform and modernize accounting and finance operations for organizations of all types and sizes. Our secure, scalable platform supports critical accounting processes such as the financial close, account reconciliations, intercompany accounting, and controls assurance. By introducing software to automate these processes and to enable them to function continuously, we empower our customers to improve the integrity of their financial reporting, increase efficiency in their accounting and finance processes and enhance real-time visibility into their results and operations. Critical accounting and finance processes underlie the integrity of an organization’s financial reports. The lack of effective accounting and finance tools can result in inefficient and cumbersome processes and, in some cases, accounting errors, restatements and write-offs, as well as material weaknesses and significant deficiencies. Traditional enterprise resource planning, or ERP, systems do not generally provide effective solutions for processes handled outside of an organization’s general ledger, such as balance sheet account reconciliation, intercompany transaction accounting and the broader financial close process. Many organizations also use multiple ERPs and other financial systems without a platform to efficiently integrate them. As a result, to manage these tasks, organizations rely on spreadsheets and other error-prone and labor-intensive processes that are unsuited for the increasing regulatory complexity and transaction volumes encountered by many modern businesses.
We believe that we are creating a new category of powerful cloudbased software that is capable of automating and streamlining accounting and finance operations, in a manner that complements and supports traditional ERP systems. We believe our customers benefit from cost savings through improvements in process management and staff productivity, in addition to managing a faster financial close. Our mission is to transform how accounting and finance departments operate. Our approach modernizes what historically has been done through batch processing and manual controls typically applied only during the month, quarter or year-end financial close, and delivers dynamic workflows embedded within a real-time, highly automated framework, a process we refer to as “continuous accounting.” It also enables up-to-date analytics, provides industry-benchmarked metrics and is designed to help customers run more efficiently while achieving greater accuracy, control and transparency. We believe the need for our software has been driven by growing business and information technology complexities, transaction volumes and expanding regulatory requirements. Our software integrates with, and obtains data from, more than 30 different ERP systems, including NetSuite, Oracle, SAP, and Workday, as well as many other financial systems and applications such as bank accounts, sub-ledgers and in-house databases.
We are a holding company and conduct our operations through our wholly-owned subsidiary, BlackLine Systems, Inc. (“BlackLine Systems”). BlackLine Systems funded its business with investments from our founder and cash flows from operations until September 3, 2013. On September 3, 2013, we acquired BlackLine Systems, and Silver Lake Sumeru and Iconiq acquired a controlling interest in us, which we refer to as the “2013 Acquisition.” The 2013 Acquisition was accounted for as a business combination under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) and resulted in a change in accounting basis as of the date of the 2013 Acquisition. On August 31, 2016 we acquired Runbook Company B.V. (“Runbook”), which is referred to as the “Runbook Acquisition.” Our platform consists of eight core cloud-based products, including Transaction Matching, Account Reconciliations, Consolidation Integrity Manager, Daily Reconciliations, Journal Entry, Variance Analysis, Task Management, and Compliance. Customers typically purchase these products in packages that we refer to as solutions, but they have the option to purchase these products individually. Current solutions include Balance Sheet Integrity, Close Process Management, Accounting Process Automation, Finance Transformation, Intercompany Hub and Smart Close.
We believe that we are creating a new category of powerful cloudbased software that is capable of automating and streamlining accounting and finance operations, in a manner that complements and supports traditional ERP systems. We believe our customers benefit from cost savings through improvements in process management and staff productivity, in addition to managing a faster financial close. Our mission is to transform how accounting and finance departments operate. Our approach modernizes what historically has been done through batch processing and manual controls typically applied only during the month, quarter or year-end financial close, and delivers dynamic workflows embedded within a real-time, highly automated framework, a process we refer to as “continuous accounting.” It also enables up-to-date analytics, provides industry-benchmarked metrics and is designed to help customers run more efficiently while achieving greater accuracy, control and transparency. We believe the need for our software has been driven by growing business and information technology complexities, transaction volumes and expanding regulatory requirements. Our software integrates with, and obtains data from, more than 30 different ERP systems, including NetSuite, Oracle, SAP, and Workday, as well as many other financial systems and applications such as bank accounts, sub-ledgers and in-house databases.
We are a holding company and conduct our operations through our wholly-owned subsidiary, BlackLine Systems, Inc. (“BlackLine Systems”). BlackLine Systems funded its business with investments from our founder and cash flows from operations until September 3, 2013. On September 3, 2013, we acquired BlackLine Systems, and Silver Lake Sumeru and Iconiq acquired a controlling interest in us, which we refer to as the “2013 Acquisition.” The 2013 Acquisition was accounted for as a business combination under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) and resulted in a change in accounting basis as of the date of the 2013 Acquisition. On August 31, 2016 we acquired Runbook Company B.V. (“Runbook”), which is referred to as the “Runbook Acquisition.” Our platform consists of eight core cloud-based products, including Transaction Matching, Account Reconciliations, Consolidation Integrity Manager, Daily Reconciliations, Journal Entry, Variance Analysis, Task Management, and Compliance. Customers typically purchase these products in packages that we refer to as solutions, but they have the option to purchase these products individually. Current solutions include Balance Sheet Integrity, Close Process Management, Accounting Process Automation, Finance Transformation, Intercompany Hub and Smart Close.
Platform Of Blackline
We provide a powerful cloud-based software platform designed to automate and streamline accounting and finance operations. The key elements of our solutions include:
Comprehensive Platform
We offer an integrated suite of applications that delivers a broad range of capabilities that would otherwise require the purchase and use of multiple products to support critical accounting processes such as the financial close, account reconciliations, intercompany accounting, and controls assurance. The technology underpinning our platform includes a comprehensive base of accounting-specific business logic and rules engines, which enable our customers to implement continuous accounting.
Enterprise Integration
Our platform provides simple, secure and automated tools and integrations to transfer data to and from a range of enterprise-wide processes and systems, including ERPs, financial systems and in-house databases, and other custom applications and data. Our platform integrates with over 30 ERP systems, including NetSuite, Oracle, SAP, and Workday. In addition, for companies with multiple systems and complex needs, we can connect with any number of general ledger systems simultaneously, resolving many of the issues associated with consolidating data across systems.
Independence
Our platform is not dependent on any single operating system and works with most major ERP systems our customers may use. Our cross-system functionality allows us to reach a broader group of customers. We are also able to focus on and innovate for the needs of our customers irrespective of updates or changes in their existing systems. We believe this independence provides us with a competitive advantage in the industry over traditional methods.
Ease of Use
Our platform is designed by accountants, for accountants, to be intuitive and easy to use. We strive to enable any user to rapidly implement our platform to manage their accounting and finance activities, from the simplest to the most sophisticated tasks. Our user-friendly interface provides clear visualization of accounting and finance data, enables user collaboration and streamlines business processes.
Innovation
Our ability to develop innovative products has been a key driver of our success and organic growth. Through a history and culture of thought leadership, we have created a new category of powerful software that automates and streamlines antiquated, manual accounting processes to better meet our clients’ diverse and rapidly changing needs, and we continue to focus on providing advanced solutions to time and labor intensive accounting practices.
Security
Our platform and services incorporate industry best practices and meet internationally recognized standards with respect to information security management. We have implemented and maintain our certified Information Security Management System in accordance with the ISO/IEC 27001 standard requirements. We meet a breadth of requirements for our security control environment, including information security policies, organization of information security, human resource security, access control, cryptography, physical and environmental security, operations security, communications security, information security incident management, and information security aspects of business continuity management. In our continued commitment to customer trust, transparency, and security in service, we provide customers independently validated testing and evaluation of our control environment through issued reports and certifications.
Comprehensive Platform
We offer an integrated suite of applications that delivers a broad range of capabilities that would otherwise require the purchase and use of multiple products to support critical accounting processes such as the financial close, account reconciliations, intercompany accounting, and controls assurance. The technology underpinning our platform includes a comprehensive base of accounting-specific business logic and rules engines, which enable our customers to implement continuous accounting.
Enterprise Integration
Our platform provides simple, secure and automated tools and integrations to transfer data to and from a range of enterprise-wide processes and systems, including ERPs, financial systems and in-house databases, and other custom applications and data. Our platform integrates with over 30 ERP systems, including NetSuite, Oracle, SAP, and Workday. In addition, for companies with multiple systems and complex needs, we can connect with any number of general ledger systems simultaneously, resolving many of the issues associated with consolidating data across systems.
Independence
Our platform is not dependent on any single operating system and works with most major ERP systems our customers may use. Our cross-system functionality allows us to reach a broader group of customers. We are also able to focus on and innovate for the needs of our customers irrespective of updates or changes in their existing systems. We believe this independence provides us with a competitive advantage in the industry over traditional methods.
Ease of Use
Our platform is designed by accountants, for accountants, to be intuitive and easy to use. We strive to enable any user to rapidly implement our platform to manage their accounting and finance activities, from the simplest to the most sophisticated tasks. Our user-friendly interface provides clear visualization of accounting and finance data, enables user collaboration and streamlines business processes.
Innovation
Our ability to develop innovative products has been a key driver of our success and organic growth. Through a history and culture of thought leadership, we have created a new category of powerful software that automates and streamlines antiquated, manual accounting processes to better meet our clients’ diverse and rapidly changing needs, and we continue to focus on providing advanced solutions to time and labor intensive accounting practices.
