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Coupa launches initiative to drive diversity in supply chain

By Sunniva Kolostyak

October 21, 2020

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Coupa Software has launched Coupa Inclusion Initiative, a programme to connect buyers with diverse and inclusive suppliers in a move to break down silos and drive economic impact.

The initiative, which includes a supplier portal connecting buyers with suppliers, is aiming to bring together standalone diversity, equity and inclusion programmes which have struggled to make an impact on supply chains.

Rod Robinson, Vice President of Supplier Inclusion and Sustainability at Coupa, told IBS Intelligence that the initiative follows Coupa’s acquisition of his company ConnXus in May this year.

“I founded ConnXus to solve a procurement problem that I was running into – finding diverse and inclusive suppliers was difficult. So I created a database of diverse suppliers for companies around the globe to leverage to meet their diversity goals,” Robinson said.

“Now that ConnXus is a part of Coupa, the discoverability of diverse suppliers is even easier. With supplierinclusion.com, you search for the service or goods you need, your location and sort by the diverse classification you want. What was once days’ worth of work, now takes you 10 seconds.”

Once a supplier is added to the Coupa network, the software company is anonymously collecting data on that supplier and feeding that information back to its customers through its Community Intelligence.

The algorithm used to surface suppliers to customers is based on transactions flowing through the Coupa Community. The transactions, changing daily, are aggregated, normalised, and anonymised to form the basis of supplier recommendations, Robinson explained.

As a result, the suppliers will continuously change – but those scoring highly in factors such as ‘new’, ‘rate of acquisition’, ‘rate of spend increase’ and ‘corporate responsibility’ are more likely to be made visible to Coupa customers.

The Coupa Inclusion Initiative is also providing knowledge from global supplier diversity certification and advocacy organisations to create the right inclusive supply chain; and sharing resources and tools to understand the value of inclusive supply chains and how to champion these programs internally.

The company has partnered with diversity inclusion organisations including National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), Minority Supplier Development United Kingdom (MSDUK), Global Supplier Diversity Alliance (GSDA), and National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). Users of the initiative include the American Red Cross and MSDUK.

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