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![Coupa Software [NASDAQ:COUP]: The Tao of Spend Management](/company_logos/23sfucoupa222.png "Coupa Software [NASDAQ:COUP]: The Tao of Spend Management")
Rob Bernshteyn, CEO On every chair in The Westin St. Francis’ Grand Ballroom, a copy of “Value as a Service: Embracing the Coming Disruption,”—a 170-page book authored by Rob Bernshteyn, CEO, Coupa—was placed. It was Coupa Inspire 2016, an event where industry leaders come together to share best practices and learn how Coupa Software [NASDAQ:COUP], a pioneer in spend management, is helping redefine the enterprise spends software industry; and this time focused on value-based disruption. “It is not a book to make money, but Coupa’s ‘position paper,’” begins Bernshteyn, as he launches the book at the event. “Value as a Service is where the market is heading. Now is the time to reorient to this perspective. This is not a quick, organizational-restructuring exercise, but a culture change that needs to be embedded over time,” explains Bernshteyn. He believes that the enterprise software industry—including the SaaS contingent—has become engrossed in delivering functionality without focusing on the actual goal of customers. He asserts that Coupa has stolen a march on the competitors by focusing on the value delivered. “Our competitive environment is still in that mode of transitioning from product to subscription. We’re now in the cloud. It is all about delivery model, and it is definitely going to be Software as a Service. But we are swimming in the pool of Value as a Service, where we have to address the big question: With that delivery model, with the capabilities being delivered, how do we use people, technology, and process change to drive value?”Three Core Values
During the event, Bernshteyn outlined three core principles that Coupa follows to align itself to the Value as a Service model. To exemplify the first value—ensuring customers’ success— Bernshteyn asked the customers to hold up their placards that showed the quantified results they have achieved, mostly in millions of dollars saved using the Coupa spend management solutions, through enhanced visibility into their spend reporting and settlement.
"Coupa’s built-in intelligence delivers unmatched visibility into the global travel and expense spends of an organization"
Coupa’s second focus is on result. To deliver phenomenal results, Coupa has established benchmarks, utilizing the data that it collects from its growing customer base.
Value as a Service is where the market is heading. Now is the time to reorient to this perspective
“Many of the organizations are very familiar with Salesforce, which helps drive new revenue,” says Bernshteyn. “We’re on the other side of that equation. We’re helping them spend more efficiently.” Coupa was initiated by two ex-Oracle employees in 2006, and today its cloud software is used by finance teams to manage everything— from information technology budgets and janitorial supplies to business travel. Coupa’s suite of cloud spend management applications, including invoicing, procurement, expense management, sourcing, and inventory, allows customers to realize a return on investment that can start within a few months and grow continually. Coupa delivers ‘Value as a Service’ by empowering its customers to maximize their spend under management, achieve significant cost savings, and drive profitability. The company’s unified, cloud-based spend management platform connects numerous organizations from the Americas, EMEA, and APAC with millions of suppliers worldwide. Coupa bestows greater visibility into and control over how companies spend money across the globe.
Although Coupa’s software was designed to work in collaboration with systems from software giants like SAP and Oracle, they can also be deployed as standalone solutions. Coupa’s customers can replace their old spend management software, which has not been updated in years, and embrace Coupa’s software. They can also implement it as an alternative to homegrown systems that are complicated to maintain internally.
To bring better value from cloud-delivered expense management software, Coupa has acquired two firms that complement its expertise—TripScanner, for managing travel expenditures; and InvoiceSmash, for creating and processing electronic invoices.
“What the market needs is adoptable and intuitive solutions with real time spend information available to CFOs, across devices,” says Bernshteyn. This presents a huge opportunity for procurement to be a strategic player in the boardroom. “We already have an iPhone app available and the Android version is coming next.” Coupa’s strategy is to be approachable. “We think this proves that we are in contact with customers and make it a priority to associate with them to accomplish their goal,” he adds. In this journey, Bernshteyn anticipates that the ability to gain collective intelligence as a community of like-minded professionals and harness that intelligence for the benefit of the companies they work for will be the next big trend. “We look forward to contributing to that evolution,” concludes the CEO.
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Company
Coupa Software
Management
Rob Bernshteyn, CEO
Description
Provides cloud-based expense management solution that enhances visibility, compliance and control over expense spends.
