213: Manage Your Spend Smarter and Safer with Coupa

Today I’m thrilled to be joined by a giant in business spend management; a company that is looking to unify supply chain, procurement, payments and treasury in one smart and seamless platform, Coupa. Founded in 2006, Coupa is the cloud platform for business spend management, empowering companies around the world with the visibility and control they need to spend smarter and safer. In partnership with the Business Spend Management (BSM) Community, Coupa is constantly co-creating new and unique capabilities that deliver transparency, efficiency, actionable insights and solutions to customers, partners and suppliers, so they can understand and manage their spending. Today Matt Tichon, Vice President of Industry Strategy at Coupa Software, joins me to chat all about the company; what they do; the impact of COVID on supply chain resiliency; and why innovation, collaboration and visibility are the keys to business success.   IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS: [3.34] A brief background on Coupa and Matt. [05.55] How Matt compares Camaro's to supply chain. [9.05] Coupa's key areas and how help their clients understand efficiencies. “We allow companies to experiment... Instead of making a gut feel with a little bit of data, we can take a whole lot of data and say, 'what happens if?' and we test these things out.” [12.26] The value of Digital Supply Chain Twin and how it can be a competitive advantage. [16.25] Matt's thoughts on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. “The question is, what do you do with your insights once you have them? 85% of data science projects fail. The trick is understanding to start with the end in mind.” [20.00] How different execution systems all come together. “It is magic when you do this right! The value unlocks are massive and it's not hard! I want the whole world to know that this is possible and it's easy to do, and we'll hold your hand getting there. You're going to be amazed so just come on this journey!” [23:36] Matt on Coupa's "War Gaming" concept. “It's understanding different plays and what your supply chain will look like while your competitors haven't even thought of what to do yet.” [29.02] Coupa's perspective on nurturing resilience during and after COVID. [32.30] An ideal customer for Coupa. “For food, once you get to 500 million dollars or more in revenue, they start to exhaust their team's abilities and they come knocking on our door. Outside of food, 1 billion dollars and above.” [36.00] A case study for Coupa [40.53] The future for Coupa and Matt   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED: Head over to Coupa's website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Coupa and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn, or you can connect with Rujul on LinkedIn. Check out our other podcasts HERE.