ROBOTIZING YOUR

FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS:

INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS

Published by: Sponsored by:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SSON and BlackLine conducted a survey of global finance and accounting leaders
to gain a better understanding of robotics automation and the dramatic impact it can
have on technology, process, and people. The survey results provide an understanding
of the strategies and approaches to automation adoption in the financial close process.
Participating professionals shared their input on where the biggest barriers and best
opportunities are to apply technology to enhance the accounting close cycle.

WHY AUTOMATE? APPROACH TO AUTOMATION

When it comes to the financial close process, the Robot
Uprising is in full-swing with over 51% of respondents
currently implementing a pilot of robotics or automation
and less than 20% not currently evaluating automation
solutions for their financial close.
When evaluating the risk vs. value of automation investment,
51% of the respondents elected to utilise a Proof of Concept
or Pilot program to validate their business case.

MEASURES AND BENEFITS TALENT

Over 70% of respondents are looking at robotics and
automation to free up employees to focus on higher
value work. To accomplish this, over 70% are focusing
on mundane, routine, and/or time intensive tasks when
looking at where to apply robotics and automation.
Specifically, the biggest challenge facing SSOs was
identified as manual data consolidation resulting from
non-integrated systems, with over 67% of respondents
identifying this as a top challenge for their organization.
And over 69% of respondents identified this as the main
driving force for considering robotics and automation.
This is having a big effect on operations, with over
80% of respondents expecting robotics to improve the
quality of processes. For an idea on what an improved
process involving robotics would look like, see
The Robotic Accounting Department.
It is also changing the skill profile that companies are
looking for in new talent, with critical thinking and problem
solving skills being the top skill, cited by over 95% of
respondents as among the top 3 most important, followed
by data analysis cited by nearly 63% as among the most
important. For more information on the skills required in the
age of robotics, see 6 Skills to Survive the Robot Uprising.
In their responses, finance and accounting leaders
stated that the foundation of automation strategy and tool
selection would lie on sound security controls and audit
traceability, along with solid integration with existing core
platforms that include ERP.

ROBOTIZING YOUR FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS: INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS 2

 WHY AUTOMATE:
Manual data consolidation resulting from non-integrated, disparate systems
plague finance and accounting teams and remain a challenge to optimizing
the financial close process. CFO’s and senior leaders increasingly seek greater
visibility and timelier reporting of financial results throughout the close process.
The complexity and lack of automation in the processes required to access
the data needed to consolidate enterprise financials often inhibit
transparency in a real-time manner.

TOP 3 BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOUR SHARED SERVICES

ORGANIZATION IS FACING IN ITS FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS

36%
Global visibility into the status of the close process across the enterprise

44%
Global visibility into the data required for the close at an enterprise finance level

39%
Collating the neccesary data to complete the close

36%
Quality of work or inputs to the close delivered by our outsource service partner

67%
Manual data consolidation resulting from non-integrated, disparate systems

29%
Timely roll up or legal entities

ROBOTIZING YOUR FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS: INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS 3

 MEASURES
AND BENEFITS:
Improvement in quality was the stand out response as a driving factor
for enterprise organisations to advance their adoption of automation.
Facilitating scalability and freeing up time to enable employees to focus
on finance transformation are key benefits of automation. The resulting
metric, hours returned to the business, is a measure many finance and
accounting digitization teams have begun to report on.

WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE THE GREATEST BENEFITS

OF ROBOTICS IN FINANCE & ACCOUNTING TO BE?
(Represents Top 3)

Enchanced employee satisfaction

Focus on finance transformation

projects (i.e. off spreadsheets
Reduce compliance risk and into forecasting)
21%
56%
37%
Reduce reliance on BPO
or offshoring of work
13%

59% 80%
Improve scalability Improve quality of processes

ROBOTIZING YOUR FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS: INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS 4

 APPROACH
TO AUTOMATION:
Organisations weigh risk vs. value when identifying and prioritizing which
processes or tasks to automate. Demonstrating a return on investment early in
an automation journey is essential. However, choosing a process that has a high
degree of exceptions or variations may result in project malfunction or delay.
The survey results reflect leaders who are evaluating automation priorities,
starting with routine tasks and low-hanging fruit to showcase quick wins.
When evaluating the risk vs. value of automation investment, 51% of the
respondents elected to utilise a Proof of Concept or Pilot program to validate
their business case. Collaboration with industry peers through conferences and
networks is a key method used to evaluate robotics software and opportunities
to automate the financial close process.

WHAT APPROACH ARE YOU USING (OR DO YOU PLAN TO USE) TO

IDENTIFY AND PRIORITIZE PROCESSES BEST SUITED TO ROBOTIZE?

Concentrating Focusing on Low hanging Honing in on Using pilot No current plan

on low-risk mundane, fruit / quick processes with or proof of for automation
activities for our routine, and/or wins highest degree of concept to prioritization
initial automation time intensive standardization gain buy in
project tasks and least amount
of variation or
exceptions

ROBOTIZING YOUR FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS: INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS 5

 TALENT:
Robotics has begun to remove the manual, rote tasks from financial
processes, resulting in an evolution of the skills needed to manage
the increased focus on knowledge based work. More than 95% of the
respondents identified critical thinking and problem solving as the
number one sought after skill in this era of digital assisted labor.

Critical thinking and problem solving

95%

Data Analysis

63%

Business Acumen

37% Effective
Communication

24%
Relationship
Building

14% Influencer

13%
Creativity

9%
ROBOTIZING YOUR FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS: INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS 6
CHOOSING A TOOL
Selecting a tool with sound security controls and audit traceability ranked
highest on aspects to consider when evaluating robotics automation solutions.
Ease of implementation and the Total Cost of Ownership to support a compelling
business case were also scored as essential factors for tool selection criteria.

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS YOU CONSIDER

WHEN CHOOSING A ROBOTICS AUTOMATION SOLUTION?
(Represents Top 3)

21%
Low dependency on IT

24%
Low upfront investment

37%
Total cost of ownership that support a compelling business case

42%
Easy implementation / adoption

32%
Quick ROI

50%
Sound security controls and audit traceability

47%
Integration with existing core platforms (i.e. ERP)

5%
Solution provided by a partner we have an established supplier relationship with

ROBOTIZING YOUR FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS: INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS 7

SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS:
Leaders who manage, influence or serve as a stakeholder in enterprise organizations’
record to report (R2R) processes, including the financial close, were invited to participate
in the survey. Respondents included the following industry and regional makeup.

RESPONDENTS’ INDUSTRY MAKEUP

19%

19%
12%

12%
Construction and Contracting

Advertising/Creative Services

8%

Transportation/Utilities

Wholesale/Distribution

Media/Entertainment
High Tech/Software
Retail/e-Commerce

Finance/Insurance
Business Services

Non-Profit (NGO)

Communication
5%

5%
Manufacturing
Government

4%
Healthcare

3%
Education
3%

3%

3%
Energy
1%

1%

1%

1%
PLEASE INDICATE THE REGION(S) IN YOUR REMIT

Central and Latin America

Asia Pacific

Middle East and Africa

North America
Australia and New Zealand

Europe

ROBOTIZING YOUR FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS: INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS 8

ABOUT SHARED SERVICES
& OUTSOURCING NETWORK (SSON):
The Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON) is the largest and most established community of
shared services and outsourcing professionals in the world, with over 125,000 members. Established in
1999, SSON recognized the revolution in support services as it was happening, and realized that a forum
was needed through which practitioners could connect with each other on a regional and global basis.
SSON is a one-stop shop for shared services professionals, offering industry-leading events, training,
reports, surveys, interviews, white papers, videos, editorial, infographics, and more.

ABOUT BLACKLINE:
BlackLine is a provider of cloud-based solutions that transform Finance and Accounting (F&A) by
automating, centralizing and streamlining financial close operations, intercompany accounting processes
and other key F&A processes for large and midsize organizations. Designed to complement virtually all
ERP and other financial systems including SAP, Oracle and NetSuite, BlackLine increases operational
efficiency, real-time visibility, control and compliance to ensure end-to-end financial close management
and accounting automation from within a single, unified cloud platform.
Enabling customers to move beyond outdated processes and point solutions to a Continuous Accounting
model, in which real-time automation, controls and period-end tasks are embedded within day-to-day
activities. BlackLine helps companies modernize accounting operations with intelligent automation,
ensuring more accurate and insightful financial statements and a more efficient financial close. More than
2,000 companies with users in over 130 countries around the world trust BlackLine to help ensure balance
sheet integrity and confidence in their financial statements.
BlackLine is recognized by Gartner as a Leader in its 2017 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Corporate
Performance Management (FCPM) and as a pioneer in the cloud market for enhanced financial control
and automation of FCPM.
Based in Los Angeles, BlackLine also has regional headquarters in London, Singapore and Sydney.
For more information, please visit www.blackline.com.

ROBOTIZING YOUR FINANCIAL CLOSE PROCESS: INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS 9