TRANSCRIPT:

Fabrice: All right, so I would like to welcome Tom Nash for our very first introduction on the webinar. It's a great honor to have Tom with us today. I met Tom a few years ago while him and I were living in different worlds at the time, and we got to work together trying to innovate around data enrichment. Tom is a very respected practitioner and CPO in our community. So again, Tom, thank you for making the time to speak with us. I know you very well, but people listening today probably don't know everything about you. Why don't you say a few words about yourself?

Tom: Sure, happy to. Well, first of all, Fabrice, thanks for inviting me — this is pretty exciting stuff in my mind. Quickly on my background: I spent over 20 years with Shell, working in all of Shell's businesses. I was fortunate enough to have just about every role in procurement and supply chain, starting as a buyer and working through manager and director, then ending up as Global Process Owner for Procurement, where I also had P2P responsibility for Shell's global shared services business. Then, unlike a lot of people, I didn't stay at Shell — I actually went into healthcare. The leadership there wanted a different, more strategic model, so I went to work for two very large healthcare systems, roughly Fortune 600 companies in the US, as their Chief Supply Chain Officer. At those facilities we implemented Lawson, and at Shell we had implemented SAP and FreeMarkets, which was a predecessor to Ariba. Most recently, I worked for the American Red Cross as Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer, reporting to the CFO, where we implemented Coupa. I share all that to say: number one, I'm old; and number two, I hope I have enough experience to help others in their journey.

Fabrice: Excellent — thanks for the introduction, Tom. You spent years leading procurement at organizations like the American Red Cross, where scale, compliance, and accountability are critical. At the time, what were the biggest procurement challenges you were trying to solve?

Tom: Great question, and I think many of my colleagues face the same ones. I'll use the Red Cross as the most recent example. When I arrived, I was only the second CPO in Red Cross history. My predecessor had put in a well-known procure-to-pay system, but it didn't take — what I called "organ rejection." The stakeholders just didn't like it. It was too clumsy, too difficult to work with. So one of our core challenges was: how do we make this simpler for the stakeholder? The first thing we had to recognize is that over 70% of these implementations fail — per McKinsey and many other experts — and they fail largely because they're not easy to use. They're built for technically-minded procurement people, not the average person. So ease of use was challenge number one. Number two was dealing with the complexity of the back room — all the paperwork and manual processes — and making the operation much smoother. Those were really the two big challenges anyone in this space is going to face.

Fabrice: And you mentioned implementing Coupa at that time — I know the company very well, that's actually where we met. What did success look like back then? What did the solution get fundamentally right, and how different was it from what existed before?

Tom: The first thing I always say is: tools can work, but it's how you use them and how you set them up — and the simpler the tool, the better off you'll be. Our primary goal was ease of use, making sure the stakeholder could get what they needed, when they needed it, without a lot of hassle. And we measured stakeholder satisfaction, which I'll come back to. Second objective was cost reduction — both in terms of headcount and process efficiency. If you're implementing tools, they should make life easier, make paper go away, simplify the process so you don't need a lot of handholding in the back room. FTE reduction was a clear objective. And third, no surprise, broader cost reduction — for example, early payment discounts. If you're paying suppliers faster, you can use that as a lever to negotiate a cash discount. It's a win-win. At the end of our implementation, external experts including Deloitte and the Hackett Group said it was one of the best implementations they'd seen.

Fabrice: Great — a real success story there. So, since those early P2P implementations — and you've done quite a few, with the latest being at the American Red Cross — what has fundamentally changed now?

Tom: Great question, and one I ask myself often. The world has changed. People now expect things to be simpler and faster in their everyday lives, and procurement tools are catching up — making things simpler and faster for stakeholders to get what they need. The first example everyone knows is AI. Look at what AI is doing to processes everywhere. I'd argue there are few processes that need simplification and speed more than operational procurement, specifically for indirect spend. That's a key development happening right now. The other major change is the capability of the tools themselves. Take the procurement card — it's been around since 1994. Great tool, but it had limitations: you needed a physical card, you had a manual back-office process. Today, with solutions like Blue Bean, you can have a virtual card that's presented at the supplier site or online, with a completely electronic back room. That cuts out a lot of cost and makes things very simple for the stakeholder — because that's how they already buy in their personal lives.

