LOS ANGELES – Dec. 2, 2020 – BlackLine, Inc. (Nasdaq: BL), the leading provider of accounting and finance automation solutions, has been recognized by The Stevie International Business Awards and the CEO World Awards for the company’s commitment to helping ensure business continuity and fostering wellbeing for both customers and employees in response to and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Stevie International Business Awards (IBAs) recognized BlackLine in two categories: ‘Most Valuable Corporate Response’ and ‘Most Valuable Technical Innovation’. Known as ‘The International Stevies’, the IBAs are open to all organizations worldwide – large and small, public and private, for-profit and non-profit. The 2020 competition attracted more than 3,800 nominations from organizations in 63 nations. The newly added COVID-19 response categories recognize “outstanding efforts by organizations and individuals to keep us busy, healthy, informed and safe during the pandemic.”
The CEO World Awards honored BlackLine in the category of ‘Company Work-From-Home Implementation of the Year’. CEO World Awards celebrate the achievements of “leading companies and their management teams behind the year’s most outstanding initiatives…setting industry benchmarks for excellence.” All organizations private or public, corporations, non-profits, associations, vendors and government organizations worldwide were eligible to enter.
“We’re honored to be recognized for our dedication to customer success and unwavering commitment to serving our employees, which are two founding principles at BlackLine,” said Marc Huffman, BlackLine’s president, chief operating officer and incoming CEO. “When the pandemic hit, we rallied to make sure both our customers and employees had everything they needed to make a smooth transition to working from home with as little disruption as possible, from both a business continuity and personal wellbeing standpoint. We continue to allocate extra resources to help them get through this storm and believe we will all come out even stronger on the other side.”
Here are some of the initiatives BlackLine put in place for its customers for which the company has received accolades:
Resource Hub for Closing Virtually to help Finance & Accounting professionals navigate new and unprecedented challenges in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, as organizations worldwide faced closing their books with a distributed workforce for the first time.
Open access to the entire BlackLine University library of educational online resources and self-led training – including CPE-eligible (Continuing Professional Education) courses.
BlackLine Task Management and Reporting free for six months for existing customers who hadn’t yet licensed these solutions.
Quick Deployment Remote Audit Package to help customers prepare for audits with confidence even in uncertain times.
Complimentary implementation for a limited time of BlackLine MAP (Modern Accounting Playbook) to help reduce the burden on midsize companies that may be resource-constrained during these challenging times.
And to help employees:
BlackLine Community Help Network - a resource where employees can sign up to volunteer to help fellow employees impacted by COVID-19, or to request assistance, including a special ‘Parent’s Corner’ which provides resources and opportunities to connect fellow employees navigating working from home with kids.
Employee Assistance Program – a confidential support service that helps employees and their dependents solve a wide range of problems and challenges in their lives, including access to professional counselors to help with stress, depression, anxiety and family challenges.
Online Training Courses – BlackLine is offering a wide range of online training classes to help employees learn how to effectively work from home, lead virtual meetings, and manage time and stress. BlackLine also offers classes on how to balance the demands of work with the challenges that go along with having children learning from home.
Workout Wednesdays and Thoughtful Thursdays – BlackLine has partnered with ClassPass and ZenSpot to host weekly, virtual sessions to care for employees’ physical and mental wellbeing.
Closing Time – BlackLine encourages employees to step away from work and engage either in a BlackLine-led group online activity (such as an employee-led cooking, meditation or Pilates class) or to get outside for a bit, or to just take time out together while physically distanced.
The Stevie International Business and CEO World Awards are both being announced this week via virtual online celebrations.
**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.
More than 3,200 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.