Security
Our platform and services incorporate industry best practices and meet internationally recognized standards with respect to information security management. We have implemented and maintain our certified Information Security Management System in accordance with the ISO/IEC 27001 standard requirements. We meet a breadth of requirements for our security control environment, including information security policies, organization of information security, human resource security, access control, cryptography, physical and environmental security, operations security, communications security, information security incident management, and information security aspects of business continuity management. In our continued commitment to customer trust, transparency, and security in service, we provide customers independently validated testing and evaluation of our control environment through issued reports and certifications.
Customers Of Blackline
Our customers include multinational corporations, large domestic enterprises and mid-market companies across a broad array of industries. These businesses include publicly-listed entities and privately-owned enterprises, as well as non-profit entities. At December 31, 2019, we had over 267,000 individual users across more than 3,000 customers exclusive of on-premise software. We define a customer as an entity with an active subscription agreement as of the measurement date. In situations where an organization has multiple subsidiaries or divisions, each entity that is invoiced as a separate entity is treated as a separate customer. However, where an existing customer requests its invoice be divided for the sole purpose of restructuring its internal billing arrangement without any incremental increase in revenue, such customer continues to be treated as a single customer.
Products And Services Of Blackline
Our platform consists of eight core cloud-based products, including Transaction Matching, Account Reconciliations, Consolidation Integrity Manager, Daily Reconciliations, Journal Entry, Variance Analysis, Task Management, and Compliance. Customers typically purchase these products in packages that we refer to as solutions, but they have the option to purchase these products individually. Current solutions include Balance Sheet Integrity, Close Process Management, Accounting Process Automation, Finance Transformation, Intercompany Hub, and Smart Close
Competition Of Blackline
The market for accounting and financial software and services is competitive, rapidly evolving and requires deep understanding of the industry standards, accounting rules and global financial regulations. We compete with vendors of financial automation software such as Trintech, and we also compete with components of Oracle’s Hyperion software. Further, other established software vendors not currently focused on accounting and finance software and services, including some of our partners, resellers, and other parties with which we have relationships, may expand their services to compete with us. We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include the following:
• level of customer satisfaction;
• ease of deployment and use of applications;
• ability to integrate with multiple legacy enterprise infrastructures and third-party applications;
• domain expertise on accounting best practices;
• ability to innovate and respond to customer needs rapidly;
• capability for configurability, integration and scalability of applications;
• cloud-based delivery model;
• advanced security and reliability features;
• brand recognition and historical operating performance; and • price and total cost of ownership.
We believe we are positioned favorably against our competitors based on these factors. However, certain of our competitors may have greater name recognition, longer operating histories, more established customer and marketing relationships, larger marketing budgets, and significantly greater resources.
• level of customer satisfaction;
• ease of deployment and use of applications;
• ability to integrate with multiple legacy enterprise infrastructures and third-party applications;
• domain expertise on accounting best practices;
• ability to innovate and respond to customer needs rapidly;
• capability for configurability, integration and scalability of applications;
• cloud-based delivery model;
• advanced security and reliability features;
• brand recognition and historical operating performance; and • price and total cost of ownership.
We believe we are positioned favorably against our competitors based on these factors. However, certain of our competitors may have greater name recognition, longer operating histories, more established customer and marketing relationships, larger marketing budgets, and significantly greater resources.
Intellectual Property Of Blackline
Our intellectual property and proprietary rights are important to our business. We currently have one patent, which was issued on October 1, 2019. We primarily rely on copyright, trade secret and trademark laws, trade secret protection, and confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, customers, partners, and others to protect our intellectual property rights. Though we rely in part upon these legal and contractual protections, we believe that factors such as the skills and ingenuity of our employees and the functionality and frequent enhancements to our solutions are larger contributors to our success in the marketplace. Despite our efforts to preserve and protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, unauthorized third parties may attempt to copy, reverse engineer or otherwise obtain portions of our software. Competitors may attempt to develop similar products that could compete in the same market as our products. Unauthorized disclosure of our confidential information by our employees or third parties could occur. Laws of other jurisdictions may not protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights from unauthorized use or disclosure in the same manner as the United States. The risk of unauthorized use of our proprietary and intellectual property rights may increase as our company continues to expand outside of the United States. Third-party infringement claims are also possible in our industry, especially as software functionality and features expand, evolve and overlap with other industry segments.
Employees Of Blackline
We believe our employees and culture are fundamental to our success. Therese Tucker, our founder and Chief Executive Officer, has led our company since its inception in 2001 and has built and maintained a culture committed to empowering our employees and communities around us. Our motto “Think. Create. Serve.” expresses our core values as a company dedicated to innovation and creativity, collaboration and action, and service to each other and our customers. At December 31, 2019, we employed 1,055 people globally. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and we consider our relations with our employees to be good
Blackline (BL) stock price chart over the last 5 years
The image below shows the stock price history of Blackline (BL) over the last 5 years. And its been a very good time for the stock of Blackline (BL). Over the last 5 years the stock of Blackline increased by a whopping 446.9%. Very good returns no investor would say no to.
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