Coupa Cabana

The High Cost of Inefficient Expense Management

Nova Kopitar — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:45:57 +0000

Everyone has a skeleton or two in their closets. Me, I have a whole pile. Skeletons of shopping trips past, things I had good intentions of returning. But thanks to my inability to hold on to those impossibly small pieces of paper called receipts, they now sit, covered in dust on the closet floor until it’s garage sale or donation time. All that wasted money; all that wasted opportunity because I simply am unable to keep track of my receipts.

Which brings me to expense management. Lost receipts are only one of the myriad of challenges that plague corporate expense management. Paper forms, manual processing, untimely submissions and cumbersome audits all contribute to an expense management process that is inefficient and costly.

According to Aberdeen’s 2010 report “The State of Travel & Expense Management”, it costs the average organization $28.91 to process a single expense report. If you are a 100-person organization and each individual submits an expense report once a quarter, you are looking at $11,564 just process the reports. Imagine how costly this becomes as you grow to thousands of employees submitting reports!

Now compare those costs with that of a “best-in-class” organization, where on average it only costs $6.25 to process an expense report. That’s $22.66 less per statement than the industry average – or for our 100-person organization a savings of $9,064 per year.

So what separates the industry average from best-in-class? How are best-in-class organizations able to operation so efficiently that it costs them only a quarter of what it costs others to manage their expense process? Join Coupa and Christopher Dwyer, supply management expert and author of Aberdeen’s 2010 “The State of Travel and Expense Management”, on Thursday, September 16th, at 11:00am Pacific / 2:00pm Eastern and find out.

Register today to discover the strategic importance of expense management, the growing evolution of cloud technology, and the steps you can take to improve existing expense management programs and derive value from this once back-office function. Step 1, don’t lose your receipts!

Coupa Software Appoints Steven Sovik Vice President of Sales and Tony Dawson Vice President of Alliances

Jason Hekl — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:00:07 +0000

Software-as-a-Service Veterans Join to Further Accelerate Business Growth and Strategic Partnerships

SAN MATEO, Calif. – August 25, 2010 – Coupa Software, the leading provider of disruptive and innovative cloud spend management (CSM) solutions, today announced the appointments of Steven Sovik as Vice President of Sales, and Tony Dawson as Vice President of Alliances.

In his new role, Steve will be responsible for further growing the global sales organization and accelerating sales of Coupa Cloud Spend Management to organizations of all sizes. With more than 20 years of relevant experience at technology leaders Oracle, Siebel Systems, Andersen Consulting and SupportSoft, Steve brings expertise in rapidly building, leading, and scaling sales organizations at high-growth companies. Prior to joining Coupa, Steve was the VP of Sales for Oracle’s On Demand CRM business, which grew over 100% year during his tenure.

With the newly created VP Alliances role, Tony will be responsible for the development of strategic partnerships and identifying business opportunities for the company’s continued growth. With more than fifteen years of relevant industry experience working with technology leaders including SuccessFactors, Workplace Leaders, Instill and Netscape, Tony brings a wealth of expertise in business development and sales execution. Prior to joining Coupa, Tony had an impressive track record of growing sales as Senior Vice President of Sales at Workplace Answers. Previously, he was a VP of Alliances for SuccessFactors, where he led direct and channel sales organizations as well as oversaw several business units. Tony has also managed sales operations and business development at Instill Corp., served as Vice President of Channel Sales and Business Development at Brience, as well as Director of Worldwide Service Sales at Netscape Communications.

“It’s not often you find a company so committed to challenging the status quo with a better way of doing business,” added Steven Sovik. “With Coupa, companies everywhere can practice smarter spending, and immediately realize savings and greater efficiencies. I am excited to be a part of the Coupa Management Team.”

“Coupa’s platform is fundamentally changing the Spend Management category by helping companies more effectively control their spending in the cloud,” said Tony Dawson. “The Coupa solution is exceptionally easy to use, fast to deploy, cost effective, and consistently helps companies find smarter ways to spend.”

“Steve and Tony have a passion for disruptive technologies and will play key roles in helping Coupa achieve the leadership position in the emerging Cloud Spend Management category of business applications,” said Rob Bernshteyn, CEO of Coupa Software. “Their stellar track records driving new business and developing lasting partnerships position Coupa well for a period of continued explosive growth.”

About Coupa Software

Coupa is the leading provider of disruptive and innovative 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.

