The document summarizes a panel discussion at a Coupa for Retail Breakout Session. Rone Luczynski from Service Corporation International, Tom Dryer from Jo-Ann Stores, and Cliff Gott from The Fresh Market discussed managing challenges in distributed procurement environments, best practices for supplier enablement, and building business cases to show value. The panel was hosted by Aaron Wargo from Coupa and moderated by Chad Brace from Coupa.
4. Tom Dryer, VP, Controller at Jo-Ann Stores, Inc.
Tom Dryer
5. Director of Non Merchandise Procurement
The Fresh Market
Cliff Gott
6. Coupa for Retail Panel Discussion
How do you manage the challenges of a distributed
environment, decentralized procurement and constant
turn over?
Supplier enablement tips and challenges
Building a business case and showing value
7. How do you manage the challenges
of a distributed environment?
Nancy – This slide look cluttered, maybe some better spacing? Also we need the party slide on this one.
With nearly 25 customers , the retail industry is one of the fastest growing segments at Coupa. Leading Retailers like the ones you see here are using Coupa’s Retail solution to manage their spend, drive spend savings, support rapid store growth and provide a consistently great experience for their customers.Today we are fortunate to have 3 of our outstanding retail customers with us to talk about their experiences and share some tips and tricks for a successful engagement.
One of the biggest challenges is retail is dealing with stores spread over a large geographic area and high turnover rates. This can make managing change specially tough.Rone – What has SCI’s experience been here.1- Change managementEducation and trainingLocations focusing on core competencyTimely receivingTom – How was Jo-Ann able to tackle this challenge and make it easy on the stores?Item and user set up to default account stringsSuper user to helpTraining – nd no customizations by departmentChalenges – receiving and testingCliff – how did TFM handle changing to a centralized environment?Little red hen, eliminate manual work, use reports to improve controlsChallenges – education – showing the system can be easy to use
One of the keys to any successful p2p dployment is getting suppliers to participate.Rone – How did SCI attack this challenge?1- group by rapid payback and cost reductions2-rol out by largest categories of spend? How did you deal with being unique among your peers in asking suppliers to connect electronically?Tom – JAS has quickly enbaled over 200 suppliers – how did you do this so quickly?1- start early on in project do not waitDedicated internal enablement teamALL VENDORS ON EINVOICING OR NOT ALLOWED IN COUPARequiredChallenges – lack of knowledge and resources in suppliersCliff – You handled a lot of this yourself – what can you share?1- understand connection capabilities of the large vendors you are basing biz case onUse different methods to target different size suppliersWalk them through the process
Our last topic is probably one of the most important ones, each of you had to go through a process to get Coupa approved , how did you build the business case and what ideas would you share having gone from your theoritcal case to being in production?Rone – Cross functional team, pre sell so everyone understands the end goals and stateDo not let yourself just automate a broken processTom – you justified your investment differently than some others with a focus on early pay discounts and improved control. Share some of your processEarly pay disconts, enver able to capture beforeEliminated manual systemsReduction of approval timeChallenges – getting IT time and resources, driving adoptionCliff – use your own data, no tindustry averagesGet imput from internal stakeholdersAbolity to easily change vendors