Coupa Cabana

Coupa CEO Named A “Pro to Know” by Supply & Demand Chain Executive

Jason Hekl — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:11 +0000

Rob Bernshteyn’s thought leadership and vision is redefining the way businesses manage spend

“Spend under management” and “operational efficiency” are terms too often tossed around in strategic conversations, but rarely acted upon. At a time when organizations need less talk and more action, Coupa CEO, Rob Bernshteyn, stands out as a true thought leader on how companies can capitalize on smarter spending practices in order to drive down costs and deliver real savings for their shareholders. His vision, determination and bias for action is why Rob has been named one of Supply & Demand Chain Executive Pros to Know in 2010.

“This year’s Provider Pros to Know have shown themselves to be thought-leaders in the Supply Chain industry,” said Andrew Reese, editor at Supply & Demand Chain Executive. “Highlighting the learnings that the Provider Pros to Know have taken out of the Great Recession provides our readers with a wealth of best practices that they can apply in their own supply chains, as well as insights into how leading organizations are positioning themselves for competitive advantage in the Great Recovery ahead.”

With Rob at the helm, Coupa is leading the movement to get all organizations, large and small and everything in between, to spend smarter – a priority for any organization hoping to survive the short-term economic crisis and thrive in years to come.

“The biggest challenge facing businesses today is recession survival. To respond to the downturn, most organizations have already undergone hiring and budget freezes, cut spending and ‘right-sized’ their organization,” said Rob. “But these are only temporary measures that will not ensure long-term survival. Procurement and business leaders must take this time to lay the foundation for smarter spending and seize upon savings opportunities that will have a lasting impact into the future.”

Delivering on his vision, where organizations can operate more efficiently and take real-time action to save money, Rob is driving Coupa to provide the most innovative, easiest to use, fastest to implement and cost effective cloud spend management (CSM) applications in the world.

See for yourself why Rob is a “Pro to Know”. Watch his ProcureCon Indirect keynote at http://www.vcasmo.com/video/CoupaSoftware/7614. To learn more about Coupa Software, visit http://www.coupa.com or call 650.931.3201.

About Supply & Demand Chain Executive
Supply & Demand Chain Executive is the executive’s user manual for successful supply and demand chain transformation, utilizing hard-hitting analysis, viewpoints and unbiased case studies to steer executives and supply management professionals through the complicated, yet critical, world of supply and demand chain enablement to gain competitive advantage. On the Web at www.SDCExec.com.

The full listing of the 2010 Pros to Know will be available in the February/March 2010 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine and e-book beginning in the third week of March and on the Supply & Demand Chain Executive Web site at SDCExec.com/2010Prostoknow.

Coupa CEO Wows Listeners With a Crowd Pleasing Keynote at ProcureCon Indirect 2010 (Video)

Jeannie Christensen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:44:01 +0000

Last Week’s ProcureCon Indirect 2010 in Charolotte, NC had quite a few highlights. One major highlight–although unrelated to Procurement–was that it snowed in a part of the States known for its mild weather. That was big news and confounding to many local stores that closed down due the elements. (Meanwhile, the Chicago natives were laughing and shaking their heads at what they deemed “flurries”.) In terms of key topics, panel discussions covered a range of subjects, but a few--like organizational structure and building credibility with senior executive teams, were especially noteworthy. But the biggest highlight of all may have been Rob Bernshteyn’s keynote “The Next Generation of Spend Mangement”.

Those of us around the Coupa offices already know how convincing and entertaining Rob Bernshteyn, Coupa’s CEO, can be. But for the unsuspecting souls who witnessed his “Journey Through Time” keynote at the convention last week, Rob’s refreshingly un-corporate approach to presenting the past, present, and future of Spend Management was a real eye-opener. During the presentation, there were a few “oh no he didn’t” moments, and even more nodding heads. The feedback was fantastic, with many attendees calling Rob’s presentation “the best presentation at the entire conference”.

(SPOILER ALERT!) Here’s a brief synopsis of the presentation for those of you who like to read the end of the book first.

INTRO: Rob opens with the question: How can you spend smarter and save money? He answers his own question by noting that it’s impossible to answer that without thinking of the times we’re in.

PAST: This intro allows him to dive into his “Journey through Time”. He speaks to the technology, the people, and the pop culture, and the current events from post World War II all the way up to the 90’s. He clicks through images of the young Rolling Stones, gas guzzling cars, and land line phones. He points out that Procurement was just starting, and America’s economy was booming. It was kind of all administrative and less strategic. Key quote: “We had a seat a table, but it wasn’t the table we wanted to be at…We were a diamond in the rough.”

TODAY: Where are we now? Well, we may still be listening to the Rolling Stones, but they’re older now. The cars? They’re built for fuel economy. And the phones are as mobile as we are. This type of change is just as apparent in the Procurement world. Technology has changed, and with it comes something called SaaS. SaaS is a reaction to the enterprise software problems of the 90’s, where you spent millions and got little. Now with Cloud-based SaaS software, employees can contribute to the bottom line, and there is visibility into the budget that was never there before. There is super fast deployment and easy integration with legacy ERP systems. And all this is happening on the web so you can transpose information within the company with information on suppliers outside the company. These systems are highly flexible, social, and insightful. Key Quote: “Now Procurement has a seat at a table, and the right table. You have a chance to partner with the CFO’s and to not only be the diamond in the rough, but the jewel.”

FUTURE: What will happen in the future? Rob shows images of the hottest TV show called “American Idiot” instead of “American Idol”, the Rolling Stones looking especially geriatric and 3-D computer screens that pop images. The technology? Software will take advantage of artificial intelligence and become “smart”. We’ll be able to log on once online to have access to every site we need, and employees will have applications at their fingertips that empowers them to help control spend. And those who do manage their spend will be rewarded. With revenue being so hard to come by,

Key Quote: “Procurement will have a a seat at the front of the table…The spotlight is on us in the Procurement realm today. We have an opportunity to seize the moment.”

How Social Media is Impacting Procurement and Supply Chains: Personal Branding (part 3 of 3)

Jeannie Christensen — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:25:33 +0000

Today’s post is the third in a three-part series by author, PI Window on Business host, and ProcurementInsights.com blogger, Jon Hansen. Part One of this series on Vendor Blogs can be found here, and Part Two on Interactive Intelligence can be found here.

Special Introduction to Procurement Professionals, from John:

Some may suggest that Social Media, the “Power of Publicity” and “Increasing Your Profile,” have very little to do with the world of procurement. However, and as we are finding out, by not paying attention to these important areas of professional development it can, and often does have serious consequences regardless of your profession or area of practice. Just ask the individuals whose expertise is in the areas of Lean and Six Sigma.

Amongst the first to be laid off in large numbers were those professionals whose very role was to drive the efficiencies and savings that were supposedly indispensable during an economic downturn.

As we have discovered in recent segments of the PI Window on Business Show, remaining part of the faceless herd no longer guarantees job security, let alone advancement within an organization.

It is within this renewed lens that I invite you to listen to my interview with Marsha Friedman. My own thoughts on the interview follow, below.

Why Purchasing Professionals Should Care About Personal Branding

There were many tremendous insights provided in my September 17th broadcast in which national radio show host, author and Public Relations Genius Marsha Friedman shared the “Three Step Method to Increasing Your Profile and Exploding Your Business” from her new book “Celebritize Yourself.”

One piece of advice that Marsha gave in terms of helping people to Stand Up and Stand Out in the ephemeral world of social media is to “write a book.”

While writing a book may be too ambitious a task or perhaps even a tad overkill for most purchasing professionals the strong underlying message is simply this: Have you done anything to build your personal brand and community of first level contacts?

As you know, it has always been my belief that purchasing professionals are more than the positions they hold in a company. Like CIOs and CFOs, the artificially established historical boundaries associated with functional silos are becoming blurred. This means that the traditional, and in retrospect narrow, definitions of one’s duties are ceding to a more holistic or enterprise-wide understanding of the many operational areas that were previously off limits.

