In episode 408 of the Let’s Talk Supply Chain podcast, Relish CEO, Ryan Walicki, discusses how Relish is boosting enterprise applications by strategically extending their IT investments.

With a background rooted in procurement technology since the early days of the Internet, Ryan has witnessed procurement evolve into a strategic function.

That strategic function faces a common challenge in that traditional ERPs (and enterprise technology) don’t fully meet user needs.

Relish’s exist to fill these gaps and help customers maximize their technology investments.

Common Business Process Challenges

A significant challenge enterprise software faces is the rapid pace of technological innovation, causing applications to be outgrown quickly.

Deploying large, “one size fits all” systems often fails to deliver expected ROI across multiple processes.

Relish’s approach is to function like apps do for mobile devices, adding specific functionalities to enhance the core platform.

Relish serves a diverse global customer base across various industries. While business process challenges like those in procurement are often universal, they can have unique requirements in different verticals (e.g., HIPAA in healthcare, data responsibility in regulated industries).

Boosting Enterprise Applications:

The areas and ways Relish adds value are many, but can be generalized in three ways.

• Simplifying Processes: Relish makes business processes smoother and more efficient.
• Bridging Gaps: Relish fills functional voids in core enterprise solutions.
• Validating Supplier Data: Relish ensures supplier information is accurate, which mitigates fraud risk. Relish validates supplier data against trusted third-party sources, alerting and recommending actions for discrepancies.

Ryan shared a compelling example where a fraudulent change to a valid supplier’s bank information resulted in a more than $400,000 fraudulent payment.

In another example, a vulnerability in financial validation resulted in a loss of $37 million by the Toyota Boshoku Corporation in 2019.

Examples like these highlight the need for continuous due diligence, not just one-time checks.

Collaboration and the Ecosystem Approach

Relish operates on a partnership model, working with major platforms like SAP, Coupa, and Workday rather than competing.

This aligns with an ecosystem approach, similar to Apple’s App Store or Salesforce Platform (formally Force.com) allowing partners to help customers achieve success faster with the enterprise platforms in which they’re already invested.

Relish helps its enterprise partners accelerate innovation, bringing value to both the platform and the end user.

Navigating the AI Revolution

Discussing artificial intelligence, Ryan noted the rapid evolution.

True experts are still emerging due to its novelty and speed.

Relish incorporates AI using “small language models” focused on structured customer data for predictable processes, such as assisting users or accessing training.

The adoption of AI is seen as a “crawl, walk, run” process.

Initial stages likely involve AI as a “co-pilot,” assisting users. Autonomous processing, where AI makes decisions, is further off and depends more on human comfort and readiness than just technological capability.

Ryan stressed the importance of responsible AI for specific, predictable outcomes.

To dive deeper into how AI is revolutionizing procurement, click here.

Prioritizing the Customer Experience

A core value for Relish is ensuring a positive customer experience, both for their direct clients and their clients’ internal and external customers.

Quite simply, Relish works to make their solutions easy and economical to deploy.

EZCORP, a global financial institution serving millions of consumers across the United States and Latin America, processes invoices from thousands of suppliers.

To read the case study, click here.

EZCORP selected Relish to help, starting with complex invoice processing in Mexico, then expanded globally.

Relish increased EZCORP’s invoice automation by over 70%—to more than 95%—within 12 months.

Benefits Realized:

• Reallocation of staff to more strategic functions.
• Improved visibility into contracted Accounts Payable for treasury.
• Ability to leverage supply chain finance programs due to faster invoice processing.

Ryan sees AI as the biggest immediate opportunity for responsible adoption. The future involves a growing app ecosystem working seamlessly with core procurement applications in data-rich and automated ways.

Other Resources

This episode is the first of a three-part series.

This episode reviews the top challenges organizations face when it comes to effective supplier management.

And this episode focuses on the role of emerging technology and how it can be safely leveraged to automate data validation and mitigate risks for enterprise organizations.

Host Spotlight

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey is an entrepreneur and influencer, with over 20 years of experience in supply chain. Her Let’s Talk Supply Chain™ podcast now sits among the top 1% of most downloaded podcasts globally.

Pod Guest

Ryan Walicki, Co-Founder and CEO at Relish.

Ryan is an entrepreneur at heart, striving to solve the most difficult business problems. After dedicating the early part of his career to enterprise applications operations and consulting, Ryan has spent the last several years focused on developing solutions to fill enterprise software gaps and enhance the user experience.