Eric Johnson

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with Nari Viswanathan, a veteran innovator in the planning and procurement technology space and a key leader at Coupa. The two reconnected after several recent collaborations—including webinars, industry sessions, and conversations in Dallas—and discussed the new realities of supply chain planning and how organizations are embracing technology like never before.   Coupa and Autonomous Spend Management For those less familiar with Coupa, Viswanathan explained the company as the global leader in autonomous spend management—a framework that brings together direct and indirect spending to help organizations manage total spend more intelligently. Direct spend, of course, is where supply chain operations come into focus, making planning, design, and cost optimization central to the value Coupa delivers. Viswanathan leads Coupa’s global supply chain strategy, shaping how the company positions and scales its solutions across the market. After years spent in supply chain planning technology, he now sits at the intersection of procurement, supply chain, and advanced analytics—an area he believes has never been more exciting or more critical.   Old Problems, New Pressures—and a Greater Willingness to Innovate When asked about the biggest challenges facing planners today, Viswanathan emphasized a…

It might have been a short week for some, but at Supply Chain Now, it was chock-full of great interviews, conversations, livestreams, and episodes!   For a bonus episode on Saturday, Scott and Greg welcomed Tyson Steffens with Pallet Alliance and Jom Fechner with USG to the podcast to talk about building a national procurement program and optimizing your spend.   Supply Chain Now · “How and Why to Build a National Procurement Program to Optimize Your Spend”   On Monday, Scott dug back into the archives for This Week in Business History, and gave us all the story behind Labor Day.   Supply Chain Now · “This Week in Biz History for September 7th: The Story Behind Labor Day”   On Tuesday, Jamin Alvidrez joined Scott as co-host, and welcomed a couple of amazing people in logistics and transportation, Trey Griggs with Lean Sales and Nicole Glenn with Candor Expedite.   Supply Chain Now · “The Amazing People of Logistics & Transportation: Featuring Nicole Glenn & Trey Griggs”   Tim Judge with Agillitics and Nate Endicott with RateLinx joined Scott and Greg on Wednesday for a great conversation on agile decision making in supply chain.   Supply Chain Now…