So we have been internally thinking about that a lot, and that’s really driving a lot of the work that we’re doing around case studies, around the academy, around different trainings, even the product road map itself is how do we deliver digital finance transformation in a way that’s going to keep people engaged and keep them on that journey. So I think we’re hoping for the macro to get better. That’s disappointing in and of itself. We certainly do appreciate the partnership with SAP. It always has great potential, especially as people move to S/4HANA. And then I think there’s work that we ourselves can do to better prove out the value proposition to our customers.
Brent Bracelin: Good color. Thanks for the update.
Therese Tucker : Thank you.
Operator: One moment for our next question. The next question comes from the line of Koji Ikeda of Bank of America. Koji, please go ahead.
Koji Ikeda: Yes. Hey, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. I got two. So the first one, big picture question on accounting studio. Congrats on the long-awaited release there. I know that’s quite a milestone. So the question is around is the platform such a meaningful change to what BlackLine has offered in the past that it could require your partners and the buyers out there to really digest all the new innovation that I assume is packed into this new accounting studio before they’re really ready to buy it?
Therese Tucker: We’ve been working with partners as part of the process of getting a really cool product out there, Koji? And so I don’t know that they’re going to need a ton of time for digestion. I think with the accounting studio, one of our plans for it is that our partners who are experts at process transformation will have the opportunity to embed their very specific intellectual property into a library of potential templates. Okay. Now in order to turn that on and actually utilize it, of course, they would have to work with the partner. And so it’s really — the idea of the accounting studio is to really give our partners a forum for bringing their expertise to a lot of customers very quickly. Now that may take some planning and some work on their part to actually detail out the steps and the various APIs necessary. But I think overall, we’ve been keeping them informed as we go.
Koji Ikeda: Got it. Got it. And maybe another question for you, Therese, or Owen or Mark, is really around how ready the end market is for generative AI? I found over the years that your end market and really kind of the accountants out there that I’ve spoken with can be very loyal to their software vendors, but also can be very resistant to change at the same time. And it does sound like some of the demand can be pinned to how ready to end market is ready to adopt generative AI. So just curious on your thoughts on the overall acceptance of generative AI out there? Thank you.
Therese Tucker: Boy, I am so familiar with our market and our buyers, and they don’t love change, that is 100% true. It’s why we’re taking the approach that we are with the embedding of different features that are just incredibly useful, and by the way, they all have flags that allow you to turn them off. We’re going to use that as a way of building trust in generative AI with our customer base. So in other words, we’re taking them on that journey. We’re a little here, a little there, a little more build the trust, make them familiar and then over time, we can increase their productivity by embedding it more and more and more. So I would say that you’re correct. People do change slowly. But if you take them on a journey with you and show them the benefits as they go, there’ll be much more apt to adopt overall.
Owen Ryan: Yes. I think Therese, just adding to that. If you think about when we rolled out an executive sponsor program at the end of last year, and so talk about our top 400 customers. So a number of ours as executives are out meeting with the CFOs and the corporate controllers of our largest customers. And I think there’s a couple of things that come out of it. One is they’re under pressure to use AI in some way shape or form trying to figure it out they’ve got some budgets set aside for it, but not sure exactly where and how to use it. And I think it’s the conversations that we’re engaging with them and would sort of help us pinpoint the places where they’ll be most comfortable, most comfortable where their auditors will be as well because they have to sign off.
And so that’s what we’re trying to drive. And I think as we look at it and there was a question to Mark, a couple of moments ago, one of the encouraging things that we’ve seen — at least I’ve seen in the first couple of months of the year, particularly in March and April now, I think about it is going out and talking with customers about their roadmap. And they’ve got a BlackLine roadmap that goes out 24 to 30 months of the different products that they’re sort of thinking about when they would bring them in to start working with them. And I think we’ve shared in the past that the way buyers behave today is different. These big bang projects that tended to have a much higher likelihood of failure are not the way customers are doing it any longer.
They’re chunking it all piece by piece. Making sure it works can demonstrate value to others in the organization and then they go on to the next piece. And so, the good news for us is the horizon looks very nice because of these opportunities and where we sit on their roadmaps. The challenge always is you wish it all would happen sooner but that’s just not the way the world is going to operate for the foreseeable future from our vantage point.
Koji Ikeda: Thank you very much.
