KPMG, Coupa Software partner in digitalization

As the business segment for digital services has been further enlarged by growing market demand, cross-industry integration and supportive government policies in China, KPMG and California-based Coupa Software Inc are counting on this boom in the country to maintain robust growth.

Many of these opportunities came after digitalization became the cause of large-scale and sweeping transformations across multiple aspects of business, providing unparalleled opportunities for value creation and capture in both China and many parts of the world.

Eager to enhance their earning ability, KPMG and Coupa Software – the provider of business spend management (BSM) solutions, opened a Coupa-branded space in KPMG's Ignition Center in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province late last month to deepen their collaboration in both BSM and digital technologies.

Supported by 420 KPMG employees, it can quickly analyze and help businesses make effective purchasing decisions via the Coupa BSM Platform. With the complete visibility and control throughout the procurement processes, operational efficiency can be quickly realized.

"Coupa is focusing on building a platform to enable companies to spend smarter. On the other side, KPMG focuses on implementation services. And we have a deep understanding of the industry-related business process and procurement processes globally, but also in China", said Michael Seitz, a partner at KPMG China.

"We are also seeing a growing need for compliant and efficient procurement processes with the increasing trade between China and partners related to the Belt and Road Initiative," Seitz said.

Though the First China International Import Exhibition held in Shanghai resulted in many big deals with overseas companies, they certainly need supporting services to facilitate the actual work and day-to-day operations after sealing those deals, Seitz added.

With intelligent upgrade becoming an inevitable trend for the future of many industries, both KPMG and Coupa have discovered that many Chinese companies have shown strong willingness to transform and upgrade their business from a traditional manufacturing company to a manufacturing-service and innovative enterprise.

The Coupa BSM Platform provides solutions for procurement and finance teams to get visibility and control into their business spending. This includes capabilities such as sourcing, procurement, invoicing, expenses, and payments, said Gabe Perez, vice-president for Asia Pacific at Coupa Software Inc.

Perez said as many companies would like to have the software implemented in the locations they are represented, Coupa saw a stronger demand in Asia-wide Coupa implementation projects over the past several months.

To better compete with their established foreign rivals, Chinese companies from certain sectors, such as new energy and general manufacturing, should cooperate even more closely with foreign partners across the world to optimize their business operations and improve homegrown innovations with diverse new solutions and technologies, said Sun Fuquan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.