Included in this broader horizon, is the need to effectively communicate and establish a brand presence with what is a diverse group of internal, as well as external stakeholders. Many with whom the average purchasing professional has had little if any interaction.

This of course doesn’t mean ignoring the indigenous or traditional aspects of purchasing. What it does mean is that we now have to view the world though a more enlightened lens that takes into account a bigger role on a much larger stage.

The challenge however is that the stage is becoming increasingly crowded which means that standing out and securing your future requires considerably more than just being good at your job. Here of course, is the rub: Fear of self-promotion is the problem.

According to a recent study, “The fear of self-promotion is a condition in which even highly competent people receive far less in position, compensation and recognition than they feel they deserve. Doing the best job doesn’t always get the best rewards. Those rewards tend to go to people who promote themselves, what they’ve done and what they can do.”

Now I am not talking about the get up on the soapbox and broadcast yourself to the world mindset. As the international guest panel of experts on my June 4th segment “The Psychology of Social Networking” stated with absolute certainty, telling the world how great you are will get you nowhere in a hurry.

It is therefore important to remember that those individuals who are most adept at leveraging social networking and social media start off by becoming involved in a group or a community of mutual interest. They then look for ways to make a contribution to the group or community as a whole by responding to questions and sharing expertise.

In the process, these individuals build a reputation for making a positive contribution and, as a result establish their personal brand as experts in their respective areas of practice. In short, personal branding is getting involved and delivering value to those with whom you come into contact and associate with on a regular basis.

Think of social networking as an accelerated multiplier in that it enables you to reach more people in a short period of time from the convenience of a single location. You just add the value.

Is Procurement Going Soft?

Jason Hekl — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:22:31 +0000

Over the next few days, we will be blogging from the ProcureCon Indirect conference in Charlotte, NC, where Coupa is a sponsor.

Organizational Structure, Building Credibility, and the Art of Procurement Transformation

This morning’s highlight (aside from Rob Bernshteyn’s presentation – more on that later), was a panel discussion featuring procurement executives from Invesco, MetLife and Illinois Tool Works, moderated by Bill Schaefer of IBM Procurement Services. The panel discussion covered a range of topics – but two in particular were noteworthy:

Organizational Structure. Bill asked the panelists where they are with their current organizations, and where they’d like to be, and all three advocated the benefits of not falling beneath the CFO and his organization. Now three data points does not constitute a trend, but it is interesting to get the viewpoints of three particularly well-spoken and successful procurement executives on why the proper organizational structure and alignment is so critical achieving the objectives of the Procurement and Sourcing organization. Though all three were quite respectful of their Finance counterparts and allowed that operating from within the CFO’s organization can be effective under certain circumstances, they were unequivocal in their belief that in their current roles, falling outside of the CFO’s sphere has been particularly helpful in aligning their efforts with the business units they ultimately support. One rolled up to a vice chairman of the board, another to the SVP of IT and Operations, and the third to the COO. All three cited alignment with the business as the primary benefit – primarily because it connected them directly with the operational staff in each business unit, versus the Finance lead or Controller in each group. And one cited that aligning under the COO was very effective in positing the procurement organization as one of the driving forces in ensuring that the businesses operated within their budget allocations. I saw a lot of nodding heads in the audience, and can’t help but wonder if the procurement profession as a whole wouldn’t be better served by similar moves to align procurement and sourcing under a more operationally-oriented part of the organization?
Building Credibility. Almost all business programs will include organizational behavior as a core discipline, but many business students will be dismissive of those “soft skills” classes. But the three procurement leaders featured in this morning’s panel made clear collaboration, communication, and partnering skills are absolutely essential in building credibility with senior management for their respective organizations. So what does that mean? All three advocated hiring for deep category expertise, because without that, procurement is “just a clerk processing orders.” To truly drive value, the procurement organization must be staffed with professionals who understand their customers’ business, and who align their efforts with the business’s objectives. It’s not sufficient to hire category expertise, however. MetLife AVP of Global Procurement Brad Costedio made clear that you need to be conscious of hiring people who can “gel” with their counterparts in the business groups, because without that, “you’re not going to get anywhere”, even with deep category expertise. Chris Duchene, VP of Corporate Strategic Sourcing at Illinois Tool Works went one step further and explained how important it is to not speak like a consultant outsider – you have communicate in a way your business partners can understand (i.e. in other words, save “strategic sourcing analysis” for procurement conferences), and engage with them in the procurement and sourcing process. And above all, don’t be confrontational – disruptive folks can be a killer. And Mike McHale, CPO of Invesco, advocated that you lavish praise on your business group customers and let them take the credit for your joint successes. Because if you do, you’ll be surprised by how the word gets out about the value the Procurement organization provides. As details of successful projects find their way around the organization, the model naturally moves from “push” (where Procurement pushes its way into the business group to affect change) to “pull” (where the business groups ask for the procurement organization to help them), and you win over the hearts and minds of your business group counterparts across the organization. So to be truly transformational, your procurement leaders must be well-schooled in how to leverage influence. A strong lesson indeed!

Stay tuned for more from ProcureCon Indirect. The next post will be a recap of Rob Bernshteyn’s presentation and his “journey through time” of spend management technology.

Webinar Replay Available Now: Introducing Cloud Spend Management

Jeannie Christensen — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:59:15 +0000

Around the Coupa offices, we like the phrase “Show, don’t tell”. And Thursday’s Cloud Spend Management (CSM) debut webinar was a testament to this. Coupa’s very own VP of Marketing, Jason Hekl, gave the presentation–an all-inclusive introduction to the CSM platform. He really got into the guts of the applications, presenting demonstrations of the products (both e-procurement and expense management) that broke down the functionality in digestable bits.

Jason showed how companies can manage both indirect spending streams and expense spend from a single platform built atop a common approval work flow model, a single chart of accounts, and consolidated reporting dashboards and performance benchmarking. And he spoke to the benefits of managers having these tools and insights they need to at their disposal. Simply put, managers can more effectively control the company’s spending as it occurs.

The live webinar is over, but you can watch the archived presentation here. You’ll get a chance to see how the cloud is empowering companies to get 100% of indirect spend under control. And it won’t just be all talk. You’ll get actual how-to’s that you can easily replicate within your organization.

Watch the free Cloud Spend Management webinar now.

How Your Enterprise Apps Are Like Liver

Noah Eisner — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:36:44 +0000

I loved growing up in New Jersey. The big yards that everyone had, the 4 different seasons, the passionate sports fans. All great. Except when I’d walk into our house after a fun day outside and get my first whiff of that awful smell. It was unmistakeable. ”Oh, no. Dad is cooking LIVER!” It was an annual thing that my Dad forced upon myself and my older brother. Liver for dinner and no getting around it. I’d break out a full bottle of Heinz, but it would hardly cover the taste. It was, and still is, the most revolting thing I ever ate.

It got me thinking about enterprise applications (e.g., procurement and expense management) and how they are viewed in organizations.

Now, there are a couple kinds of applications. The first type of application is reserved for a few, well-trained power users; we’ll call this kind the “5 User App”. This application is designed for a limited number of users in your company whose jobs are probably tied to the application. Think: The receivables clerk in the finance system, a planner in a supply chain app, a pricing specialist in an optimization app, etc. The other kind of application is the “Employee App”. That’s the application that everyone might use periodically: the purchase request system, the expense report system, the system that lets you check your paystub and setup your direct deposit, the employee performance review system, etc.

Now back to liver. Liver is something that most everyone hates. It isn’t pretty, it’s an awful experience and you fear it. If liver was an business app, it better be the “5 User App”. Those limited number of users might not like it, but it’s their job to be specialists. They need to know how everything works. They’ll spend 30-100% of their day in it. Just keep it contained to only those 5 users.

Now if you serve liver to your entire company in the “Employee App”, you better have some great job security. I couldn’t overrule my Dad, but employees will sniff out the liver and revolt against using it. Your employee application needs to be so simple, so easy and so effective that people “just do it”. No amount of change management, no amount of championing by senior leaders, no amount of CEO force will overcome the pervasive stench of a liver application. It might take awhile for the troops to mobilize, but they are.

Don’t believe me? Check out these tweets of disgruntled employees:

The moral of this story is easy: Consider more intuitive and–let’s be honest–less outdated business applications within your organization. You’ll see compliance shoot up. And you’ll see happier faces around the dinner table…er, workplace.

Note to Dad: I don’t think I’ll ever really get over my liver memories, but thanks for teaching me a valuable lesson.

Coupa Software Launches Cloud Spend Management Platform with New Expense Reporting and Auditing Capabilities

Jason Hekl — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:00:02 +0000

Companies Can Now Control 100% of Indirect Spend from One Cloud Application

San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) February 22, 2010 — Coupa Software, developer of the category-disrupting e-procurement solution for business leaders dissatisfied with purchasing applications that either sit on the shelf or underperform in delivering expected savings, today announced the introduction of an Expense Management product that adds expense reporting and auditing capabilities to the Coupa Cloud Spend Management platform. With Coupa, companies can control 100% of their indirect spend through one platform, providing unparalleled visibility into, and control over, company spending.

Coupa will be demonstrating the new capabilities of the Feb ‘10 release in a webcast on February 25th. Registration is complimentary.

Connecting All Sources of Spending in the Cloud for Better Control, and Greater Savings

Coupa Cloud Spend Management delivers the best e-procurement and expense management capabilities in a single solution that is easier to use, faster to configure and deploy, and more cost-effective than anything available today. The platform features a single user interface, a single workflow model for approving purchases and reimbursable expenses, one underlying chart of accounts, one set of budget entries against which to credit purchases and expenses, consolidated dashboards for unparalleled visibility into non-payroll spending, and dozens of operational benchmarks to compare your organization’s performance against other companies transacting through the Coupa platform.

Analysts briefed on Coupa Cloud Spend Management offered these insights and comments:

Chris Dwyer, Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group – “It’s not often you call enterprise software ‘hip’, but it’s a description that fits Coupa’s new Cloud Spend Management platform. The timing for this solution is ideal – given the current economic environment, I suspect demand will be high for this unique solution to how companies manage their non-payroll spending. It’s easy to use, controls all purchasing and expense reporting processes from one system, and includes intuitive audit scoring, dashboarding and benchmarking capabilities, all capabilities that will play very well in 2010, a year in which enterprises will more strategically attack their non-payroll and expense management spending.”
Mickey North Rizza, Research Director, Gartner – “A cloud spend management platform including expense management execution and reporting and auditing capabilities, provides companies with a very real opportunity to manage and control all indirect spend from one application. Add to this platform real-time analytics and cross-company benchmarking, the cloud spend management application quickly becomes procurement’s best friend.”
Robert Kugel, Senior Vice President & Research Director, Ventana Research – “Most spend management applications follow an accounting ledger-structured view of the world that prevents people from working the way they normally would. Coupa, on the other hand, has tried to provide an application that operates the way people naturally behave so that they will want to use it. This is even more the case with the latest version of the software, which now includes purchases and expenses, giving organizations a real opportunity to control all indirect spend from a single system. Achieving broad, consistent use of spend management software has been a challenge for companies. High utilization is a key driver for realizing value from spend management software because it enables corporations to save money through greater spending control. It also enhances management effectiveness by giving them greater visibility into future spending commitments.”
Jason Busch, Editor of Spend Matters – “With its latest release and capabilities, Coupa is moving up-market while not ignoring its core small and middle market procurement constituents. The greater the level of enabling services and insight that companies can deliver as part of a non-installed software approach, the greater the value the solution will generate from savings, compliance and process improvement perspectives. Moreover, Spend Matters research suggest that benchmarking, analytics and data visualization capabilities are becoming the ante to deliver the next generation of procure-to-pay solutions in the Spend Management market. In addition, the combination of T&E capabilities with core procurement makes fundamental sense for middle-market organizations that do not require highly specialized solutions.”
Jeffrey M. Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies and Founder of the SaaS Showplace – “In today’s increasingly challenging economic environment, it is essential for organizations of all sizes to more carefully control their spending. Coupa is building on the success of its e-Procurement capabilities to offer its customers an integrated Cloud Spend Management platform which can help them better manage a broader array of their ongoing expenditures.”

