Partners Driving Business Spend Management Innovations on Coupa App Marketplace
We at Coupa believe in being open, always
We build trust through transparency, support genuine partnerships, and welcome new ideas. From strengthening relationships with partners to integrating with leading technologies, Coupa opens the door to a world of opportunities.
In an exciting development, Coupa recently launched a significant evolution to its open platform strategy — the Coupa App Marketplace. Offering an ever-growing set of solutions from Coupa’s vibrant partner ecosystem, the App Marketplace allows Coupa users to quickly adapt to evolving business conditions and connect their enterprise systems to Coupa’s single source of truth for business spend.
Setting the pace of innovation for the Business Spend Management (BSM) industry
It’s one of the ways Coupa is transforming the way that businesses manage their spend. The Coupa App Marketplace has apps covering different categories and use cases, from business intelligence to invoicing, tax solutions, and much more. Finding the apps you want is also straightforward — you can browse app categories or search by keywords.
Our approach has clearly resonated with partners, who are developing apps for use cases not covered by Coupa’s platform. For our first example, take Vertex, a CoupaLink technology partner with comprehensive tax solutions that automate end-to-end indirect tax processes and complex tax transactions.
The new Vertex-built integration to Coupa featured in the App Marketplace enables users to leverage the Coupa-built Tax API and supports tax calculation on invoice validation. The integration empowers users with more control and oversight through automated and more accurate tax determination.
For Vertex, developing for the App Marketplace was “simply a no brainer”
Kristin Schwabenbauer, Global Partner Leader at Vertex, explained why Vertex is excited to be a part of the Coupa App Marketplace: “Procurement transformations have been taking place for well over ten years, and we’re now seeing a turning point where partnerships and third-party apps are better able to serve mutual clients. At Vertex, we strive to give our clients robust solutions that empower their day-to-day lives, providing them with tools to do their jobs and protect their organization from substantial risk. Vertex is proud to say we have been partnered with Coupa since 2016. Developing the Vertex integration for Coupa’s App Marketplace was simply a no brainer.”
Vertex Indirect Tax for Procurement with Coupa Business Spend Management enables organizations of all sizes to pair tax automation with procurement transformation
Vertex’s solution is fueled by a proprietary content database, which includes 300+ million effective tax rules for 19,000 jurisdictions worldwide, improving efficiency while reducing risk and supporting ongoing tax compliance and reporting requirements.
Organizations recognize the strategic role procurement plays in their business. Procurement transformations have helped to advance key initiatives across all industries and geographies. Pairing tax automation with procurement transformations allows organizations to gain many efficiencies — especially in the supplier invoice payment process. This is an imperative step in providing support to an organization’s tax and procurement professionals, arming them with the tools they need to do their jobs accurately and efficiently.
Enhanced insight into sourcing pipeline and savings tracking
Another solution featured in the App Marketplace, the Per Angusta Connector for Coupa, enables easy-to-manage sourcing, project management, performance tracking, and access to supplier information from within Coupa.
A pioneer in Procurement Performance Management, Per Angusta built their original Coupa integration eight years ago. Pierre Laprée, CEO & Founder at Per Angusta, explains, “There is a symbiotic relationship between what we do and what Coupa does. It’s a David with Goliath story. Working closely with Coupa helps us fund further R&D and deliver more value to our clients as we develop new and deeper integrations.”
Making data-based decisions on strategic sourcing = the power of the integration
For example, Per Angusta is deploying the Per Angusta Connector for one of the largest U.S. retailers, a Fortune 100 company. The solution pulls in master supplier information from Coupa into Per Angusta to make sourcing and procurement easier for the company’s buyers. Per Angusta is augmenting the contractual information from Coupa, allowing buyers to see the data available through a different lens with a focused strategic sourcing perspective.
“The goal is to make the solution more transparent, so users can focus on the data and the outcome, not the process or tools — and to make the data more actionable,” explains Laprée. For example, with the joint solution the retailer can see that 12 contracts are expiring at the same time, providing different insights into the Coupa data and revealing an opportunity that automatically gets added into Per Angusta pipeline.
All App Marketplace BSM solutions are rigorously certified by Coupa
Throughout development of new apps for the marketplace, the Coupa team guides partners from solution value design to technical consultation, ensuring partners are empowered to bring exceptional solutions to Coupa customers.
When it comes time for partners to submit new apps for review and approval, Coupa focuses on making it simple. After a partner submits a new app for review and certification, it goes to the business development team and then to the legal team to ensure customer data, key functions, and frameworks are secure. Finally, the application is validated and certified.
According to Vertex’s Schwabenbauer, “After Coupa shared their roadmap of expanding the Coupa customer experience with us, we pulled together a team of developers to build out the new integration. With weekly calls and Coupa’s close collaboration, we smoothly rolled through development and certification.”
Per Angusta’s Laprée concurs: “The process for certification was surprisingly easy because we had already built the integrations, and the process was focused on value to clients, not on plumbing.” In addition to that, over the years partners like Per Angusta come to trust that support from Coupa is always available. “If we ever need help, we get in touch with the CoupaLink team and — if we need anything — they are there for us because they see the value of what we are doing,” states Laprée.
Vetted BSM apps that seamlessly integrate with the Coupa platform
The centralized, vetted, and secure Coupa App Marketplace makes it possible for companies to find the spend management integrations and apps they need when they need them — and with the confidence that they'll work seamlessly with existing Coupa deployments.