Fabrice: That's great. So a lot has changed — AI is everywhere, P-cards are evolving into virtual cards. Did you also observe anything changing in the supplier community?

Tom: Yes — suppliers want to get paid faster, and they don't want to chase their invoices. That's been a perennial frustration: the supplier keeps calling the buyer saying, "Where's my payment?" and then you get into the whole three-way match problem — "We couldn't pay because the three-way match wasn't complete." The card eliminates all of that. You don't need a three-way match — that's the beauty of the card. And now with AI and what Blue Bean is doing, that capability is amplified even further.

Fabrice: You mentioned the back room as one of the core issues that people tend to underestimate. Through this evolution over the decades, what new pressures do you feel procurement and finance teams face today that didn't exist before?

Tom: I'd say: expectations. Expectations are rising across the board in a couple of areas. One, the business wants to see these not as procurement initiatives, but as business initiatives that improve overall performance — not just procurement and finance in the back room. It's a line item on their P&L; they're paying for overhead, and they want to see that come down. By simplifying the back room, you help the stakeholder lower their budget. And AI is doing exactly that — simplifying and electronifying the process while baking controls into it so the stakeholder doesn't even need to see them. The controls are just there.

Fabrice: That makes a lot of sense. Now, you're here because of Blue Bean — when you and I reconnected, I asked for your thoughts on what I was building, and you essentially jumped in and said you'd be happy to help and contribute your experience. What stood out to you, and why did you decide to get involved?

Tom: For me, it's revolutionary — and I mean that word deliberately. It doesn't just add software to a process; it completely redesigns the process using software that's already available. The ease of use is remarkable — no special training required. You use it just as you would when buying something online in your personal life. That level of simplicity is huge. And then the use of the card in a fundamentally different way: it transforms the procurement card from what it was into a 21st-century buying and payment vehicle — all-in-one. No more card reconciliation, no statements in the mail. The stakeholder simply uses it, gets a complete readout, and pays the bill. Very simple. The reason I got excited about it is that it helps the next generation — younger people in this field and veterans alike — do what we're supposed to be doing: getting better.

Fabrice: I think the use of the card alongside AI is indeed central to what we're building — we're truly rethinking the process, as you said. What advice would you give to procurement leaders who feel stuck between control and agility? It's a recurring theme.

Tom: It is, and all the CPOs I know deal with it constantly — control versus making things easy for people. First: keep it simple. If you want people to use something, it has to be easy, and simplicity actually helps control because people follow a process they find intuitive. Second: get quick results. When implementing these tools, nothing spells success like early success. If you don't deliver results quickly, the stakeholder loses interest and the initiative stalls. Third — and this is the key balance point — what I call natural compliance. I've used that term for a while and probably should trademark it. Natural compliance means you don't check controls in a cumbersome, visible way; you bake the controls into the process itself. That's what Blue Bean does. The stakeholder wants to use the process, and when they do, the checks are happening in the background — they don't even need to think about it. The stakeholder wants to use the process; when they use it, the controls are already there. That's the beauty of it.

Fabrice: Makes a lot of sense. Looking ahead — if you look five years out, what will procurement platforms be judged on?

Tom: Three things. First: ease of integration — bringing it into the company without a complex, lengthy software implementation. Those are going away. They take too long and are too clumsy. Second: out-of-the-box usability — no special training needed, intuitive from day one. If that's not the case, people won't use it. Third — and this is what some people miss: faster and more meaningful business results. Not just procurement or finance metrics, but business results. What do I mean? Overhead reduction — the business is paying for this stuff and wants it to come down. Revenue growth — if the tool helps you serve your supplier community better, you can serve your customers better. Risk mitigation — not just supply risk, but business risks like fraud that people don't always think about. Structural cost reduction. And enabling EBITDA — through early payment discounts, better buying terms with suppliers. These business results are going to be the real judgment factors, enabled by ease of integration and out-of-the-box usability. Those are the three things I see as the defining criteria going forward.

Fabrice: Tom, it was a real pleasure having you today. I really enjoyed the discussion and the insights — there's a wealth of experience here that I hope resonates with practitioners listening. Thank you again for your time, and we'll see you soon.

Tom: Thank you — happy to be here, and happy to help the next generation avoid falling into the same holes we've already fallen into. Have a great day.

Fabrice: Thank you.