The new Expense Management capabilities introduced as part of Coupa’s Feb ’10 release allow customers to:

Audit expense reports based on likelihood of fraudulent or excessive spending behavior. Coupa Expense Management removes the need for an “all or nothing” approach to expense report verification. Coupa automatically scores each and every expense report, and employee, to identify suspect or fraudulent patterns that warrant further attention from the accounting department and employee managers. Each expense report is assigned an intelligent audit score based on the employee’s historical patterns and details of the current report – the higher the score, the higher the risk of non-compliance with the company’s expense management guidelines.
Flip approved requisitions into pre-approved line items on employee expense reports. With Coupa, an employee can execute a simple search from within the company’s cloud spend management application for an item she needs to do her job, find the item on Amazon.com at very reasonable cost, and pull it into a requisition that her manager then reviews and approves from her iPhone. The employee is notified that her requisition is approved, and is directed back to Amazon.com to complete the transaction. The completed purchase is then automatically entered into an expense report as a pre-approved line item, and credited to the proper account and budget period, making it much easier for managers to control spending and stay within budget.
Influence desired employee behavior and develop a culture of smarter spending. With Coupa, you can embed intelligence into your expense management processes to encourage the right employee behavior and eliminate abuses like the employee who knows the per-meal allowance is $25 and submits every meal expense for $24.95. Coupa analyzes each expense report line item as they are entered to determine if it deviates from the category norm. If it’s well below the norm, the employee is recognized with a ‘thanks for being frugal’ message, reinforcing behavior that saves the company money. If it’s too far above the norm, though, Coupa will alert that employee that the cost for the expensed item either exceeds the allowable limit or ‘seems a little high.’ The algorithms that control the notifications are dynamic and move with category averages, making it much harder for employees to manipulate.

“We are extremely excited by the heavy demand for Coupa’s Cloud Spend Management offering by our existing customers, and the growing interest in our expanding offering from companies around the world,” said Rob Bernshteyn, Coupa’s CEO. “The opportunity to leverage one cloud application suite for managing all indirect spend in an easy to use, rapid to deploy, and cost-effective fashion is here; and Coupa is delivering it.”

About Coupa Software
Coupa is the leading provider of cloud spend management (CSM) solutions that help companies control their indirect spending and generate savings that go direct to the bottom line. Coupa combines the best e-procurement and expense management capabilities in a single solution that is easier to use, faster to configure and deploy, and more cost-effective than anything available today. With deep domain knowledge in e-procurement and expense management, a best-in-class cloud computing platform, a fast-growing community of customers, and industry-first innovations like real-time benchmarking, intelligent expense report auditing, and crowd sourcing great deals on the Web, Coupa is leading the way in helping companies spend smarter and save more. For more information please visit, http://www.coupa.com or call 650.931.3200.

How Social Media is Impacting Procurement and Supply Chains: Interactive Intelligence (part 2 of 3)

Jeannie Christensen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:52:47 +0000

Today’s post is the second in a three-part series by author, PI Window on Business host, and ProcurementInsights.com blogger, Jon Hansen. Part One of this series on Vendor Blogs can be found here.

Social Media and Procurement: Interactive Intelligence and the Emergence of Adaptive Learning Programs

Part 2 of 3: Social Media's Impact on Procurement

“Companies are scrambling to keep the skills of their buyers and supply managers up to the task of responding to wildly fluctuating costs and availability of key suppliers. They need high quality training courses that are easily and instantly available,” said ADR North America CEO Bill Michels, C.P.M. “The ADR Academy fills that need with nine key courses that anyone can take if they have Internet access and a credit card.”

The idea of adaptive learning (and its effects on Procurement) first came onto my radar when I received word that ADR North America was teaming with the Institute of Supply Management to “provide procurement and supply professionals with educational opportunities through the ISM – ADR School for Supply Management”.

