Does procurement bring exciting technological advances or business transformation to mind? If not, then look at the platform from Coupa Software Inc. The company is out to transform procurement procedures so that they support broader business objectives.

Chief procurement officers are now being called to expand their duties to not just manage business spend, but drive business outcomes, according to Jesse Hanger (pictured), director of capability network, sourcing and procurement at Accenture PLC. “It can’t just be about saving money or reducing costs — you have to start driving business, and you can’t drive business if all you do is save money,” he said.

A single platform that collects all data on procurement and other financials can help transform the CPO’s role. Coupa is delivering this with an easy user experience that mimics consumer software, Hanger explained.

Hanger spoke with Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Coupa Inspire event in Las Vegas. They discussed how Coupa’s platform can transform procurement in businesses (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Amazon experience in the office

Coupa’s plans to revamp procurement into business spend management seemed slightly overambitious to Hanger at first. But when he began working with clients to transform their procurement procedures, he realized that it was no mean task. Coupa’s BSM platform helps them make and maintain changes that actually improve the business, Hanger explained.

The platform makes executing procurement tasks easier. It’s the kind of platform the brings an Amazon.com experience to work. “We used to say, we’re going to bring your shopping experience from Sunday afternoon to your desk Monday morning. I don’t have to make every one of my transactions start with a phone call that necessitates three additional phone calls later on to check on the status,” Hanger stated.

This is just the beginning for Coupa. It will likely advance its platform greatly as it learns to leverage all of the data sets it collects. In fact, Coupa frowns on individual modules and is striving toward total integration, which make things like fraud detection, easier.

“I think that what we’re going to see over the next one to four years is going to be a fairly significant shift in how that data is going to drive very discreet and concrete value to all the members of the community,” Hanger concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Coupa Inspire event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Coupa Inspire event. Neither Coupa Software Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE