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>> Welcome back to theCUBE everyone
Lisa Martin here.
On the ground in Las Vegas at COUPA INSPIRE 2022.
This is our second day of coverage here.
There's been about 2,400 to 2,500 folks at the event.
This year people are ready to come back.
I've been happy to talk with lots Coupa folks,
their partners, their customers
and I've got both a customer and a partner here with me.
Heidi Banks joins us, the Senior director
of Global Procurement at Jabil.
Heidi it's great to have you on the program.
>> Thank you for having me give.
>> Give the audience an overview of Jabil
and what you guys do.
>> So Jabil is a $30 billion manufacturing solutions partner
that provides contract manufacturing services
for 450 of the world's largest
and most premier brands around the globe.
Most people don't know our name
but we're the wonderful face behind the name.
>> Well you guys had, I was looking at some stats,
over 260,000 employees across 100 locations.
Very customer centric you guys are, as is Coupa,
this good obviously synergy there
but you had some objectives
from a global procurement perspective.
What were those?
What were some of the challenges that you wanted to solve?
>> So about seven years ago, Jabil went on a journey
to identify what challenges we had out
in the indirect procurement space.
Being such a large global company,
we had no idea what we were spending
on indirect at the of time.
After a little bit of digging,
we found out that we had over 2 billion in spend
that was untapped from a category management perspective.
And so we knew that we needed to grow as a company
and PaaS technology as a foundation,
as our goal and our mission in the company
is to be the most technologically advanced
manufacturer solutions partner for our customers.
>> Was there any sort of one thing or a compelling event
seven years ago that caused you guys to go,
"We need to be really getting our hands
around this indirect spend?"
>> So we started off by bringing in category managers
and they were doing amazing job delivering savings
in our contracts,
but we had no way to deliver that out to the company.
And the company being so big
in so many different jurisdictions
in countries around the world,
you could negotiate the best contract in the world,
but if you couldn't communicate it out to your users
then it was a challenge to really capture that savings
and make sure we were delivering bottom line savings
to the company.
>> And you guys are, we're talking
about three different SAP ERP systems
so a lot of technology in the environment.
What were some of the core technology requirements
that Jabil had when it came
looking for a business plan management solution?
>> Yeah, so we were looking
for something that was very user friendly.
Of course, Coupa takes that box very well.
Also something that could drive governance
and policy controls
again challenging being such a global organization
and making sure that
things were going according to our policy
into our global category managers to be sourced
and negotiated for the company.
We looked for one that was end to end
from a business spend management platform perspective.
We wanted something that was integrated
and could cover three ERP systems
from one pane of glass across the company.
So we could get great analytics
without having to search in so many different places.
>> That is so key.
I was talking with Rob, I was talking with Raja
and they were all talking about how those silos still exist
and how they're helping organizations like Jabil
break those down and give them that single pane of glass,
as you mentioned, to be able to see, to get that visibility
into indirect spend, for example.
Talk to me about the solutions that you implemented
from Coupa.
>> So we started off with Coupa's procure to pay system.
Really our focus was
to get off of our old system as quickly as we could
and get everyone managing on
the same policy controls approval flows.
We then also had analytics,
so we had Coupa AIC and brought in analytics
and in the last year and a half I've also deployed strategic
and tactical sourcing through Coupa as well,
and spend guard from a audit control
and compliance perspective.
>> So then that the phrase "sweet synergy" that actually
probably means a lot to you
Coupa was talking about that
during the keynote this morning.
Your Jabil is living
that sweet synergy kind of experience through Coupa
>> That's right.
As we source in Coupa and we can see,
are there different behaviors that we need to look into
maybe suppliers that are bidding at the last minute
and winning or less than that desirable number of suppliers
coming in or duplicate invoices
and being able to really look through that
and see spend patterns that we would never otherwise uncover
is highly important to us
from a compliance standpoint, we've gotten a great value
out of that solution.
>> And in terms of value,
one of the things I know that was important to you
when you were looking for the right technology partner,
was you wanted to involve other folks
within the organization across IT, other lines of business.
Talk to me about how important that was to bring in
that cross-functional team to help make the right decision.
>> Yeah, that was one of the most critical things
that we did.
We needed to make sure,
especially being an SAP shop right,
we needed to make sure that we were standing back
and really being impartial in our decision
and driving a non-biased decision in that RFP process.
And so we got our executives together,
talked to them about the value drivers
and the ROI that we could do
if we had all of the right support
from the right departments,
so that we could avoid resistance
as we tried to deploy in such a rapid way.
So we brought IT legal users together, procurement
and in advance did a balanced scorecard approach
to say these were the important factors that we had
whether it was IT infrastructure,
whether it was capabilities to make sure
that when we came out of that decision
and we picked a solution, we could all look at each other
and have a handshake and say
it was the right decision for us as a company,
and so no departments had push back at that point
because of that approach that we took.
>> An objective approach that you took.
>> That's right.
>> Let's talk about some of the outcomes look at,
actually let's not,
let's talk about your deployment first,
'cause you guys started
with probably your most challenging sites
whereas other folks might go.
Let's start with the low hanging fruit
and kind of work our way up.
Jabil said, "Nope, we're going to flip the script on that."
>> That's right.
So we, we went with what we call an east to west strategy.
We are heavily concentrated in our Asia markets
and so we were also wanted to deliver
our ROI as quickly as possible
and get our spend into the system as quickly as possible.
So we we went live with 12 sites, 11 mega sites in China
and our corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg
in order to get that spend in as quickly as possible
and get our ROI delivered.
So we started in China and the US
then in our second phase deployed the rest of Asia
and then the US and North America and then over to Europe.
So we went regional from a time zone perspective
but also just I say, go bold.
I hear a lot of people that start small and then grow
but if you want to deliver that ROI
and get your money out of that system
as soon as possible go big or go home.
>> I like that go big, go home.
It's like Mick Ebeling was talking about this morning
from not impossible labs commit and then figure it out.
>> That's right. >> That's right.
>> You know what?
That's actually brilliant advice because it's probably
the opposite that a lot of us want
to be we want to be able to figure this out
and then go, okay we can do that.
And he said no
>> Yeah >> To the opposite.
>> To the opposite
>> Did you have to get buy-in from those
cross-functional folks to say
we want to start with our most challenging sites first,
was that a team decision?
>> That was a decision that we did just basically
to get that ROI delivered.
And we also had a really strong team that still partners
with our Coupa admins today that were really invested
in getting onto a solution where they can automate
and drive control and compliance.
And so not only do we involve the team
in the solution selection, but also in the global design.
So we brought different cross-functional departments
together into one location together,
we made all of our decisions
on how we were going to configure Coupa
So that way again all of our divisions
and departments had buy-in
to how we were going to move forward
and then we went from there.
>> Well then, and in that case
everybody feels like they have a stake
>> That's right
>> In the issue they have a vested interest
>> That's right.
>> Which is critical for these
types of large projects to be successful.
>> That's right.
So they were involved in the RFP process
so they knew why we were doing it
and they were then involved and the design
and how we were going to set it up
so that they knew that they had a vested interest
in how it was going to perform in the end.
And then of course there were things that we had to tweak.
So we needed to have a design committee
that we could come back to and make changes as we needed to,
make changes throughout the projects.
You don't always get every single decision right.
The first time, but you need to be nimble
and make changes first
and get consensus across the company.
>> Right. Talk to me about some of the outcomes
I know I've seen a lot of stats in your case study
and I always love those numbers always jump out at me.
Talk to me about some of those
metrics based business outcomes
that Jabil is achieving so far.
>> Yeah. So in the last four years
we've had a heavy focus on catalog.
So actually in the last few months,
we've gone from 20 to 30% by using Coupa analytics
and drilling really into the details
and putting really great category strategies
in order to drive more catalog penetration.
We've got great stats around electronic invoicing
especially in certain countries where people think
it's not possible.
>> Right.
>> There's a great change management story we have
for what we've achieved in our Asian markets
around electronic invoicing and from an ROI perspective,
we were able to deliver 3X our ROI by the end of year two
which we projected would take three years to do
and 7X by year four.
So we had a very conservative and achievable ROI
that got the buy-in and then we were able to accelerate it
by being aggressive, but also with a great solution
it was easy to then get that done.
>> Can you talk a little bit about the change management
that you were able to achieve in the Asian market
change management is the difficult thing to do.
People are resistant to change,
one of the things we've learned in the last two years is
sometimes the change comes in
there's nothing you can do about it
but how did you affect that change management
within that culture in the Asian market?
>> Yeah. So with the executive buy-in that we had
because they knew that there was high potential
for us to deliver an ROI.
