Digital finance transformation leader BlackLine has expanded its capabilities with new Microsoft Teams integrations to empower global businesses to be more efficient and productive.
BlackLine’s newly added Teams collaboration and messaging services will now offer real-time notifications for time-sensitive actions.
The company also added new capabilities to its Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Connector, further aiding customers to streamline and optimize critical finance and accounting processes.
Mike Polaha, SVP of Finance Solutions and Technology at BlackLine, commented:
As the pioneer and market leader of financial close software, BlackLine has transformed the finance and accounting processes of the world’s largest companies. We are applying that same transformative power by providing capabilities that are quick-to-deploy, easy-to-use, and offer unparalleled business value, especially to the many businesses that rely on Microsoft for their financial operations.”
As an ongoing Microsoft partner, BlackLine provides joint customers with smooth compatibility with multiple Microsoft ERPs, including D365 and Great Plains. The new enhancements to BlackLine’s pre-configured Microsoft D365 Finance & Operations Connector for Financial Close & Consolidation Solutions will allow customers more streamlined and faster access to data and automate more of their workflows.
“Since BlackLine, we have seen 100% on-time completion rates for all month-end reconciliations,” added Santo Ahmed, Group Financial Controller at Resimac, the non-bank lender using BlackLine and Microsoft D365 for four years. “With BlackLine Task Management, managers and employees know what needs to be done and on what timeline. That increased visibility drives accountability.”
Integrated Microsoft Teams functionality is available now for early adoption, while BlackLine’s Microsoft D365 Connector is generally available now.
What BlackLine’s New Teams Integration Means
Several highlights of BlackLine’s Teams integration include real-time administrative, system, and business workflow-related alerts within Teams chat.
The solution also includes actionable and real-time notifications that inform users to make better, more relevant and timely decisions that improve productivity, reduce errors, and quicken the financial close. The offering involves optimization for greater efficiency and oversight of a user’s task execution.
Some of the highlights of BlackLine’s new Microsoft D365 Connector functionality include organizations being able to automate more of the data flow from their D365 ERP, the function to extract more data types like currency rates and multicurrency balances, and improved data pulled performance and efficiency.
October’s Teams News So Far
The new Microsoft Teams app is now generally available for Windows and Mac, offering users the best client performance yet.
It now has full feature parity for almost all features, including call queues, PSTN calling, and contextual search in chats and channels. General availability also introduced new features and enhancements, such as seamless cross-tenant communication and collaboration across multiple tenants and accounts.
In March, Microsoft launched the new Teams app in public preview, and it was notable for being twice as fast, with 50 percent less memory usage on Windows than the Teams classic client.
There have also been several notable Teams integrations and certifications.
CX solution provider AMC Technology launched an innovative communications product with Microsoft Teams integration, DaVinci for Microsoft Teams.
This offering boosted AMC’s extensive portfolio of pre-built applications and was designed to integrate and personalize experiences for agents and customers seamlessly. DaVinci for Teams integrates CRM interactions from CCaaS, telephony systems, and internal comms through the Teams platform.
DaVinci for Teams also extends vital customer data access to multiple business units, such as marketing, finance, customer experience, and overall organizational decision-making.
This week, Crestron’s multi-camera switching offering, Automate VX, was awarded with a “first-of-its-kind” certification as a Microsoft Teams Room Device for large and extra-large rooms.
Automate VX offers excellent meeting experiences with production-style cuts that Crestron described as “unparalleled” in the market, elevating Teams meetings to the next level. The announcement signalled the latest collaboration in Crestron and Microsoft’s 15-year partnership, with both businesses working together to produce optimal, advanced meeting experiences.
