Shannon Vaillancourt

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…

Get ready to increase your supply chain IQ! We’re looking back on the latest episodes, interviews, conversations, and livestreams from this week right here. On Monday, we released 2 new episodes! In this episode of Digital Transformers,hosts Kevin L. Jackson and Scott Luton learn about the power of the IBM cloud ecosystem from Brian Fallon, Vice President of Global Sales for the IBM Partner Ecosystem. On This Week in Business History, Kelly Barner dives into the rise of Warren Buffet, the completion of the transcontinental railroad, some interesting business birthdays, & the invention of the tubeless tire. On Tuesday, we released 2 new episodes! On this episode of Supply Chain Now, Gugulethu Hughes, Founder of Clinch, joins our hosts Scott and Greg to share the number one challenge for the startup economy in Africa, why corporate social responsibility programs are falling short in eliminating child labor, & more. On TECHquila Sunrise, host Greg White welcomed stealthy startup co-founder and Venture Partner at Kubera Venture Capital, Sena Zorlu, to look into the minds of investors, revealing what makes them tick and how founders can communicate clearly with them. On Wednesday, we released an episode in our Reverse Logistics Series in collaboration…