Control over business spend is critical for any business. But modern payment coordination is an accounting nightmare. Tracking data and controlling funds in businesses with multiple enterprise resource planning systems is bad enough. Add in the multitude of payment options — from physical checks sent through the mail to cross-border electronic fund transfers — and it’s easy to see why spend management professionals change the subject when payments come up.

“[Payment] is one of the last areas of transformation we see in business spend management,” said Ravi Thakur (pictured), senior vice president of business acceleration at Coupa Software Inc. “There are a lot of payment solutions out there … but none of them have the backing of the procurement process; none of them have the rich invoice data that we bring to the table — let alone the ability for us to send due payments domestically, across the globe …  [and] pay out cross-border payments in hundreds of countries.”

Thakur spoke with Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV) host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Coupa Inspire event in Las Vegas. They discussed newly added payment functionality on the Coupa business spend management platform (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Coupa Pay simplifies B2B payments

Coupa Pay offers a solution to the payments madness, simplifying the process for B2B customers across the globe. Payment joins procurement, invoicing, sourcing and expenses as a “natural evolution” of the company’s business spend management platform, according to Thakur.

“Because we already have best-in-class procurement, best-in-class accounts payable automation, adding payments was kind of an easy decision,” he said. “We want to start spending more time and more focus … on how can we make it easier for suppliers to do business with our customers.”

Partnerships with PayPal, Citibank, Stripe and TransferMate are helping to make payment simplicity a reality.

Solutions now available under Coupa Pay are virtual cards on purchase orders, early pay discounts “which are kind of a financing type of solution,” Thakur explained. Announced during Coupa Inspire was general availability for invoice payments. “Which is really the workhorse of payments. It’s taking all of your invoices that you have as a company and how you pay your different suppliers,” Thakur stated.

Coupa’s solutions are applicable to “any business that has employees; which is every business in the world,” Thakur said. Harnessing the data from its diverse client list allows Coupa a unique viewpoint on the business spend management sector. “It’s the ability to take a look at … $1.2 trillion worth of spend, 5 million suppliers … across millions of purchase orders, millions of invoices,” Thakur added.

Predicting global economy trends

As impressive as this is, it is just the beginning according to Thakur. “We’re really just starting to scratch the surface in this area,” he said. “As we continue to grow and expand and multiply our customer base, we’re going to be able to help things around broader supply chain initiatives. Help things around sustainability. Help organizations figure out are they working with suppliers that … have a potential risk in their supply chain.”

As well as offering insights to customers, Coupa is expanding its horizons to offer predictions for the economy as a whole. The Coupa Business Spend Index analyzes spend data to provide an indicator of economic growth and predict future trends in business spend.

“As we start to accumulate a lot more data, we’re able to do things that really no one’s ever been able to do,” Thakur concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Coupa Inspire event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Coupa Inspire event. Neither Coupa Software Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE