Driving value through smarter, simpler business spend management
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Coupa Software: Empowering businesses to spend smarter with Value-as-a-Service WRIT TEN BY
L AUR A MULL AN PRODUCED BY
CHARLOT TE CL ARK E w w w.c o u p a . com
Customers including Unilever, Salesforce, and Airbus look to Coupa’s business spend management platform to empower their businesses with visibility, control their spend, and unlock measurable value
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F
or businesses striving to win in the global marketplace today, every competi-
tive advantage matters. More and more
businesses are looking internally to drive value,
starting with their spend strategy. From procurement to expenses, organizations are trying to spend smarter and realize value from every investment, as well as mitigate critical risks across the supply chain. Business leaders know that profitability and growth are achieved not only by increasing revenues, but also by looking inside their organizations to cut waste and deliver value. To ensure that value is delivered, business leaders are turning to the latest technology that empowers them with the visibility and control they need when it comes to business spend. These technologies, grouped under the category Business Spend Management (BSM), offer comprehensive cloud-
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based spend solutions for companies and organizations of all sizes. Unlike spend management technologies of the past, these solutions not only centralize all spend in one place, enabling unprecedented insights, they also address business software’s age-old issue of usability—after all, software, however great its feature set, cannot deliver value if it’s not used. Additionally, for finance leaders in regions where tax compliance is complex, modern BSM technology implementation offers an easy and w w w.c o u p a . com
Transform Procurement with Contract-Centric Sourcing Accelerate
www.icertis.com
Protect
Optimize
streamlined solution to an increas-
and financial services organization
ingly difficult challenge. Along every
based in Singapore, selected Coupa’s
step of the supply chain and across
procurement and compliance invoic-
the globe, software should automate
ing solutions and digitized 92% of
tax compliance and keep up with
$400mn. The company also reduced
ever-changing regulations and
the time spent on procurement by
policies at scale.
employees by 70% to increase
Coupa’s Business Spend Management Platform delivers a comprehen-
operational efficiency. The value Coupa delivers for its
sive, open, and user-centric solution
customers – including leading
for source-to-pay, travel and expense
businesses such as; Airbus, Unilever,
and risk management, offering value
and Sanofi – has earned the company
from day one. For example, Coupa
top recognition from leading analyst
customer DBS, a multinational banking
groups who frequently place Coupa
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Gabe Perez Gabe Perez, Vice President, Asia-Pacific, has been an instrumental player in Coupa’s rapid growth for almost nine years. From being a key speaker at Coupa’s first-ever Analyst Day at Nasdaq to a presenter at mainstream industry events to the leader of Coupa’s strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, Perez is a forward-thinking SaaS evangelist, advocating for how Value-as-a-Service is changing the way companies do business. Before Coupa, Perez was a business consultant and earned an MBA in global supply chain management.
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“What Salesforce is to sales, Coupa is to spend” — Gabe Perez Vice President Asia-Pacific, Coupa Software
into the ‘top right’ for procure-to-pay, expense management, contract management and other BSM processes. The company also achieved a coveted spot on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 ranking list and the Great Place to Work list by Fortune magazine. Gabe Perez, Vice President Asia-Pacific, shares more about Coupa and the company’s focus on delivering “Value-as-a-Service” as it works to ensure customer success. “Regardless of size, every company
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in the world manages spend. Your
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘COUPA INSPIRE ‘19 – SPEND SMARTER TOGETHER’ 09 end-users, or employees, may need to
point in time, you can show how the
spend money in order to get the
service, people, platform and the
products and services they need to do
partners Coupa provides have driven
their job and companies will also have
measurable outcomes – something
procurement teams working strategi-
that is unique for a technology offering.”
cally with suppliers,” observes Perez.
