>> Announcer: From London, England, it's theCUBE, covering Coupa Inspire '19 EMEA, brought to you by Coupa. >> Hey, welcome to theCUBE! Lisa Martin on the ground in London at Coupa Inspire. Because I'm in the UK, I have to say, you know of Sting, right? Well, guess who's here? Somebody cool enough to go by one name, it's Chandar, the CMO at Coupa. Welcome back! >> Great, Lisa, it's great to be here. >> So, this morning kicked off with Rob's talk all about community. One of the interesting things about Coupa is this community that you guys have built. Talk to me about, I know $1.3 trillion of spend is going through the Coupa platform, the community. Talk to me about how you've cultivated this community at Coupa. >> Yeah, it's a great question. Now, if you take a step back, you know, people don't buy features, people buy tribal feelings. And if you think it, if you look at, like, you know, if you look at a product like Harley-Davidson. Anybody can go buy any bike, but people are not buying the features, they're buying the tribal feeling of being part of that community. If you look at a product like Peloton, you know, people can go buy, have any stationary bike or any workout bike today. But they want to be part of that community. And as my wife tells me, Sephora, right? I don't have a lot of experience with that-- >> She's right. >> She is right, great, (Lisa laughs) thanks for the endorsement there. But again, it is about being part of the community and people like that and stuff, and that's what we're doing is, it's the features or the capability, it's the community the tribal feeling, and that's what Rob was talking about, the inspirational attributes of these different people that are part of this community, and how we're trying to, how we are building this community by showcasing the great leaders and their attributes and how they're transforming change in their organizations, and that's what we're creating in this conference, the feeling, the #emotion, of I want to be part of this cool club, and that's what we're doing. >> You know, a lot of companies talk about customer first, customer centricity. The community here is really helping Coupa innovate on its own technology. Talk to me about some of the things that, you know, since we last spoke, a few months ago, that have been inspired by the voice of the community. >> Yeah, so, you know, there is this concept of co-creation that Rob talked about today with our community. And a lot of the community is inspired by the community and it's for the community. And we have a number of innovations, 80 plus innovations that have been inspired in the last one year by the community. And even a concept like Source Together that Rob talked about, and the idea of Source Together is how can we come together as one community and drive the best negotiated savings together with a supplier, this is an idea that's been co-created with the community. So there's a number of different things. You look at community intelligence, Rob talked about commodity insights, as well as a number of other capabilities that we are showcasing today, has been driven, co-created, inspired by the community. And that's what's great. You want to set the innovation agenda for the industry by having this community inspire us. In fact we had our customer advisory board at every conference that is happening for us, and that's what drives to a lot of the innovation that we do today. >> Speaking of customers, Rob shared a lot of examples during his keynote this morning. I lost count of how many of your Coupa Spendsetters were mentioned, other customers, all with very strong business, measurable business outcomes. I know tomorrow in your keynote, you're going to be talking with a number of customers. But some of the things that are interesting about what Rob shared is these are examples that aren't just about refining procurement and reducing spend and, it's much more transformative. Give me some of your favorite examples of where this is beyond improving procurement. >> Yeah, it's a great question. It's a great question. And we have a number of stories, for example, tomorrow in my keynote, I'm going to be talking about storytelling, right. I'm going to be talking about how we can inspire the community through storytelling, and great storytelling starts with great storytellers. And these Spendsetters, and we can see them in the hallways here, we have found about 15 of them, and they're all great storytellers for one reason. They have great transformative stories in business spend management, but what makes them a great storyteller is that they're telling a story beyond the boundaries of the business spend management. Let me give a couple of examples, right. So one story that I'll highlight tomorrow is about Jarkko, the CPO of Telia. Now, I don't know if we know Telia, but 60% of the word's internet traffic goes through Telia. >> 60%? >> 60%. So everyday morning, checking out coupa.com that we all do. >> Every day. >> Or I'm looking at some less popular sites like Facebook or LinkedIn or anything else, you're probably on the Telia network, especially in this part of the world. And their challenge, their business spend management challenge is, they're pretty fragmented across the Nordics and the Baltics and other regions, and now with Jarkko, he's a strategic crusader, not a hired gun, but more of a driven crusader who's come in, transformed the sourcing function, made it more strategic, consolidated seven systems into one system with Coupa, and had 20,000 employees using that as well as all the different people for sourcing, so that they get the global benefits of scale across the regions. Now that's a great business spend management story, but what makes him a great storyteller, he's telling a story beyond the boundaries of business spend management, because he's not talking about savings attainability, he's talking about environmental sustainability, and the story he talks about is what their initiative at a board level is, you know, zero emission and zero waste by 2030, and how the work that his team is doing is directly impacting that board level initiative on how are they driving a communication strategy across the supplier base to get their environmental plans into the Telia's operations, and how me measures plans and progress of every supplier in their CO2 emission, and how that's going to be an explicit part of how they work with their suppliers, and how he is the trusted advisor that he is actually challenging everybody to rethink this whole idea of source to pay. That is telling a boundary beyond the boundaries of business spend management, it's telling a story. So that's one example, right. >> Is that a gentleman who's in procurement in finance within an organization? >> He is the CPO, the procurement-- >> That is having an impact on the sustainability footprint of the company. >> That's right, so directly associating with the initiative at a board level, right. So he's shifted it, by shifting the storytelling from talking about savings attainability to environmental sustainability, he shifted the perception of the organization from something that's operational to something that's very strategic in the organization. So that's one good storytelling. The other one I'll highlight, an example, is Matthieu at Global Fund. Now the Global Fund is the world's largest financier of fighting malaria, AIDS, HIV in 100-plus countries. They disperse $4 billion every year for that. And they have this partner called OneWorld.org, it's powered by Coupa, that Matthieu and his team are doing. So he could get a great business spend management story. He can say, you know, I've driven digital transformation, I've done 99.9% of my POs are electronic, and I've come to this new age of where, you know, on contract spend is being done, et cetera. Now what makes him a great storyteller, he's telling the story beyond the boundaries of BSM again. He's talking about a story of how this, the work that his team is doing, is directly impacting saving 32 million lives. How they are treating millions of people, get the right treatment for HIV, help pregnant mothers or on HIV, they get the right treatment on time, so that the babies don't get infected with HIV, and how they're distributing hundreds of millions of mosquito nets throughout the world for preventing malaria, through this OneWorld tool that's powered by Coupa to get the right medication on time. So that's millions and millions of lives, but the speed and ease of every single medication to get there, has an impact on the life of that person, and that's the story he's telling. >> This is so interesting, because it's so common for businesses to tell the common success story, and a lot of what Coupa shares of customers holding those big white cards with big numbers of what they're saving are very impactful. What was the idea behind the Spendsetters program, 'cause when I was reading a few of them in preparation to come here, it seems like it was a little bit more about the person and how that individual has facilitated transformation. Tell me about the concept-- >> It's a great point. There's two components to it, right. One is empirical, two is emotive. And if you look at both concepts, one of them is the empirical value that, yes, ultimately Coupa is about driving value, and that has to be as a company, has a capability of driving value to our customers. And that's the empirical value of you have driven so much saving, so much percentage of spend, and you know, millions of dollars, billions of dollars savings et cetera. Procter & Gamble, for example, $2.5 billion in savings. That's the empirical value. It's very clear, that's the value. But behind that is a person, and that is the emotive story of what is that person, what is the personal story, what have they gone through in their life, what's their, you know, nurture and nature, and how that's influenced them that's becoming, that made them into the great leader today, and that's the emotive stories we're trying to also tell on the Spendsetters site. So there's the value side of the story, and then there is the emotive side of the story, and the spendsetters.com is purely on telling the human stories, because behind every purchase order is a person, and we're telling the story of that person. >> So as we look at the changing role of the Chief Procurement Officer, the changing role of finance decision makers, not just here in the UK, and I know Coupa recently did a study that showed that 96% of UK financial decision makers said, "Hey, I don't have complete visibility over all my spend", so big opportunity there, but even from a transformation perspective, the Spendsetters examples, how is that showing that Coupa can fundamentally help a business not just change procurement, but have such wide lasting impacts? >> Yeah, I think ultimately, if you look at procurement, you know, for it to go as going from operation to strategic, you're just getting that seat at the table. And getting that seat at the table in any executive discussion is about first aligning to some strategic initiative that is important at that executive table. So more as we align these value stories and the value that procurement is driving, through these strategic initiatives that are important at the board level, at the executive level, the more the profile and the more the R-E-S-P-E-C-T, as we like to say, and get that seat at the table, and that's what this whole Spendsetters program is aiming to do is A, showcase the personal heroes, and B, showcase how they're telling stories that align to bigger level initiatives, that's getting them get that elevate their position and get that seat at the table. And that's what the plan is there. >> So, lots of growth. Second quarter results, I was taking a look at those, revenues up, billings are up, very high renewal rates. So from a customer satisfaction perspective, the data is there to show that Coupa is going in the right direction. From your perspective, how influential are your existing, your incumbent customers in helping prospective customers evaluate Coupa and go, this is the right decision for us. >> It's a great question. You know, I say we live in a peer-bound world, right, where it's really, we more and more, first of all, 80 to 90% of buyers' journeys are self directed, because buyers have more power than ever before, and second of all, anything we do within our personal lives as well as in business decisions, we rely more on peers and people we trust to help us make those decisions, right? From that perspective, our best sellers, the best sellers we have in this conference, are our customers. I just came from an executive luncheon, where we had 50% of the room was customers and 50% of the room was prospects, and we had our best sellers, not our salespeople, our customers talking to the prospects, in real, authentic conversations of what's value, what's their journey, what did they struggle with, and what are the lessons learned, and how did they get there. And those are really meaningful interactions that ultimately is going to make a prospect, influence a prospect on what decision they have to make. >> Absolutely. >> So that's very, very important from us, and then providing a platform for this authentic dialog and these authentic interactions. That's important for us. And also, I think, you know, ultimately in a SaaS business, the true measurement of success, I say is two things, right. One is what I call lifetime value, and two is the number of brand advocates. So the idea there if someone is staying with you longer and giving you lifetime value, and is shouting from the rooftop that I really love my interaction with this brand, then invariably you're driving value to them in a long term way. And that's really the true measure of success, and that's what excites us from our perspective. >> And is the foundation of that trust? >> The foundation of that is two things. It's trust based on value, right, and you've got to deliver value, and Rob has a great line where he talks about, it is not about customer satisfaction, it's about customer success. 'Cause many times a customer may be satisfied, may not really know what their success metrics really mean, but it's not about sometimes a customer may not be satisfied, but really be successful because you're driving the true metrics what is important to the customer. So once you get the value delivered, and do it in an open, authentic way, then, in that case, there's trust that build, and based on that trust, you earned that trust, and that becomes the foundation of the lifetime value. >> We were talking about, well, we, Rachel Botsman was talking about the importance of a brand, any brand, earning trust. A lot of times she gave that example in her keynote where she showed three brand logos, Uber, Facebook, and Amazon, and said, trust is so contextual and so subjective, but clap for which brand you trust the most. And it's so interesting when she started talking about, Facebook got the least, in fact Facebook got no applause at all, I was expecting a few folks (Chandar laughs) to maybe do some clapping, but Amazon being the clear winner, and I thought, yeah, I trust Amazon to deliver whatever it is that I buy when they say they're going to deliver it, and she said she trusts them to do the same, but, would you trust them to pay their taxes on time-- >> Chandar: Sure. >> So when she started talking about trust being subjective and contextual, it really kind of changes the whole dynamic. >> Chandar: It does. >> So that earned trust, but also the ability to reduce the risk that your customers are facing, whether it's overpaying suppliers or paying duplicate invoices, that trust risk balance seems pretty critical as well. >> Ti does, it does. It's an interesting perspective. I think because, in that case of Amazon, I think there's operational trust, that they're going to get the job done and deliver the whatever you ordered in one day with frame or two days with frames, this is operational trust. But is there a trust in the sense of purpose is where she was going with, right. And today for organizations, especially with the millennial crowd, as being customers as well as employees, the question is, you can get operational trust, but you also have a sense of purpose that they trust in, and have that be, and be authentic as an organization. And that's why is say it is not being, you talk about AI, as artificial intelligence, the real AI is authentic interactions. >> Lisa: Authentic interactions. >> And that's really the authenticity as a brand, being open, and acknowledge your failures but strive for excellence for success, and have this open platform with your customers, and always look towards adding value. I think that invariably, over time, creates this trust feeling that ultimately drives long term lifetime value for us. So that I think is the most important thing. >> Absolutely. So tell me again, which three customers are going to be on stage with you tomorrow sharing their stories? >> It's great, I have three. One, Procter & Gamble, a company that my mom knows about, my 86-year-old mom. So one of the greatest brands, so that's a great story about, again, they have a great business spend management story, but they're telling a story beyond the boundaries of business spend management and it's a fun story. And then we're going to have the Global Fund. Again, I told you, one of the world's largest financier of fighting HIV, malaria and AIDS. And we're going to have Telia, one of the largest telecommunications providers. >> Excellent. So really kind of showing the breadth of the technologies and the industries that Coupa helps to transform. >> And the breadth of the personalities, and the people behind that are driving all this change. >> Excellent, well Chandar, thank you for joining me on theCUBE. I wish we were going to be here tomorrow to see your keynote, but it sounds exciting and the Spendsetter program is certainly one that I think is quite differentiated in terms of telling those transformative stories that you said are both empirical and emotional. >> Yes, thank you Lisa, it's great to be here. >> Likewise. >> Great. >> For Chandar, I am Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE from Coupa Inspire London. Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) >> Announcer: From London, England, it's theCUBE. Covering Coupa Inspire'19 EMEA. Brought to you by Coupa. (gentle music) >> Hey, welcome to theCUBE. Lisa Martin, on the ground in London, at Coupa Inspire'19. Very pleased to welcome to theCUBE for the first time, we have Dean Henry, the EVP of Business Financing and Supplier Management from American Express. Dean, welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you, happy to be here. >> So let's talk about payments. Those of us in our day lives as consumers, the B2C transactions, they're so easy these days, right? You can transact from your phone, from your watch. We're doing everything. We're paying bills, we're buying things. Yet in the B2B space, business payments haven't had as rapid as innovation, as we've seen on the consumer side. Talk to me a little bit about the business-to-business payments industry from AMEX's perspective, before we get in to what you guys are doing with Coupa. >> Yeah well, first comment on the innovation you're absolutely right. The innovation that's happening in retail payments, hasn't made it's way to B2B payments. I think that's mostly a function of a consumer having the ease to try something new. Download an app, and change the way that they transact a bit at a store. Or, a bit with whomever they're paying. Whereas, a big business has a lot of processes that drive their business spend. And the way that they manage it, and systems. As we're here talking with Coupa today, the processes that they automate, that they bring, are critical to making payments happen. Because of that, there's just barriers to entry, that make B2B payments harder to mirror the speed, that you see in the retail side. That said, there's a lot of exciting things happening. B2B payments is a $127 trillion market globally. It's a big profit pool that a lot of players are innovating in. And when you look into the landscape and you consider who's playing out there. There's the traditional big banks, that have been sort of the stalwarts of global payments. There's obviously a large and growing fintech community, with new companies everyday that are in the media, offering new capabilities to clients. And then there's players like American Express. And I think we're actually uniquely positioned in that landscape, with not too many exactly like us. And when you look at the big banks and some of the challenges that they have. When I talk to our customers about fees, and processes that take awhile. Or money that moves with relative uncertainty, in terms of, how much is actually going to show up in the beneficiary's account, based on lifting fees, as money moves between banks. And then you look at the fintech community. That's new innovative solutions, but you're not sure that they're always going to be around, after the next funding cycle. I think we're trying to play in the middle. Where we're a great alternative to the fintech community. We're a global platform for payments. We're a global platform for lending. So we can really do all the things that a fintech can do. All the things that a bank can do, in many instances. And do that with the brand, and the certainty, that is AMEX. So we're excited about the space. And we're investing a lot of time, and energy. And partnering where we need to, in order to make sure our customers can transact where they want us to help them facilitate commerce. >> Right, that point of enabling a customer to transact where they want. What influences are you, is American Express, seeing and being able to infuse into your partnerships, from the consumer side? From that consumer who buys something with a click, or a swipe on Amazon, and wants to be able to do something similar, in their business day job. Tell me about the influence that American Express is seeing. And what that position that you just described, is allowing you guys to say, all right this is the direction that we're going to go in. Because we know we need to meet you, Mr. Customer, where you are. >> Right, well look I think part of it is demographics to be perfectly honest with you. Look at Gen Y, and Gen Z. They're more of the decision makers in today's management. They will be even more in tomorrow's management. And so they, to your point, have that expectation that their business life shouldn't be that much more complex, than their personal life. So, what we're trying to do is find the partners that have the best user experience. And make sure our solutions work seamlessly there. That's step one, that's what we're doing here with Coupa. Step two, is we're also trying to make sure that our capabilities on Amex, a digital real estate works just as easily as a our retail side of our business. And we're doing that with the unifying principles of American Express, which is the trust, and the service, and the brand that we offer to our clients. But then, also the merchant rewards. So there's a rich history of American Express providing a differentiated value proposition, with the credit card rewards that exist. And we take that capability into our business relationships, and make sure that it's a value add to those customers that want it. >> So let's talk about what American Express is doing with Coupa. What was just announced with Coupa Pay? >> So yeah, Coupa Pay, I was impressed by the stats that Rob put up there. They're growing quickly, and we want to be part of it. We're candidly following the requests of our clients who want American