Operator: One moment for our next question. The next question comes from the line of George Kurosawa from Citi. George, please go ahead.
George Kurosawa: Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. I’m on for Steve Enders. Owen, I wanted to ask about kind of the changes to the go-to-market organization. It sounds like those are playing out well so far. Maybe if you could talk about what seems to be working and what changes are left to be made?
Owen Ryan: Yes. It’s fine. I had a meeting with like top — some of our top producers this morning about what else we need to be doing in the marketplace, and it was a really great session on ideation of things that we could do together, how we continue to tell our story in the marketplace. The short version of this is we feel very good about the changes into the marketing leadership team. You might have all seen yesterday we announced a new Chief Customer Officer. I mean we knew he was going to be great. I’ve been following all the products he’s been getting on LinkedIn. He’s clearly, an executive Jimmy Duan that is going to bring a lot of value to our customers. We’re making much more progress in helping them ensure that our customers get both well implemented as well as adopted.
And that handoff is going more smooth — smoothly than some — maybe sometimes in the past that had occurred. I think we’re getting better around our collateral and differentiating. The things that matter to buyers are not just the product but it’s everything else that also goes along with it. It’s that customer experience. It’s their confidence with security. It’s — when you think about it BlackLine, I think it’s five of the top seven accounting firms in the world. Not only do they sell BlackLine service as a provider, they use it in their own firms. That’s a pretty damn compelling story when you sort of want to think about things like that. And so, we’re trying to make sure that when we’re going out there, we’re continuing to tell the story not just about the great product we have and all the innovation we have, but also the other things that may make a difference.
And I think the one thing that’s still — it’s still early but there’s a huge opportunity for us is to accelerate that story of what we can do for customers around industry. And the use case is in connecting those people to each other of those customers to each other as well as prospects, because that is proving to be a significant differentiator for us so far. A lot to do. We’ve still [indiscernible].
George Kurosawa: No. Go ahead please.
Owen Ryan: I can say we’re going to continue to try to make our easier to do business with. And we’re going to just keep driving real hard.
George Kurosawa: That’s great color. And one quick follow-up if I may. The new user metric came in a little below what we had penciled in. Maybe if you could just double click on kind of the trends you’re seeing underneath the hood. And with kind of the shift to the pricing strategy to what extent are you guys even managing the business to seat counts? Thank you.
Mark Partin: Yes. Seat count is a proxy for one aspect of growth of our business and it did not do well in Q1. We do expect that to pick back up in the coming years. But recall that a lot of our pricing, particularly in the strategic products and some of the big ticket items are not seat priced. So you’re right about your Q1 number. And it still again is a great opportunity for us to expand in the financial close and the core platform which we intend to do moving forward.
George Kurosawa: Great. Thanks for taking the questions.
Mark Partin: Okay.
Operator: One moment for our next question. The next question comes from the line of Pat Walravens of Citizens JMP. Pat, please go ahead.
Pat Walravens: Okay. Great. Thank you. So let me apologize if what I ask is a tough question but I think it’s important to ask. So I mean on April 11, OneStream put out a press release saying that they’re at $450 million in ARR and they grew 34% in Q1. And they also say they target the office of the CFO. So what’s – why is there this divergence in the results? Is it the part of the office of the CFO you’re targeting? Or is it something else? What would you say?
Owen Ryan: Yes. Pat I think you just nailed it. It’s where – in the office of the CFO. The opportunities are. And so there’s been a lot of spend as you might see and it’s not just with OneStream but also some of the other players in the CPM space have had pretty good first quarters. You look at where the priorities seem to be based upon the office of the CFO and CPMs is right now number one. Doesn’t mean that finance transformation where we are in the financial close and intercompany and consolidation and invoice to cash doesn’t matter. It’s just that particular space right now is a bit hotter and that’s where a little bit more of the spend is going. And we see it and we know it but that’s really what it is. It’s where in the office of the CFO priorities are.
Pat Walravens: Okay. Great. Is there any plan on your part to get more exposure there?
Owen Ryan: We’re always looking at our platform and that will never stop. And we were – we always are talking with our customers what they want where they need. So last week Therese, Mark and I hosted a Customer Advisory Board. It was a phenomenal day of a lot of insight in the things that they would like us to continue to focus on and build out. And so just stay tuned as we continue to evolve the platform.