Contact:
Melissa Biles
LaunchSquad
415-625-8555
coupa (a) launchsquad.com

Crossbeam Tackles Spend Management Challenge With Coupa !

Ashish Deshpande — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:37:19 +0000

Crossbeam Systems®, Inc. offers a proven approach to deploying network security that meets the extreme performance, scalability and reliability demands of large enterprises, service providers and government agencies. Its adaptable software and hardware platform, the X-Series, provides an open architecture that integrates network processing with application processing to create a high-performance, fully virtualized security infrastructure.

Crossbeam implemented Coupa to streamline its procure-to-processes by integrating with its ERP system – Oracle !

Key Implementation Matrix

Hour Required: 11

The “Double Dip” – Not Just a Cocktail Party Concern

Nova Kopitar — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:15:06 +0000

It used to be when people whispered about the “double dip” at cocktail parties, the main concern was avoiding eating something that was now germ laden because someone had thoughtlessly taken a bite of their chip, bread stick, vegetable, etc. and dipped it back into the community dish. Today the whispers are directed at a totally different kind of double dip, one that has greater implications beyond sharing germs and getting a cold.

As fears of a double dip recession grow and the likelihood of it actually happening increases, whispers have turned into conversations about how will companies respond to yet another downturn. Will there be more layoffs? Will spending thaw or stay frozen? And for procurement and finance professionals, the question becomes how do I protect company profits in these trying times? How can I continue to cut costs and deliver savings? After all, you just had to make cuts and reduce resources to stay afloat during the first recession.

There is no easy answer. Economists will tell you to spend, spend, spend; only by aggressively pumping money into the system will the economy return to prosperity. Financial advisors will tell you to spend prudently, hold onto as much cash as possible in order to outlast the storm. The truth is, you need to do a little bit of both – spend in strategic areas that will put you in a leadership position when this whole mess is over. And you need to do it in a measured, controlled way.

I’ve talked to several CPOs and CFOs over the last few weeks, and for the majority managing spend isn’t about slashing budgets or cutting costs and resources – those really are last resort options. Executives know spend is necessary to run a successful business, but that spend needs to be visible and it needs to be controlled. Executives need to know how funds are being distributed and have the mechanisms to take real-time action to reign in spend. Now is the time to put these systems, controls, and measures in place. Re-evaluate your process, find areas for improvement, take action and get everyone committed to smarter spending and saving.

So no matter if we end up in the depths of a double dip recession or finally see the recovery we have all been promised, you will be poised for success – and still have interesting conversation for those cocktail parties.

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Learn more about how CFOs and CPOs are leveraging Coupa to achieve greater spend visibility and control:

Watch the video, or ;
Attend our panel discussion at CFO Rising West in October

Coupa’s product team is hiring!

Noah Eisner — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:01:08 +0000

I’m putting this out there quickly even before it’s posted on our Jobs page. We’ve got 3 openings for key positions on our team. Here’s the lineup and all positions are San Mateo-based and include the goodies of salary, equity, health benefits, sweet Macbook Pro, snacks, nerf guns and more.

QA Lead
Someone that’s got experience or is ready to step up and be a QA Lead at a dynamic startup. Ideally has a great QA track record, including being hands-on in both manual testing and automation. The person will be responsible for defining all of our QA processes, building automation and managing our offshore QA resources. Objective is to ensure the highest quality of code continues to be delivered to our customers!

Rails Developer
We were one of the first (if not the first) enterprise apps companies to choose Ruby on Rails back in early ‘06. We love it and we’re looking for our next rockstar to drive the innovation and simplicity that has made Coupa successful. Ideal candidate loves working with the latest technologies, has a strong CS background, probably contributed to some open source projects, etc. You’ll be challenged for sure, and you’ll be a key contributor to our future.

iPhone Developer
We’ve got some great plans in mobile and looking for an iPhone developer to join us. You have experience developing beautiful mobile apps and ready for your next challenge. And you’ll probably get to do some Android work too. It’s going to be lots of fun!

F-500 Retailer Simplifies eProcurement Across Its stores With Coupa!

Ashish Deshpande — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:14:28 +0000

Fortune 500 discount retailer specializes in apparel and personal accessories with over 1000 stores nationwide. The retailer was looking for an eProcurement solution that’s easy to use and easy to deploy across its 1000+ locations where there’s a lot of turnover and lengthy training is not possible. In addition, the retailer was looking for solution that can provide budget status (over / under budget) real-time while creating a requisition.

The retailer implemented Coupa and is now able to -

Streamline monthly supply orders across its stores – everything from toilet paper to branded Bags
Leverage many of Coupa’s advanced budgeting features – including checking over/under budget at the time of requisition!

Contract Start to Go-Live: 24 days
Implementation Hours 29.2 hours

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Nova Kopitar — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:45:27 +0000

If you take down any picture in my apartment you will notice the same thing behind every one, there are at least 3 or 4 holes from failed attempts to line up the picture properly. There was no rhyme or reason to my hanging strategy at the time, no measurements taken. I just went for it until it was as good as it could get. But not having a plan will eventually cost me – probably a rather large portion of my deposit.

As with hanging pictures or building a bookshelf or any number of DIY projects, when making decisions about where to cut costs and reduce resources you must act with precision. One wrong cut could easily cause a negative impact throughout the business. Before you make the cut, you need to be double, triple check your calculations, understand the metrics and then take the appropriate action.

But what measures are most important when making these decisions? Which will define where you are successful and where you are struggling?

In Coupa’s recent webinar “Big Bang Benchmarking”, experts Mickey North Rizza, AMR Research analyst and supply chain expert, and Ravi Thakur, Coupa’s resident expert on transactional benchmarking and measurement, laid out 10 must measure metrics to identify what’s working and where you need to consider making cuts.

Requisition & PO Approval Cycle (Time):

Orders & Invoices Processed per FTE (#):

Purchasing Operating Costs (USD):

Days Payable Outstanding (DPO):

Touchless Procurement:

Savings / spend:

Quality – Rejection %:

Cost of Processing per Order & per Invoice (USD):

Spend Under Management:

Customer Satisfaction Ratings:

So, maybe my grandpa was right when he said, “measure twice, cut once”. It really is the only way to ensure that you are making the right cuts before you do something that will cost you – like hammering a bunch of random holes into a wall.

To learn more about the 10 must measure metrics for success, watch Big Bang Benchmarking on demand at: http://go.coupa.com/big-bang-benchmarking-webinar

Let users / requestors do the hard work for you when evaluating suppliers!

Ashish Deshpande — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:23:07 +0000

Let users / requestors do the hard work for you when evaluating suppliers!

As procurement professionals, you get to evaluate supplier performance every so often. Typically, these evaluations are based on easily available factors such as pricing, business volume. Information such as quality, customer service and timeliness is hard to collect and hence it is taken into consideration depending on availability. Clearly, such evaluations do not give you a full 360 degree view of a supplier’s performance plus you get to do all the hard work yourself.

Example of supplier ratings from Coupa’s cloud based eProcurement platform

Admittedly, gathering qualitative information is difficult. However, this is a case where the dictum “don’t work hard, work smart” applies perfectly. Instead of carrying the burden of gathering such information on your shoulders, you can offload it to users / requestors. The benefits are obvious – first of all, you get a first hand view from users about the quality, customer service, timeliness etc. Secondly, with that kind of an input, you are easily able to filter out problem suppliers and focus your efforts on suppliers who rank high in terms of both cost effectiveness and quality.

How do you involve users? The best way to involve users is to harness their community spirit. Encourage or even require users to “rate” a supplier. This is very much like ratings for items and vendors you see on Amazon and eBay. Wouldn’t it be great if you can see the ratings on your suppliers any time just the way you see them on Amazon or eBay ? Perhaps you are wondering, this all sounds good and it’s one thing for Amazon or eBay to do it, but can I do this? The answer is an emphatic YES – you can do this in no time and that too without breaking your bank. All you need is a truly cloud based eProcurement platform. One more reason why they are being adopted so rapidly!

Retailers Flock to Coupa Cloud Spend Management to Cut Costs

Jason Hekl — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:00:07 +0000

The Container Store, Michaels and Others Protect their Bottom Line from Slowed Consumer Spending

SAN MATEO, Calif. – August 3, 2010 – Coupa Software, the leading provider of disruptive and innovative cloud spend management (CSM) solutions for squeezing savings from business operations, today announced a significant uptick in the number of retail and franchise businesses selecting Coupa to more effectively manage and control their indirect spending.

Express, Inc., The Limited, Michaels, The Container Store, Dollar General, and a prominent specialty retailer of stylish home furnishings and high quality cookware are among the retailers leveraging Coupa’s platform for their e-procurement needs.