Express, as a payment option inside Coupa Pay. We offer a tremendous value prop inside of Coupa Pay. The data that flows with a payment, the data that we're able to collect, that differentiates us from our competition. Helps our clients reconcile their payments, eliminate the paper, realize the efficiencies that Coupa's clients are excited about. And so, we're there simply enabling American Express to be a payment option. And my hope, and I think Coupa's hope, is that that's step one of a partnership. And we'll be able to do more together, to serve our collective clients. >> So this is enabling American Express virtual cards to be available as a payment option, within Coupa Pay? >> Dean: Yes. >> And what is a virtual card? >> So a virtual card is a virtual credit card number. It can be a one-time use, or multi-use. >> Okay. >> Our clients use it for several different reasons. Buyers of goods use a virtual card, in order to make the payment of a supplier easier. To get more data, along with the transaction, so that they can reconcile a payment to a purchase order, and to associated invoices. The suppliers get benefit as well. In that, they too get enhanced data to reconcile a payment, that they receive on their end. There's also working capital benefit. In that, if a buyer chooses to pay early an invoice, we can extend financing, and pay the supplier earlier. So that they have more working capital to operate their business. So it's a real balanced value prop, where both parties are realizing value. >> Is this going to enable a buyer to have benefits, like increased security, with the way the virtual card works? >> Increase security, in so far as a virtual card is encrypted. The fact that American Express stands behind all of our card payments, with our brand and our promise. That differentiates from a traditional bank payment. You know ACH, and other low value clearings, that don't have those guarantees along with it. So that is a big differentiator. But I think candidly, the biggest benefit our clients see is the enhanced data, and the working capital. I think that's where we're trying to enrich both sides of the transaction. Give more data to enable the automation that's happening in the industry. And extend credit, so that businesses can operate more efficiently. And buy the things they need to buy. And hire the people they need to hire. >> Is this also something that will give suppliers, and buyers, more visibility? You talk about enhanced data. Will they now have more visibility over buyers, like different supplier options? Or suppliers, with different ways that they can get paid? >> So certainly, enhanced visibility on when a supplier is getting paid. And relative to the invoice date. And what we're trying to do is work with Coupa, and work with our partners around, well how do we enhance the data so that as Coupa talks about the community of suppliers, that their buyers utilize. How can we be part of that? How do we support the buyers in making decisions? The suppliers in utilizing American Express as a source to be a verified business, that has gone through all the legal checks, that are required in commerce. And bring both of those capabilities, to a transaction on the Coupa network. >> One of the stats that Rob mentioned this morning. I love stats, I really geek out over them, I don't know why. He said there's five million plus suppliers on the Coupa platform. Is that an advantage, that American Express sees, to help extend the footprint of your virtual cards? >> Absolutely, what I'm candidly more excited about is the millions, and millions, of suppliers that are on the American Express network. And that's an asset that I see personally, as something that we can work with Coupa, and other partners, to bring the businesses that are already verified. That are on our network, that we personally talk to every year. And bring those verified profiles to the commerce networks, like Coupa, so that it's easier to transact on Coupa, if you have an American Express card. >> Got it, and then last question for you is if we look at this partnership, what was announced today, this is launching in the UK and Australia first. And then, you'll roll it out more globally. Can you tell me a little bit about why those two regions? When that's going to be available for customers to use? >> So the honest answer is we wanted to be fast to market, quick out to our customer base. The UK and Australia, are two very important geographies for us. So we're launching first in those places, by the end of the year. And then, looking at rolling out in the US in early 2020. And then, from there expanding alongside Coupa globally. >> Tell me, as we're sitting here in London. Some of the interesting things going on, it's a lot of geopolitical challenges. Everybody knows about Brexit, and the election coming up, on the 12th of December. Tell me a little more about the UK market for American Express. What were some of the market dynamics that Amex said, hey there's an opportunity here for, I'll use a word that Coupa uses, acceleration, like accelerated time to market. Give me a little more about that. >> Yeah I mean candidly, like the geopolitics haven't really played into our launch. But the UK has been a strong market for Amex, for a very, very long time. Brighton, where we have a very big presence with the local football team in Brighton. That's just a metaphor for the broader extension, and client base, and employee presence that we have here. And so we wanted to make a big partnership announcement, in an important place. And the UK felt like the right market to do it in. >> Excellent, well Dean thank you for joining me on theCUBE this afternoon. Sharing what's new, with Amex and Coupa. We appreciate your time. >> Thank you so much. I'm really happy to be here. >> Oh excellent. For Dean Henry, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE, from Coupa Inspire London '19. Thanks for watching. (gentle music)