Coupa Inspire 2025: Drasko Jelavic Interview
Coupa Inspire 2025 served as a perfect opportunity for procurement, supply chain and finance leaders to convene and exchange insights.
Among the event's highlights was the announcement of Coupa’s acquisition of Cirtuo, the renowned AI-driven category management platform. The strategic acquisition is set to strengthen Coupa's technological offerings and expand its influence in the procurement sector.
Drasko Jelavic, CEO of Cirtuo, sat down with Procurement Magazine just moments after the news had broken.
Advancing procurement efficiency
Drasko expressed his enthusiasm about the acquisition, noting: "Coupa acquired us and I'm very happy because it provides a lot of opportunity, primarily for the procurement community."
The move represents a crucial step for Cirtuo, whose Guided Strategy Creation technology has led the way in its field.
Drasko went on to describe the whirlwind of recent events, from acquisition to integration launch and the official announcement at Coupa Inspire 2025 – all within a week.
The integration aims to fill vital gaps in procurement by accelerating the growth of Cirtuo's tech integration alongside Coupa, particularly in data exchange between source-to-pay systems and Cirtuo.
This collaboration is set to convert strategic plans into "the right execution, the right set of measures and initiatives to make it happen".
Transforming procurement's role
On his debut appearance at Coupa Inspire, Drasko highlighted a former colleague's statement that "procurement is not show business".
"I think he was wrong," he declared. "Looking at this big show, it's actually excellent.
"I'm excited about the way the community is mobilised, the whole communication around the future potential, why it matters, how it matters.
"I'm really fascinated by the whole setup of Coupa Inspire. It's just amazing and mind-blowing, I must say."
Strategic framework amid global challenges
In an environment of global economic unpredictability, Drasko outlined category strategy as essential to procurement operations.
He asserted: "Category strategy is, actually, the best way to make holistic decisions in a very complex business environment."
Cirtuo's platform aids category managers in engaging with essential procurement stakeholders to discern their expectations and derive insights on market challenges and opportunities.
This deep understanding fosters the development of robust category and supplier strategies.
Drasko emphasises: "Category strategy is the most important instrument to bring procurement and business closer because the supply chain today defines the art of possible in business."
Embracing AI
Looking to the future, Drasko sees category strategy at a pivotal juncture for firms still mired in "traditional presentations, spreadsheets and SharePoints."
He predicts a substantial technological transformation, spearheaded by AI innovations: "Digitalisation in that area is going to come, especially AI-fuelled, with Gen AI, with AI strategy consultants. The sky is the limit."
The objective is to enable category managers to swiftly generate effective category strategies and communicate them persuasively to inspire their procurement teams.
Drasko concludes: "It's a very exciting journey ahead of us and I'm looking forward to it."
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