My first reaction was to reflect back on the two-part PI Window on Business series titled “Is The Traditional Association Model Dead?”
It was an interesting and somewhat controversial series in that we assembled an international guest panel of thought leaders to discuss the changing dynamics of a profession and industry with which the majority of associations had seemed to have lost touch.

Of the many topics that were discussed, none stood out more noticeably than the declining value of the available certification courses which still seemed to reflect a Rodney Dangerfield, functional silo mindset of an adjunct position.
Trapped in a static time-warp that failed to recognize the strategic value of procurement, and its significant impact on increasingly complex supply chain practices within the emerging globalized enterprise, this “excuse me” ineffectiveness was reflected in listener comments, such as the following:

“Where it once did, the value gained from the traditional Association model can no longer compete for my attention. I need to collaborate bigger, faster, stronger – and at my convenience.
Associations could better leverage Web 2.0 to deliver a greater level of service to me as a supply chain professional by more actively, rapidly and efficiently aligning with the pace at which new, useful industry information becomes available – then delivering this information in an effective way, so as to keep me abreast of trends, best-practices and exchange ideas with fellow members; thereby making me a more valuable professional.
If done effectively, this would be a value proposition beyond what I see today in many other Associations. This value, in turn, may then attract membership at a higher rate; thus creating an even larger, and more valuable platform for so many to exchange real-life, real-time expertise and experience – again, contributing to my value as a professional.
The platform could also host polls for its members – such as rating the many certification and professional designation courses available to us. This service would be valuable to the many of us that seek continual professional development, but would appreciate our peers’ comparative assessments prior to making the spend.”
From Lance, Global Logistics Specialist, Panama (Maersk Logistics)

Growing sentiments like the one expressed above should have served as a general wake-up call for associations. In some cases, such as with ISM’s teaming with ADR, it did.

The Beginnings of Adaptive Learning: ADR Academy

Responding to the need to “collaborate bigger, faster, stronger – and at (the procurement professional’s) convenience,” the high quality courses which according to ADR’s CEO Bill Michels are “easily and instantly available,” deliver information in an effective way, so as to keep (the procurement professional) abreast of “trends and best-practices.” In short, adaptive learning is now a reality through the ADR Academy!
The key however, is that the real value is not confined to the convenient venue through which the curriculum is delivered.
ADR’s Michels, who is an author and acknowledged industry expert, brings to the table 20 years of experience with more than 200 clients worldwide.

The resulting 9 courses, which take between 90 minutes and 2 hours to complete, offer practical tools, hands-on exercises and case studies to help professionals to gain a working knowledge in critical areas of a modern supply chain practice.
Having had the opportunity to briefly review the Portfolio Analysis module, the aforementioned Michel’s expertise is clearly present in the material. The fact that ADR specializes in providing “high quality professional development programs for supply managers, using workshops, eLearning modules, Webinars and blended forms of teaching,” means that the ongoing veracity and relevance of the courses will be maintained to always reflect real-world conditions.

Referring once again to Lance, the Global Logistics Specialist from Panama, the ADR Academy is the answer in terms of making him (as well as professionals in general), more valuable to their companies and the industry as a whole.
This recent teaming of an ISM with an industry innovator and veteran who brings a practical perspective to the curriculum through a more relevant and accessible venue will likely continue. So too will the utilization of social networking groups and conversational platforms where professionals can meet and exchange knowledge and experiences.

In fact, the association model itself is likely to undergo significant transformations in which emerging media such as Internet Radio and Television will be leveraged to broaden the interactive venue to include worldwide affiliates. Replacing regional or physical Chapters, which are more representative of a somewhat disconnected, geographical focus of self-interest, these affiliations of interconnected communities of purpose will reflect the framework of the social networking world.
This will include everything from LIVE Event Feeds to multi-conversational platforms in which an unlimited number of individuals can communicate and disseminate reference material including video and audio media on the fly during a live conference or roundtable discussion.

