Coupa vs. SAP Business Network

Suitable: Simple indirect procurement. Low cost; short cycle implementation. Less Suitable: Complex procurement scenario requiring serious vendor collaboration. End-to-end integration. Direct Material Procurement, especially when planning, quality inspection, and other miscellaneous activities are involved, requires handling various special statuses and updates to meet industry- or country-specific requirements.

Incentivized

If your organization processes a large number of purchase orders and invoices every month/year, SAP Business Network is very effective, whereas smaller vendors without strong IT support sometimes struggle with setup and ongoing use. making onboarding and training a barrier.

Incentivized

• Coupa is easy to use, however, we had to teach our end users about procurement. They are not used to conducting an RFP, onboarding a supplier, or preparing a PO. This is the change management that our employees had to be prepared to understand. The Shelby Group helped us with the implementation.
• The hardest part was the integration between NetSuite and Coupa. We wanted to have a dynamic tight integration between the two solutions. If we adjusted the chart of accounts or added a new supplier we wanted it to be able to done in both systems and be available immediately in both systems. We used a partner called SuiteSkies to accomplish this dynamic integration.
• We’ve been able to manage the implementation and maintenance with a very lean IT group.

Incentivized

• The clients can link with different systems and data sources, making the functioning of various processes more accessible and more efficient.
• The audience can interact with high-performance and meaningful analytics that reveal all the critical indicators of influencers and campaigns based on the data/information approach.
• It includes a marketplace for brands, which makes the search process easier to find companies to partner with.

Incentivized

• Support Team - A little slow in responding. I think the tool is so configurable that they struggle with figuring out what is causing certain issues that are being submitted on the portal.
• I'd love for the Sourcing Module to be able to support larger events. There seems to be a limit on the number of lines each event can support and as a growing retailer, our store count dictates we have room to grow and that each store is represented in the bid process.
• Would like to see the ability to issue multiple POs for a single item to multiple locations. The tool may do this but I know I can't and it may be due to how we interface with our ERP.

Incentivized

• User Interface Complexity This interface can feel overwhelming and difficult to use, mainly for new users. A more streamlined, role-specific layout will help decrease the learning curve and enhance productivity.
• Limited Small Vendor Integration for smaller vendors to adopt. Introducing a Modified or simplified version for smaller suppliers will make it more accessible.
• Enhanced Predictive Analytics and Automation—The platform's predictive capabilities are limited, particularly in demand risk assessment.
• Adding advanced automation analytics will help users proactively address supply chain needs.

Incentivized

I love using coupa but i'm not the decision maker in this regard.

Incentivized

I will give it a 9, one is deducted for business inspection and improvement i feel that they are in the right direction and streamlined our flow of business agility also helped us get the R.o.i and helped with more sales and visibility over business and its metrics.

Incentivized

-Could be easy or hard to use depending on corporate policies and compliance. At times, errors and cryptical message associated with them could drive users mad.

Incentivized

There is still a ton of flexability on the customer's end of the platform, which makes standard onboarding for suppliers a challenge. Customers are allowed to ask for things, or customize certain things that are not standard for us, so we have to have special rules set up to complete an integration. There are also some limitations to automate invoice rejections that happen on the platform when a customer rejects an invoice

Incentivized

-Support is generally speaking OK (not great). The user community is quite active, and the response time is acceptable. I would certainly hope there's more user-generated content (like in SAP, Oracle, and Linux, etc.), but I suppose Coupa is still not large enough, and the incentives are not yet there.

Incentivized

The employee that trained me was not particularly interesting in teaching me but they were not a Coupa employee.

Incentivized

Good performance from SAP as key deployment partner; collaboration and deployment with additional business partner for data provision and business partner onboarding was rather difficult, slowing down the project progress and overall success perception

Incentivized

Concur was a lot easier and more user friendly for employees doing expense reports on their phone. That is not the case with Coupa. You must use your laptop to do expenses and our managers don't always have enough time to do that while out in the field working. This has caused some issues.

Incentivized

Before we chose SAP Business Network, we looked at Oracle Supply Chain Management Cloud and Infor Supply Chain Management. While SAP Business Network boasted robust features, the fact that our existing ERP system could be integrated with the tool in a better fashion, and it was more intuitive, sealed the deal for us.

Incentivized

• It has allowed for proper processing of expenses tied directly to the proper LOB and GL Codes
• Has taken the guesswork away and allowed for the proper budgets to be hit and reconciled
• Ease of use has led to mass adoption and more prompt processing of expenses

Incentivized

• SAP Business Network's streamlined supply chain and procurement processes have significantly reduced operational costs and improved resource allocation, leading to enhanced overall efficiency.
• The platform's robust analytics have provided valuable insights, facilitating data-driven decision-making and enabling us to make more informed strategic choices, ultimately contributing to improved business performance.
• Implementing and integrating the SAP Business Network initially required a substantial financial investment, impacting short-term cash flow and potentially delaying other critical business initiatives.

Incentivized