Rent-A-Center Deploys Integrated Coupa e-Procurement and Emptoris Sourcing and Contract Management Solution

SAN MATEO, CA, Dec 20, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX News Network) –

Coupa Software, the leading provider of disruptive and innovative cloud spend management (CSM) solutions, and Emptoris, Inc., a leading provider of strategic supply and enterprise contract management solutions, today announced that the companies have teamed to provide an end-to-end Procure-to-Pay and Contract Management solution for their first joint customer, Rent-A-Center (RAC). The implementation of Coupa and Emptoris software at Rent-A-Center offers an improved procurement process for its indirect spend at its 3,000 plus retail locations.

This tight integration between the Coupa and Emptoris products allows Rent-A-Center to leverage Emptoris’ upstream applications for contract management and sourcing, and use downstream applications from Coupa to manage the procure-to-pay process.

The combined Coupa and Emptoris solution will allow Rent-A-Center to quickly put in place processes and technologies to better control remote requisitioning for their indirect spend and ensure each store location is benefiting from contracted discounts with preferred suppliers.

“We had some adoption problems with prior tools, so we were incredibly pleased by the speed with which Coupa and Emptoris were able to implement an integrated solution that is both easy to use, and incredibly robust,” said Mike Wilding, Rent-A-Center Chief Procurement Officer and Vice President of Accounting. “This serves as a true testament to the benefits of Coupa’s cloud-based service and Emptoris’ supply and contract management solutions. We needed the technology and features that Coupa and Emptoris were able to deliver, without sacrificing ease-of-use, which is critical for quick adoption in a decentralized procurement model.”

The new strategic partnership between Coupa and Emptoris allows Rent-A-Center to:

--  Perform strategic sourcing to negotiate contracts that are then
    activated across the system and made available to all 18,000 employees
    at Rent-A-Center's 3,000+ retail locations;

--  Provide greater visibility into indirect spend;

--  Greatly reduce "maverick spending," that goes outside the normal
    process of buying from preferred suppliers.

“We were able to deploy a complete solution to over 3,000 locations in less than four months,” noted Wilding. “Additionally, Coupa quickly addressed new features like the ability to invoice against contract, and define receipt tolerances and invoice approval workflows, which we will roll out in the near future.”

Wilding discussed Rent-A-Center’s procurement transformation at The Aberdeen Group’s 2010 Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) Summit on November 16th in Boston in a presentation titled Procurement Evolution: How Rent-A-Center Transformed from Spend Analysis to Spend Intelligence.

About Coupa Software Coupa is the leading provider of disruptive and innovative cloud spend management (CSM) solutions that help companies control their indirect spending and generate savings that go direct to the bottom line. Coupa combines the best e-procurement and expense management capabilities in a single solution that is easier to use, faster to configure and deploy, and more cost-effective than anything available today. With deep domain knowledge in e-procurement and expense management, a best-in-class cloud computing platform, a fast-growing community of customers, and industry-first innovations like real-time benchmarking, intelligent expense report auditing, and crowd sourcing great deals on the Web, Coupa is leading the way in helping companies spend smarter and save more. For more information please visit, http://www.coupa.com or call 650.931.3200 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            650.931.3200      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

About Emptoris Emptoris is a world leader in strategic supply and enterprise contract management software solutions that empower enterprises to realize best value and accelerate profitable growth. Emptoris solutions are used by successful Global 1000 companies in every industry. Emptoris customers include American Express, Boeing, ConocoPhillips, GlaxoSmithKline, Kraft, Motorola, Syngenta and Vodafone. For further information on Emptoris, visit www.emptoris.com.

About Rent-A-Center Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCII), headquartered in Plano, Texas, currently operates approximately 3,000 company-owned stores nationwide and in Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico. The stores offer name brand, durable goods such as major consumer electronics, appliances, computers, furniture and accessories under flexible rental-purchase agreements that generally allow the customer to obtain ownership of the merchandise at the conclusion of an agreed upon rental period. (www.rentacenter.com)