Coupa Software Launches Campaign to Raise Awareness for e-Procurement Innovation

Jason Hekl — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:11:45 +0000

Schooling SpendGuy Series Takes Tongue-in-Cheek Look at Common Business Purchasing Challenges

In a true David and Goliath tale of enterprise spend management software providers, upstart Coupa Software yesterday launched a new marketing campaign to raise awareness for the business benefits of cloud-based e-procurement solutions, differentiate itself from the competition, and invite companies to take advantage of limited-time offers designed to help companies spend smarter and save more.

Featuring Coupa Sam, Spend Samurai and SpendGuy, a tired anti-hero – in a series of comic commercials that emphasize common business purchasing frustrations, the Schooling SpendGuy series introduces cloud computing innovations with substantial impact on how businesses control their indirect purchasing. The first episode of the series, Jumping Through Hoops, tackles the unnecessary complexities and hurdles employees often face attempting to requisition the items they need to do their jobs.

Inspired in part by rising demand for alternatives to existing e-procurement solutions, the Schooling SpendGuy site features a product comparison matrix that contrasts Coupa’s cloud-based e-procurement solution against the comparable product from its largest competitor.

The campaign includes two limited-time only special offers for companies interested in making the transition to the Coupa’s cloud spend management solution:

a complimentary migration assessment for any company that wants to consider Coupa in lieu of a potentially expensive upgrade with their existing solution provider

a full year of Coupa Expense Management (part of the upcoming Winter ‘10 release), for a limited number of users, with any new annual subscription to Coupa e-Procurement

For more information on the Schooling SpendGuy campaign, and how to take advantage of Coupa’s special offers, please visit:
http://www.coupa.com/resources/product-compare/schooling-spendguy/

Staying Agile in Customer Support & Development

Noah Eisner — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:17:24 +0000

2-plus years ago, when Coupa’s first customers came on board, we needed some way to communicate with them on issues and questions. I had experience how Oracle did it and wasn’t about to go down that route. Customers called in or logged issues directly into this homebuilt customer help desk system called Metalink. Then Support spent days with a ticket trying to gather info and trying to reproduce. If it was an actual code problem, maybe it got to Development a week later in another application called BugDB. Support worked in Metalink, developers worked in BugDB and there was plenty hidden between the 2. But that’s the support you get when paying 22% annually of your license fees.

At Coupa, we decided to go with a single system for help desk and issue/bug tracking. Sometimes we don’t get it right the first time. Our first solution was a SaaS system, but it lacked one of the main principles that Coupa was founded on: simplicity. Customers didn’t hate the system, but it wasn’t exactly user-friendly. Our development team detested it. It slowed us down and that just couldn’t happen. It was un-agile.

Graham, our development manager said (I’ll paraphrase), “It just blows….it’s fundamentally unintuitive.”

So one of our guys scanned the world via Google one night and stumbled upon a tiny company from Copenhagen named Zendesk. They used Rails like us. They were agile like us. They had free trials like us. They were affordable like us. In about 16 hours, our decision was made when our VP of Service Delivery sent an email:

From Ravi’s email…”this product is almost as cool as our app – freakin amazing”

We jettisoned that old system and turned on Zendesk immediately. A couple months later, Zendesk named Coupa first in their list of customers in their seed investment press release. It was great to see another Rails company succeeding.

Fast-forward to the present and Zendesk has grown significantly. Now, headquartered in San Francisco, they have other great customers like Twitter, MSNBC, Scrib’d, IDEO and plenty others. Most importantly, their solution is part of the collaboration that makes our customers successful and our development team agile. The team doesn’t waste time on perfect classification of a ticket. Instead, we get to work on it. Besides that, it’s got simple and easy reporting, nice ways to communicate new features, and a collaborative forum for product enhancement ideas. Our product roadmap gets influenced by the suggestions and the dialogue on our Zendesk site. And we constantly track the percentage of suggestions that we implement and the pace that they’re done.

Without agile development, the cloud, Rails, and open source, I’m pretty sure that companies like Coupa and Zendesk wouldn’t have a fighting chance. But with them, we’re changing the face of applications for businesses.