Fabrice Saporito didn’t set out to find procurement. Procurement found him.
Like many professionals who entered the space before it was widely discussed, he discovered the power of procurement while working on internal transformation projects at IBM in the late 1990s. What began as a curiosity became a career that has taken him from the earliest days of eProcurement, to data and analytics, and then to supplier discovery.
That journey continues with BlueBean.
BlueBean is a procure-to-pay platform that gives businesses better control over spending before it happens. It focuses on the checkout experience, bringing together purchasing policy enforcement, real-time approvals, and employee-friendly buying workflows. The goal is to make it easier for companies to increase savings capture, reduce friction for finance teams, and offer employees a better way to get what they need.
In this AOP Introducing episode, Fabrice explains that the idea for BlueBean was shaped by a pain point he observed while leading network strategy at a major spend management provider. Supplier adoption had hit a wall; they didn’t want to work through buyer portals. They weren’t interested in joining networks that required leaving their own digital environments. The lack of supplier participation undermined employee adoption. It limited catalog content and restricted purchasing options. The experience didn’t match what users expected from other areas of their digital life.
At the same time, suppliers were also transforming how they reached customers. Investments in digital sales, e-commerce, and self-service tools were accelerating, and businesses could buy software, hardware, travel, and supplies directly through supplier websites. Traditional procurement systems weren’t keeping up. The same catalog-based structures and static approval flows were still in place, even as the way the world bought things was changing.
Fabrice saw an opportunity to rethink the entire process.
BlueBean doesn’t replace suppliers’ digital channels. Instead, it meets users where they are. Employees browse and shop directly from supplier-hosted catalogs. When they’re ready to purchase, BlueBean intervenes at the point of checkout, validating the purchase against internal policy, budget, and supplier status. If it passes those checks, the employee receives a purpose-built virtual card that can be used to complete the transaction.
The card is tied to a single, pre-approved purchase. Once the transaction is complete, the card closes automatically, and the payment data flows directly into accounting. That eliminates manual invoice entry, matching, and reconciliation. It also gives finance and procurement real-time visibility into spend without slowing employees down or forcing them to navigate another tool.
This approach supports a concept Fabrice calls “compliant open buying,” where companies set the parameters, and employees buy where they want… whether that’s a travel site, a niche provider, or a major online marketplace. The system ensures policy adherence and captures transaction data without asking employees to leave familiar shopping environments. And when exceptions arise (like, for example, selecting a non-preferred supplier or booking a business class ticket), the system flags it and routes the request for approval automatically.
The design also streamlines reporting. Companies can configure controls based on their specific needs, from policy compliance to financial thresholds to supplier preferences. Each stakeholder (employees, team leads, finance) gets visibility into the transactions that matter to them. And because payments are processed through digital cards, the data is accurate and available immediately. There’s no lag while teams wait for invoices or chase missing records.
Implementation reflects the same philosophy: make it simple. As Fabrice explains, BlueBean clients can get started on their own, without a long project plan or heavy consulting lift. Many begin with a single supplier, or pilot the platform within one office or region. Some maintain existing P2P platforms for services and forms-based workflows and use BlueBean for catalog or direct purchasing. The model is designed to scale, but it doesn’t require a major transformation to deliver value.
That flexibility has attracted companies of all sizes. Some have just a few users. Others are scaling across hundreds. Regardless of size, they all benefit from the same core shift: a buying experience that feels modern, intuitive, and tightly aligned with internal guardrails. It’s a departure from traditional procure-to-pay systems, and, as Fabrice says, that’s exactly the point.
Fabrice describes BlueBean as a different way of thinking. The platform was built to align with the direction suppliers were already moving, not to force them into legacy portals. For employees, it feels like consumer shopping. For procurement and finance, it delivers the control and data they need… without the tradeoffs.