Coupa has made a name for itself
“Today, business leaders are continu-
in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
ally looking for ways to drive value, to
space, becoming a ubiquitous tool in
move faster on mergers and acquisi-
any CFO and CEOs toolkit. Indeed,
tions, to scale their companies and to
Perez enthuses that “what Salesforce
get greater visibility regarding spend,
is to sales, Coupa is to spend,” allow-
and Coupa helps fill this need. The
ing customers to gain greater visibility
reality is that Coupa, unlike other
and control of their finances. One
business software, gives a measurable
such client that has benefitted from
return on investment (ROI). At any
this approach is global financial w w w.c o u p a . com
“Since day one, Coupa has always focused on customer success and delivering value” — Gabe Perez Vice President Asia-Pacific, Coupa Software 10
services company Aon. During one of its earnings calls, Perez notes how Aon’s CFO talked “about the US$30mn marginal expansion they were able to increase with Coupa.” Similarly, Rolls-Royce has been an advocate of the software firm. On one of its market days last year, Perez highlights how the automotive giant “exceeded the 5% industry benchmark for savings by bringing its spend down from $2.7bn to $2.3bn, all with 23% less resources” in a cost control initiative supported by the Coupa BSM Platform. The past few years have represented an exciting chapter in Coupa’s history. Having launched its IPO in 2016, the firm now stands as a billion-dollar unicorn. “For us, going public just showed the start of what we could do,” reflects Perez. “It was a great point in my career and an exciting moment for the firm because it brought us into the open market with a level of credibility that has allowed us to work with some of the largest companies in the world.” Now, headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, the company offers its cloud-based business spend managew w w.c o u p a . com
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ment platform to hundreds of organisa-
Mondelēz and Procter and Gamble
tions globally.
start to use this platform across APAC,
As it extends its reach across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, Perez
their heads and realise the value that
says the firm has its eyes set firmly on
their peers are getting from managing
up-and-coming geographies. “Emerg-
their spend effectively.”
ing markets are seen as a key growth
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local companies are beginning to turn
As software tools saturate the
driver for us,” Perez says, highlighting
market, it’s easy to get swept on up in
how, in his current role, he’s “trying to
the tide that is digital transformation.
bring that same level of acceleration
Instead of focusing solely on technol-
and value to customers in the Asia-
ogy, Perez urges businesses to really
Pacific.” “I think there’s a really big
think about the business outcomes
opportunity to create value,” he adds.
they hope to achieve. “Digitalisation
“As well-known Coupa customers like
and transformation are a critical part
of any modern business but at times,
but numbers and measurable out-
people may resist change. If you make
comes are a global language. That’s
the process one that adds value for
what Coupa has done – we’ve been
them as a stakeholder and is simple
able to make it simple for end users
and easy to use, they’re more likely to
and suppliers to engage with a
engage,” he says. It’s a simple concept.
digitized business.”
He contends that businesses should
As a cloud-based platform, Perez
start with a measurable outcome that
contends that Coupa can enable
they hope to achieve and work
customers to “move quicker, bring
backwards, striking partnerships with
acquisitions into the platform easily
firms that can deliver demonstrable
and add more functionalities.” With this
results. “The business outcome should
speed, Perez says that the Silicon
be the focus of your conversation,” he
Valley-based company has been able
adds. “Change can be hard for people,
to create a “trillion-dollar data set that
“The value you can drive for a customer’s business should be the focus of your conversation” — Gabe Perez Vice President Asia-Pacific, Coupa Software
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2006
Year founded
1,300
Approximate number of employees
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is growing rapidly every quarter.” It’s this community data – Coupa Community Intelligence – that has enabled the company to launch innovative, AIbased capabilities across its platform, including risk mitigation and fraud prevention. “We can use this community data and apply machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to it to deliver meaningful, prescriptive insights that empower businesses to make smarter spend decisions,” adds Perez. “We 16
can also provide benchmarking that enables businesses to look at what peers are doing, and what you could be doing to reach your goals.” User centricity and continuous innovation are key values at Coupa. For example, Perez points out how “between 30-50% of our releases are features that were requested by the Coupa Community.” As well as having a community of enthusiastic customers to rely on, Coupa has formed a rich ecosystem of partners to help business adopt Coupa to deliver business value. “Early on, we looked to build a team of subject matter experts who would enable and co-implement spend
“Coupa gives a measurable return on investment” — Gabe Perez Vice President Asia-Pacific, Coupa Software
management solutions. We have global leaders like KPMG, Accenture and Deloitte and we also have regional partners that help users across the globe.” A robust financial function is the backbone of any successful business. Recognising this, Perez says Coupa will remain laser-focused on driving business value for its customers over the coming years. “Since day one, Coupa has always focused on ensuring customer success and delivering outcomes – that’s never going to change. I see our technology continuing to play a greater role in driving even more strategic spend decisions that deliver something many other software solutions can’t: measurable return on investment.”
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Coupa Software San Mateo, CA, 1855 S. Grant Street, San Mateo, CA 94402 United States T +1.650.931.3200 | www.coupa.com