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On-demand e-Procurement System Launches for Small and Midsize Companies
Coupa aims to make big business e-procurement software benefits available to SMBs at a starting price of $2,495 per year
Foster City, CA — October 26, 2007 — e-Procurement pioneer Coupa has debuted an on-demand solution aimed at providing small and midsize organizations access to affordable e-procurement applications with advanced capabilities previously only available to the Fortune 500.
Coupa, which premiered its open source e-procurement earlier this year, said that the new Coupa On Demand solution targets companies with 10 to 5,000 employees and has an entry price of $2,495 per year for 10 users, a fraction of the cost of competing full-featured e-procurement products, according to the solution provider.
Overcoming SMBs' Challenges
As Coupa sees it, many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have been discouraged from going down the e-procurement path because of high up-front licensing fees, expensive implementations and the level of organizational training necessary to get the full value out of an enterprise-class procurement solution.
In addition, SMBs don't necessarily need a solution with extensive bells and whistles when a more consumer-oriented, Amazon.com-like approach, with a straightforward user interface and easily configurable functionality would be more appropriate, Coupa says.
"Coupa was founded with the mission to bring the benefits of e-procurement to small and midsize companies," said Coupa co-founder and CEO Dave Stephens, "and solutions for these companies need to be easy to use, quick to implement and pretty cheap as well."
Building on Coupa Express
The solution provider first attacked this conundrum earlier this year by offering an open source version of the solution, Coupa Express, available for free download — to date the solution has been downloaded more than 9,000 times, with about 1,000 new downloads each month.
Stephens said that since debuting Coupa Express, the solution provider has received numerous requests from the solution's users to add functionality to the application, for example, to manage supplier bidding processes or inventory, and to provide certain consulting services in support of the solution, for example, to set up the system's necessary to run the software, to connect the solution to a company's e-mail system or to establish a backup strategy.
Coupa, which premiered its open source e-procurement earlier this year, said that the new Coupa On Demand solution targets companies with 10 to 5,000 employees and has an entry price of $2,495 per year for 10 users, a fraction of the cost of competing full-featured e-procurement products, according to the solution provider.
Overcoming SMBs' Challenges
As Coupa sees it, many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have been discouraged from going down the e-procurement path because of high up-front licensing fees, expensive implementations and the level of organizational training necessary to get the full value out of an enterprise-class procurement solution.
In addition, SMBs don't necessarily need a solution with extensive bells and whistles when a more consumer-oriented, Amazon.com-like approach, with a straightforward user interface and easily configurable functionality would be more appropriate, Coupa says.
"Coupa was founded with the mission to bring the benefits of e-procurement to small and midsize companies," said Coupa co-founder and CEO Dave Stephens, "and solutions for these companies need to be easy to use, quick to implement and pretty cheap as well."
Building on Coupa Express
The solution provider first attacked this conundrum earlier this year by offering an open source version of the solution, Coupa Express, available for free download — to date the solution has been downloaded more than 9,000 times, with about 1,000 new downloads each month.
Stephens said that since debuting Coupa Express, the solution provider has received numerous requests from the solution's users to add functionality to the application, for example, to manage supplier bidding processes or inventory, and to provide certain consulting services in support of the solution, for example, to set up the system's necessary to run the software, to connect the solution to a company's e-mail system or to establish a backup strategy.
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