Zip Forward 2024 in review

It’s been an exciting year at Zip. We’ve introduced new premier enterprise functionality, enhanced procurement intelligence with Zip AI, and continue to lead the way in spend orchestration.

And at Zip Forward 2024, we took things even further by unveiling new capabilities and introducing a bold, refreshed brand. With a renewed commitment to both our product vision and our customers’ success, Zip is truly shaping the future of procurement.

On stage at SFJAZZ last week, more than a dozen thought leaders came together to share their insights and perspectives on the future of our industry, strengthening our community of procurement leaders like never before.

Let’s take a look at our key takeaways from Zip Forward 2024.

A bold new look and brand

The day kicked off with the Women in Procurement Breakfast, hosted by Amanda Prochaska, Founder & Chief Wonder Officer at Wonder Services, beginning the morning with conversation and connection with the wonderful community of women in our industry.

After settling into the immaculate auditorium at SFJAZZ the keynote presentation began, introducing Zip’s mission, vision, and the unveiling of our refreshed brand identity across the entire platform.

Zip’s Head of Corporate Marketing, Aleene Webber, took the stage to introduce this new look, detailing the ways the rebrand represents the power of unblocked procurement—the open channels of spend that allows business to truly flow.

With a streamlined user experience and a modernized design spanning our entire product suite and web presence, the freshly updated brand set the tone for the days’ events.

Zip’s vision: innovation, orchestration, and future-proof procurement

Zip co-Founders Rujul Zaparde and Lu Cheng then took the stage to introduce Zip for the next era, reinforcing our mission to drive innovation by helping companies procure faster, with less risk, and at the best value.

During a wide-ranging keynote, Zip CTO Lu Cheng outlined the vision: “To build lasting success, businesses must forge new paths that not only account for change but embrace it as a key part of their strategy. That’s why having a future-proof procurement strategy is crucial for enabling resilience during times of uncertainty.”

He further explained, “For us, a future-proof procurement strategy is scalable, allowing businesses to respond quickly to changing conditions. It’s also user-centric, eliminating friction and driving stakeholder adoption. Finally, it’s ROI-driven, ensuring that every dollar spent aligns with the company’s strategic goals.”

Zip CEO Rujul Zaparde then emphasized the team’s customer-first approach to product development: “It's the encouragement that you give us to think outside the box that makes Zip zip. Our commitment to you is that we will always remain a product and engineering-led organization, and will continuously invest in the product first to strive to be better and give you the capabilities that you need.”

Three key takeaways from the stage at Zip Forward

Following the keynote, the main sessions began both on the stunning main stage and in the product-focused Innovation Lab. Throughout the engaging on-stage talks with leaders from Prudential, Arm, Reddit, Dollar Tree, Shopify, Udemy, Lyft, Northwestern Mutual, The Hackett Group and more, several key themes emerged, all centered around sustainable growth.

1. Sustainable and strategic growth requires agility

One of the clearest messages from the on-stage sessions at Zip Forward was the need for sustainable growth that balances cost efficiency, risk management, and accelerated operations.

As business leaders continue to face disruptions, the ability to move quickly and strategically is what becomes a key predictor of success. Companies must be proactive and forward-thinking, not just reactive, in navigating changes, while remaining cross-functionally coordinated in their execution.

Ali Rowghani, Managing Director at Y Combinator and former CFO of Twitter and Pixar, shared valuable insights about maintaining this coordinated leadership across the decentralized nature of modern procurement.

“Decentralization drives innovation and speed, but it also comes with its own challenges, particularly in terms of coordination. In the realm of procurement, this decentralization creates a need for orchestration—a fancy word for coordinating all the purchasing decisions and activities across teams,” Rowghani said.

“That’s where Zip comes in. It helps create a seamless, transparent process for everyone involved, so when someone needs to purchase something like Figma, they don’t feel like they’re in a black box. They understand the steps, they see where they are in the process, and it’s all smooth, clear, and visible. Zip solves that orchestration problem.”

This sentiment was echoed throughout the event. Procurement leaders are tasked with anticipating market shifts and aligning strategies accordingly. Whether it's dealing with inflationary pressures or adjusting to geopolitical uncertainties, orchestration, preparation, and cross-functional coordination enable informed decision-making that drives sustainable growth.

Gabrielle Toof, Director of Procure to Pay at Toast, during a panel discussion on IPO Readiness, explained how her team proactively coordinated with finance to achieve their goals.

"We leaned into the business partnership side, knowing procurement success is ultimately going to translate into success for accounting and finance. This shared success mindset helped us achieve over 95% compliance in our PR PO process, which we’re really proud of."

By being smart, fast, and agile, companies can weather external disruptions while maintaining efficiency, paving the way for long-term success.

2. User-centric orchestration is the engine for success

Another major theme was the shift toward user-centric orchestration in procurement.

Orchestration refers to streamlining and aligning procurement activities to better serve internal and external stakeholders by bridging together preferred workflows. By focusing on customer needs and experiences, businesses can drive alignment, adoption, and innovation simultaneously.

Chris Sawchuk of The Hackett Group discussed this during his talk on future trends and the evolution of procurement models.

"Orchestration is becoming a much more deliberate construct within the operating model. The focus is on customer experience, value creation, and designing processes that are centered around the stakeholders we serve,” he said.

This shift toward a customer-first mentality improves internal processes and creates a smoother, more valuable experience for end users, whether they’re employees or external partners.

Lud Hrovat, Director of Procurement at Udemy discussed the importance of visibility and user experience during the IPO process.

“I think our guiding light is that we know what compliance looks like, so let’s be flexible. The main thing is you don’t have to sacrifice cycle time or end-user customer satisfaction. You build parallel workflows when you can and limit redundancy, and you can do a lot of good,” Hrovat said. “This is not your parents’ old, inflexible procurement system!”

Cindy Yan, VP of Source to Pay at Coinbase, in conversation with Matthew Hatch from Ernst & Young, also discussed the need for an easily adoptable procurement system that works for everyone.

“We’re continuing to automate and simplify processes for end users. With Zip, we’ve consolidated multiple tools into one orchestration system, which has simplified procurement for our end users,” Cindy said. “Flexibility in vendor relationships and the ability to ramp up or down will be key moving forward.”

During a fascinating talk on orchestrating procurement at a massive scale, Brad Pittman, VP of Procurement of Dollar Tree, shared how Zip serves as the point of intake for their $8B in spend.

“We don’t want users to get hung up on thresholds, but to engage with us in a timely manner through Zip, letting us guide them through the spend request process with only the necessary approvers involved,” Pittman explained. “Zip’s transformation from intake—a single front door—to engagement is critical in our efforts. The visibility it provides will be a game changer for managing spend.”

Amy Chan, Director of Procure to Pay at Reddit, explained how technology immediately helped her team reduce inefficiencies. 

“We only implemented Zip about a month ago—prior to that, we were using Coupa for approvals, Jira for some requests, and Ironclad for legal reviews. Our cross-functional teams had their own set of questions and conditionalities, which made things slow and complex.”

She added: “When I started, I worked with our finance teams to reduce the number of approvals from 20 to 10, which cut cycle times in half. That was a significant improvement.”

By making procurement processes more transparent and user-friendly, organizations can improve compliance, reduce cycle times, and build stronger relationships with stakeholders.

3. Technology and AI are enablers, not replacements

Perhaps the most exciting theme from Zip Forward was the role of technology and AI in procurement.

While digital transformation has been a buzzword for years, the focus now is on how technology can enable procurement teams to work smarter, not harder. It’s not about replacing human relationships and expertise, but about leveraging AI, automation, and analytics to unlock new efficiencies and insights.

Oliver Gall, Chief Procurement Officer at Prudential, perfectly captured this during the final main stage session.

"This new technology will automate vast amounts of what procurement does today. It will write and run your RFPs, analyze your spend, manage your categories, handle suppliers, and even guide stakeholders. What you do today will be done by robots and technology tomorrow, better, faster, and cheaper."

He added: “This is why Zip is fundamental to my strategy. Zip gives me, my team, and my organization tens of thousands of hours that we didn’t have before, and we’re going to use those hours to build the next chapter.”

The combination of AI-powered automation and strategic orchestration will allow teams to focus on high-value tasks, positioning procurement as a key driver of business goals.

Recognizing our customers with Zip Community Awards

After more than a dozen inspiring sessions on the main stage and in the Innovation Lab, we had the privilege of honoring some of the most innovative, forward-thinking, and impactful members of the Zip community with the first-ever Zip Community Awards.

We were proud to present the Procurement Transformation Award to the team at Northwestern Mutual for their outstanding use of Zip to consolidate systems, ensure regulatory compliance, and manage financial risk at scale. The Procurement Visionary Award was given to the Snowflake team for pioneering new use cases and innovative ways to integrate Zip into their existing systems.

In addition to these team awards, we recognized several individuals for their exceptional contributions to transforming their organizations' finance and procurement practices. Congratulations to Rudy Batts from Canva, Cindy Yan from Coinbase, and Chris Beitzel for their exemplary leadership and vision.

At Zip, our community is at the heart of everything we do. We are continually inspired by the remarkable transformations our customers achieve through our orchestrated suite of products, and we’re proud to celebrate their success.

Of course, Zip Forward wouldn’t be complete with some dancing, so it was a thrill to introduce Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend Booker T. Jones to the stage to orchestrate some grooves to close us out. 

Zip Forward 2024: Final thoughts

As Zip continues to innovate and lead our market category, the themes highlighted at Zip Forward 2024—sustainable growth and agility, customer-focused orchestration, and the embrace of AI technology——are a reminder of what a monumental role a fast-moving, strategic procurement operation plays in modern business.

Zip CEO Rujul Zaparde captured this sentiment perfectly: “In this fast-paced, ever-changing world, uncertainty is the only constant. Whether it’s market volatility, shifting customer demands, or global events, the ability to adapt quickly is what will set successful organizations apart.”

The second annual Zip Forward was a powerful reminder that while technology accelerates workflows and enables peak performance, it’s our community of leaders and industry innovators who truly drive procurement orchestration transformation.

Thank you for being a part of our community, and we look forward to seeing you at Zip Forward next year.