We had executive sponsorship that helped us
get through some of those barriers.
So if we decided not to bring certain users into the system,
for example and there was pushback
that they needed to have access
we had executive messaging as to why
from a policy governance and control standpoint
we couldn't break that.
So we used our executives' voice
and their support to do that.
But also we brought in a great system
that was user are friendly
and so we didn't get a lot of resistance in, in that sense.
So they actually embraced the change compared
to the solution we had in place before.
So by making the right selection
from a user centric company
we also didn't get as much resistance there as well.
>> That's nice the path of least resistance is good
especially if you're not exactly sure if you're
going to find it, but verifying that and getting that ROI is
is probably a big, a big win.
Talk to me a little bit about you guys liked Coupa so much
you had such, you mentioned 3X ROI within,
you said the first year?
>> With after year two
>> After year two
>> Yeah. >> 3X ROI,
you liked it so much you decided to become a Coupa partner.
Talk to me about that.
What does that mean?
What are you guys doing as partner?
>> Yeah, so this is a super exiting thing
for us to adventure into.
So we pride ourselves on
our theme as built for practitioners by practitioners.
We've run the system every single day.
We've been running it for years.
So my team members are deep in the knowledge
and capabilities of Coupa it's functionality,
how to manage it every day,
how to get the most you out of it
and we want to share that knowledge
with other Coupa customers to get the most value
out of their system as well.
So whether that's optimization
and helping them get more out of their system
or whether it's roadmap or assessments in our perspective,
or even doing net new implementations
we're excited to venture into that area
of services with Coupa as a partner.
>> Or have you guys started doing that yet?
>> Today is our first Coupa inspire as a partner,
which is exciting.
And we literally just got started in the last few months.
So we are working on getting our first customer here
hopefully very shortly
and have had a lot of of really great conversations
with customers at the show so far.
>> That's one of the great things that Coupa took the risk
to bring us all together because there's
they have a phenomenal community
of which you guys have been a part now you said
I believe about seven years,
but there's nothing that replaces the connections
that you make in the community that is
grown from doing events like this.
I imagine that you've gotten to talk with a lot of prospect
>> Yes.
>> Prospective customers who, what, how did you do this?
This seems like an impossible feat that you've
gotten to share with them.
This is doable,
here's how we did it.
>> That's right.
So fortunately I've been at previous inspires as well.
So I've gotten to talk to people that I haven't seen
in a couple of years, which is always exciting.
I've been able to talk to customers that I've done,
referrals for with Coupa before
that are now Coupa customers
and we get to talk about that
and also those perspective customers and
helping them know that it is doable,
it is achievable you can get consensus
in a decentralized company where all the sites
if you have lots, lots of sites
and countries have their own autonomy, you can do it.
You can do it fast.
You can do it effective if you take the right approach.
And so it's exciting to get here
and share that opportunity
and our adventure and our journey
with Coupa and the journey is only just beginning.
>> Right, what are some of the things
that you are excited about in terms of the innovations
that they've announced at the event?
I know Coupa is very much symbiotic with its customers
that the community very much generates a lot
of the direction in which the technology goes.
But what are some of the things that you've heard
announced that you thought, yes,
they're going they continue to go in the right direction.
>> Yeah. So there's some actual foundational capabilities
around things like payment agreements and group carts
and things that actually we've contributed
through either customer cabs or VP sessions
with design, just doing collaboration together
but I'm also excited to see some of their price benchmarking
that they're doing so that we can know how well are we doing
and from our pricing standpoint
and also where they're going supply chain
I'm excited to see where they're going with that.
Being a big supply chain company ourselves,
we're hoping that all turns out to be something
that we can innovate with Coupa on
and hopefully have in the future as well.
>> Well, as they said, Rob said it
to me just an hour ago, they're tip of the iceberg
but what its seems that you've become Heidi yourself
and Jabil is really kind of an influencer
within the Coupa community.
We appreciate you coming by theCUBE, sharing with us
what you've accomplished
and how you're expanding your Coupa partnership
into helping other companies.
>> Great. Thank you again for having me today.
>> My pleasure.
>> All right.
>> For Heidi Banks, I'm Lisa Martin
and you're watching theCUBE's coverage of COUPA INSPIRE 2022
from Las Vegas.
Stick around my next guest joins me momentarily.
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