Cooper Standard Accelerates Innovation with Coupa for BSM
In a company where fewer than 50 customers account for billions of dollars in revenue each year, relationships are everything. Just ask Cooper Standard CEO Jeffrey Edwards. He has been leading the global auto parts manufacturer since 2012, during which the company’s stock price has doubled. Edwards credits success to having “a level of customer intimacy that’s better than any of our competition.”
Cooper Standard's 32,000 employees across 20 countries stay in lockstep with their customers to produce exceptional products while adhering to Cooper Standard’s core values of continuous improvement, quality, and safety. The business constantly innovates to create specialized materials and systems that help make transportation reliable and comfortable. Their cutting-edge car sealing systems, for example, help keep out rain, road noise, and air leaks, while their best-in-class fluid transfer systems help power your car’s heating and cooling mechanisms, so you can stay toasty in the winter and keep cool in the summer.
Navigating Compliance and Industry Shifts Through an IT Lens
To maintain operations at all of its 123 facilities, Cooper Standard used 24 different ERP systems, each with its own indirect procurement system. This disjointed IT architecture resulted in fragmented Business Spend Management (BSM) processes. “Compliance was always a challenge,” said Director of IT Toks Ajepe. Business leaders had low visibility into spend, procurement processes were cumbersome, and missed savings opportunities added up.
Amidst challenging market conditions in Asia and Europe and rising commodity costs worldwide, Cooper Standard needed to be more agile. The company needed to know where and how much money was being spent so it could give business decision-makers real-time visibility and control.
The mishmash of many systems employees were required to use to procure even simple items like a computer was a significant burden. Cooper Standard sought a comprehensive, cloud-based, digital Procure-to-Pay solution to make these tasks quicker so employees could get back to their actual jobs. And, of course, any solution they chose needed to play nicely with existing systems.
Cooper Standard Chooses Coupa for Business Spend Management
Cooper Standard selected Coupa to integrate seamlessly into their existing SAP and Workday systems. The BSM platform’s ease of use for both IT teams and end-users was a key driver in the decision.
According to Sue Kampe, SVP, Chief Information Officer, Cooper Standard strove to get an “end-to-end Procure-to-Pay process that’s fully digital [with] no-touch … and this was accomplished with Coupa.” Today, for example, 80 percent (up from 0%) of the invoicing process is totally touchless.
Cooper Standard Consolidates to One Spend Platform
With all 24 ERP systems connected to Coupa’s BSM platform, compliance is no longer a challenge. Leaders can better see and control spend, and IT doesn’t worry about system upgrades with Coupa; they’re automatic.
12% Savings Realized on Maintenance, Repair and Operations
Cooper Standard reinvests the savings realized with Coupa’s BSM platform into their business to drive towards world-class and add value through innovation in both the front and back office.
100% User Adoption of Coupa’s BSM Platform
Cooper Standard has seen 100% user adoption of Coupa’s easy-to-use platform. With more employees using the platform, the business can better enforce compliance, ensure visibility, and control spend within the global organization.
P-Card Spend Drops by 75% After Introducing Coupa’s Platform
Cooper Standard implemented Coupa’s BSM platform in just 6 months and the project has delivered significant value, including a 75% reduction in p-card spend, reports Christine Krathwohl, Vice President of Global Supply Chain.
Partnering with Coupa for BSM, Cooper Standard continues to push to their mission called “Top 30/Top 5” and become a “Top 30” global auto supplier in sales and a “Top 5” global auto supplier in return on invested capital. To learn more about similar amazing results customers are seeing with Coupa, check out some other recent success stories!
