Community Champion Diane Carrara Embodies the Power of We
Today we are pleased to announce the second recipient of our Coupa Community Champion award. One of Coupa’s core principles is to encourage collaboration among peers, across industries and geographical boundaries to improve the overall spend management industry.
This year’s champion, Diane Carrara of CSAA Insurance group was selected because she most embodies the “Power of We.”
In addition to her role as a Financial Systems Analyst, Diane somehow finds time to help others in the Coupa Community by contributing to conversations and by generating new ideas.
We caught up with Diane to learn more about what drives her involvement.
Coupa: What drives you to be involved in the Coupa Community?
Diane: Anytime something comes up that I don’t understand or is an issue for myself or my users, I go straight to the community to see if anyone else is then I create my own post about it. And, of course, if users or LOBs are looking for a specific functionality that isn’t already in Coupa I’m always happy to say “No worries, I’ll open a feature request with Coupa. Hopefully we’ll see that in a future release.” It’s always nice to be able to see some functionality we need actually get implemented! And the users love it, too.
Coupa: How do you find the time?
Diane: I make the time when I can. I admit I have times when I’m too busy on projects and regular support of Coupa to be spending time in the community. Usually when the Coupa Community emails come in, I move them straight to a special mail folder unless some topic catches my eye. When I do have some bandwidth I try to set aside fifteen minutes a day to review those emails in that folder, adding input on the site when I see some connection and want to add my two cents.
Coupa: What has been your most interesting experience?
Diane: I’d have to say it’s best when a few of us admins are totally in tune to an issue and commenting back and forth and then Coupa support chimes in. That’s when it seems we are really getting traction and shortly after, some results.
Coupa: Any memorable Coupa user story?
Diane: My favorite user story is any time I get to go back to a user and tell them that functionality they wanted now exists in our latest release. Woohoo! Makes for happy users! They love to know that their input was listened to and even was part of a driver to get new functionality in Coupa.
Coupa: Anything else you’d like to share?
Diane: The best part of the Coupa Community is the connection with the other Coupa clients and Coupa support. I spend most of my time working in Coupa so it’s nice to go to a place where people understand Coupa speak. It’s especially nice to then meet those people at Inspire.
