Last week, thousands of procurement, supply chain, and finance professionals descended on Las Vegas for an event that has become as large and as important as any in the procurement space – Coupa Inspire – I was among them. The event marked the 10th anniversary of the company’s inaugural Inspire conference (click to see my coverage of that event) and provided an opportunity for Coupa to showcase its latest product enhancements and highlight its stated commitment to deliver value to customers in an uncertain economic environment.
A Brighter Future
Coupa’s charismatic CEO, Rob Bernshteyn, engaging as always, kicked off the day with a look back at the ten years since the first Inspire. Back then, Rob said, Coupa was a “product company” that had 3 products; today it delivers value as a service with 34 different solutions. Back then, Rob said, Coupa had 250 customers; today it has 3,000+ members in its community. Back then, Rob said, Coupa had supported $49B in spend; today it has supported $4 trillion in total spend in its history and is approaching a run rate of processing $1 trillion in spend annually. Despite the company’s tremendous growth, Rob said (with a “Rebel Yell“***) that “Coupa’s future is brighter than its past.”
Rob went on to talk about Coupa’s three values that he says “serve as the building blocks of the company’s DNA:”
- Customer Success
- Focus on Results
- Strive for Excellence
After that Rob highlighted a few customer successes and the “three wave” spend strategy that his company enables for its customers: (1) Capture the Spend (2) Optimize the Spend and (3) Amplify the Spend all as a way to “Accelerate Performance and Unlock Purpose” (the event’s theme). This is how Coupa’s customers will save all that “Mony, Mony.“***
Coupa Platform Enhancements
Coupa’s new messaging is that the platform is no longer simply the foundation of the company’s solutions, the platform is everything. Raja Hammoud, Coupa’s EVP of Products, then introduced a large number of new product enhancements including updates to
- The Community.ai offering, which includes support for Scope 3 travel emissions insights, allowing customers to compare their travel-specific emissions to others by category, industry, per dollar, and over configurable ranges.
- The item pricing intelligence feature has also been expanded to include Full Truck Load (FTL) pricing intelligence. The solution will use AI, customer/community data, and price intelligence for logistics to formulate different recommendations that optimize a customer’s distribution network.
- Additionally, the company announced several other enhancements such as:
- Virtual Assistant, with AI-guided intake and workflow capabilities
- Expansion of Coupa Pay capabilities via a new Goldman Sachs partnership
- The ability to embed supplier risk scores across the solution suite
- Cash forecasting, a new capability for Treasurers to view the cash impact from business spend activity
There was scant mention of its new owners, ThomaBravo and their “White Wedding“*** union (click here for our coverage of the transaction that took Coupa private). Instead, throughout the conference, Coupa emphasized its commitment to helping customers navigate the complexities of the current economic environment and delivering measurable results for its customers.
***Author’s Note: In case you were wondering, Billy Idol headlined the big day two celebration, hence the references and song links.
Coupa Inspire – A Decade of Coverage on CPO Rising
Coupa Inspire 2016: Taking a Value-Driven Approach to Spend Management Transformation
Coupa Inspire 2016: Coupa Expands Solution Suite Across Supply Management Ecosystem
Coupa Inspire 2014: Coupa’s New Language of Success
Coupa Inspire ’13: The Real Thing
Procurement Influencer Series: Rob Bernshteyn of Coupa Part I
