24 Jul 2012 Coupa’s 6 month ROI impresses Blackstone
Today, Coupa Software has announced that Blackstone, the investment and advisory firm, has selected Coupa as its spend management solution and has made a limited investment in the company. Some Blackstone portfolio companies already use Coupa, and the Coupa-Blackstone relationship will now be leveraged at other portfolio companies in coming months.
According to the press release, Blackstone selected Coupa Software as it sought a best-in-class solution to streamline operations and optimize its spend. Coupa’s ability to quickly deploy its cloud-based solution and show immediate results was a key factor in Blackstone’s decision to deploy the Coupa solution. With 200 active Blackstone users currently on the platform, the company anticipates full integration with its more than 1,600 employees to drive collective spend intelligence across the organization.
Blackstone’s core private equity competency is investing in leading, global businesses positioned for growth and profitability. With a portfolio of more than 70 companies and $125 billion in annual revenue, Blackstone will offer the Coupa platform to its portfolio companies to help them quickly get their spend under control and improve operating efficiency.
I caught up with Matt Skurbe, treasurer and managing director, last week and asked him “What is it about Coupa?”
“It’s all about simplicity” explained Matt, “Simplicity of the front end screens, quick and easy workflow and ease in terms of the time and investment required to get up and running. Other products have broader capability but would require a significantly greater investment”
Blackstone’s world before Coupa, Matt explained, was a world familiar to many – a paper based world with little opportunity to control spend apart from retrospectively and very limited visibility of spend. The speed and simplicity of implementation of Coupa’s cloud model has given Blackstone an ROI in less than 6 months.
“At Blackstone, we understand how to optimize company operations to improve efficiency and profitability,” said Matt. “Coupa is easy for everyone to use and makes it simple to drive savings that benefit the bottom line. We will use the Coupa solution to optimize spend and help improve the success of our portfolio companies.”
“We’re thrilled with the addition of Blackstone to our growing marquee of top-tier companies and investors,” said Rob Bernshteyn, CEO of Coupa. “Blackstone and Coupa share a strong partnership culture and unwavering commitment on creating value. Together, we’re focused on bottom-line results, and we anticipate huge continued success.”
Pete Loughlin can be found on twitter @peteloughlin
