Belfast’s Kainos snaps up US tech company Blackline Group

12 Jan 2022

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The acquisition of Blackline will help Kainos expand its Workday operations in North America and Europe.

Kainos, a Belfast-based global software and IT company, has acquired private US tech company Blackline Group to strengthen its capabilities in the Workday ecosystem.

Headquartered in Washington and established in 2009, Blackline Group is an advisory partner for Workday Strategic Sourcing and aims to streamline the source-to-contract process for clients.

It has helped major global organisations transform more than $100bn in total spend and the company has more than 50 consultants in the US – with eyes on expanding in Europe.

Kainos provides digital services to businesses and organisations primarily in the public, healthcare and financial services sectors. As well as its Belfast headquarters, it has offices across Europe, Canada and the US.

Following the acquisition, 50 management and procurement consultants from Blackline Group will join Kainos and will help the company expand in North America and Europe with its Workday capabilities, client base and expertise.

The acquisition will also allow Kainos to improve its Workday strategic sourcing advisory services to its customers in addition to its expertise in Workday financial management, human capital and adaptive planning.

Brendan Mooney, chief executive of Kainos, said that Blackline Group’s procurement expertise paired with Kainos’ experience with Workday will allow the companies to expand support for existing customers “not just in North America, but across our global operations”.

“We are always striving to achieve the best business outcomes for our customers and extending our capability to include procurement helps us to achieve this goal. We are also excited by the new opportunities that combining the experience and expertise of the Kainos and Blackline teams will create for our business,” he added.

The acquisition is Kainos’ sixth in the Workday partner ecosystem and the third in the Americas, after the acquisition of IntuitiveTEK and Buenos Aires-based UNE Consulting last year. In June 2021, Kainos also acquired the Workday operations of Finnish company Cloudator.

Updated, 8.20am, 14 January 2022: This article was amended to clarify that Kainos has acquired Washington-based Blackline Group, and not Los Angeles-based BlackLine.

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Vish Gain is a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com