With soft consumer spending renewing worries about a fragile economic recovery, retailers and franchise businesses are investing in process improvements and technology innovations to more effectively control their spending and protect their profits. Coupa Cloud Spend Management offers several advantages to retailers eager to adopt smarter spending practices, including:

Centralized control over procurement processes and greater visibility into spending at the store level, without having to deploy IT resources or professional buyers in each location.
Broad adoption with an easy-to-use solution that requires minimal change management and training to learn or adopt, perfect for workforces characterized by non-office personnel, or that have high turnover or seasonal fluctuations in their employee base.
Ability to segregate content and streamline store-level purchasing through content groups. For example, with Coupa, retailers can segregate catalog items, how to buy policies, contracts, punchout sites and more by region, store layout, or other logical grouping to standardize ordering processes in each location.
Full budgeting support, including budget remaining checks before requisitions are approved, and roll-up reporting for store-level, and regional (or district) spending relative to budget.
Universal access via any web browser. As the only true multi-tenant cloud company in the e-procurement category, the software can be accessed from the Amazon cloud via any web browser. There is no hardware to buy, or software to install.
Fast time to value. Everything you need to get started is included in a single subscription price and standard implementations are free, perfect for organizations designed to be self-sufficient at the store level, without expensive IT overhead.

“Coupa’s traction in our industry does not surprise me at all,” said Scott Jones, Purchasing Agent and Coupa Project Manager at The Container Store. “The dynamics of the retail business model demand efficient and cost-effective operations. Coupa’s cloud-based e-procurement solution fits that need perfectly. We’ve been very successful with the software.”

The Container Store, a Coupa customer since 2008, eliminated stockpiling and supply over-ordering at the store level by integrating Coupa with its warehouse management and supplier systems. By managing its requisition and purchase order processes through Coupa, The Container Store can accurately charge supply costs to individual stores based on supply usage, instead of more arbitrary measures like cost allocation based on percent of sales volume. The company reduced the number of SKUs managed in-house by 60%, and now processes 50% fewer purchase orders per week. Time savings generated by improved processes allowed the company to act on the spend intelligence gathered to negotiate new contracts for greater pricing discounts.

“Brick and mortar retailers have certain advantages over their online counterparts, but they are also under constant pricing pressure from pure online competitors who do not incur the same costs associated with operating distributed store locations,” said Rob Bernshteyn, CEO of Coupa Software. “It’s absolutely critical that retailers keep a watchful eye over every dollar of spend. And industry leaders are doing so with Coupa.”

About Coupa Software
Coupa is the leading provider of disruptive and innovative 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.

Contact:
Melissa Biles
LaunchSquad
415-625-8555
coupa (a) launchsquad.com

Data and the Dentist

Nova Kopitar — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:24:04 +0000

I hate the dentist – and I am due for a midyear check up. I am lucky enough to work for a company that offers good insurance and yet, even though all the information I need is right there at my fingertips, I still do not schedule that darn appointment. Why? Because I don’t want to hear what’s good for me; I’ll just wait until December to see how I did, how many cavities I racked up and fillings will be needed.

This type of procrastination is not limited to just medical appointments, visiting the in-laws, or starting a new diet and exercise regime. In the world of procurement, we often wait until the end of the quarter or the end of the year to see whether or not we are on track or have met our spend and savings goals. This often leads to surprises, both good and bad. Like you were significantly over budget and will now have to find a way to “make up for it”. Or you lost the opportunity to save 20% more on that contract because you didn’t realize the obscene amount of cardboard boxes your shipping department uses.

Spend measurement and benchmarking is critical to proving your initiatives’ success. Best-in-class organizations have a specific strategy to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of their process. They continuously monitor core KPIs, identify areas for action, and fine-tune the process along the way. They align their measurement strategy with the maturity of their organization and continuously strive to take their efforts to the next level. And these spend samurai are kicking their spend management efforts up a notch and delivering on average 11% more in savings than the market.

So, are you ready for your midyear check up? Join Sourcing Interests Group, Coupa executive Ravi Thakur and renowned AMR analyst Mickey North Rizza for “Big Bang Benchmarking”, a live web event on Tuesday, August 3rd at 11:00am Pacific / 2:00pm Eastern. During this session, you will discover the secrets to showcasing your success in 2010 including how to develop a long-term strategy, how to calculate the 10 must measure metrics and will even provide market benchmark data where you can see how you stack up.

Register for this event today and get your spend measurement questions answered by the experts. Oh, and don’t forget to floss.