SalesTechStar Interview with Shaz Khan, CEO of Vroozi

Why should procurement departments align better on digital transformation goals and why are these teams often the last to embrace technological innovations: Shaz Khan, CEO of Vroozi shares more:

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Welcome to this SalesTechStar chat, Shaz! Tell us about yourself and the story behind Vroozi.

Happy to be here. My name is Shaz Khan, and I am the co-founder and CEO of Vroozi, the intelligent procure-to-pay platform that’s making buying for your business so much easier. In launching Vroozi, our vision was to build a simple, seamless, and mobile-first procure-to-pay (P2P) solution for today’s workforce that could eliminate the heavily manual, outdated, and paper-based processes that plague procurement departments in favor of digitization, automation, and effortless collaboration. Essentially, we wanted to bring radical, real-time spend visibility and control to businesses of all sizes from the touch of a button in the palm of one’s hand. We saw a big gap in the market when it came to legacy enterprise software solutions, which would tie up procurement personnel with outdated systems and bottle-necking protocols at a high cost in terms of money, time, and true productivity. We knew there had to be a better way, but we also knew that the world of procurement has historically been one of the last industries to embrace technological advancement, often at the expense of rogue spend and exceeded budgets that paper processes could not catch until it was too late. The money was already spent. We recognized a major opportunity to create an intuitive, centralized marketplace solution that could bring the consumer-like shopping experience of browsing and buying through any ecommerce platform in a B2B format for procurement departments. The trick was finding a way to create that familiar user experience without forfeiting necessary approval protocols, supplier agreements, spend visibility, or the existing enterprise systems larger companies invest huge amounts of time and money into. We needed to be able to build an “ERP system-agnostic” and standalone solution that contained the powerful e-procurement and AP automation capabilities necessary to address these voids.

When it comes to procurement, those who aren’t familiar with the nuances of the P2P process won’t immediately recognize how their business is already impacted by it. What they are going to know is that they don’t have enough time, they don’t have enough money, and they need to make both go further — and fast. We are working to educate businesses on their spend, accounts payable, and procurement needs, while enhancing financial, corporate, and business literacy across the board.

How are platforms like Vroozi making it easier to mediate supplier collaboration?

With Vroozi, we are making it easier to mediate supplier collaboration and maximize contracts by providing a simple digital on-ramp where suppliers can be pre-connected to the platform, leveraging electronic channels to facilitate real-time communication between themselves, the buyers, and their business’ budgets. When you have a best-of-breed, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud-based tool like Vroozi — especially one that can be implemented so quickly and integrated into existing systems so easily — you eliminate the need for suppliers to invest a significant amount of money into building complex websites and ecommerce capabilities. You become a strategic partner, rather than a drain on resources.

In the past, becoming a digitally-enabled supplier and connecting with buyers was a challenging and complex process. However, we’ve been able to make these connection points a more immediate reality. By centralizing communication between buyers and suppliers and providing enhanced data management capabilities, we’re allowing procurement teams to proactively identify potential issues and new opportunities for collaboration with suppliers. We streamline the procurement process and provide real-time visibility into the status of orders, payments, and inventory levels — and in doing so, we help companies build stronger, more collaborative relationships with their suppliers.

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When it comes to the future of supplier relationships and automating tasks related to it: what kind of tools and features will come to the forefront?

The future of supplier relationship management and automation will see a number of tools and features come to the forefront as we shift toward more collaborative and innovative approaches. One key area is ongoing supplier onboarding, which will become increasingly automated and streamlined to allow for quicker digital on-ramping of suppliers into an organization.

Another important development will be an extension of collaboration capabilities with suppliers. Rather than just being seen as service or product providers, suppliers will soon be integrated with buy-side companies to innovate together in real-time. This will create a more dynamic relationship between the two parties, with both standing to benefit from real-time data sharing and collaboration. Innovation will be a key focus of this relationship. Integration with suppliers can create opportunities for innovation centers and labs where buyers and suppliers can work together to develop more innovative solutions and products for the market. These opportunities allow companies to tap into the collective expertise of their suppliers and enable greater collaboration, resource sharing, and the ability to stay ahead of the competition.

Take us through some of the most interesting ways in which leading brands have used different types of tools and processes to ease common hurdles and challenges surrounding multichannel business/vendor/supplier transactions and relationships?

One clear example of this use case can be found in one of our clients (one of the largest private grocery franchises in the United States) that has been able to digitally enable the catalogs of a large majority of their suppliers. When it comes to order collaboration, invoice management, and content management for pricing files, it’s difficult to manage and complete the cycle without a centralized tech platform to streamline those processes. We’ve worked hard to provide trustworthy software that’s comprehensive, customizable, and requires a relatively low learning curve to adopt. The results speak for themselves. This grocery franchise set the precedent — creating a scalable foundation that not only helps them track suppliers, but also provides them with the same user experience that their end users and employees benefit from.

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How do businesses optimize costs by using tools to aid with the above? What else can they do to build a more optimized process and/or streamline the supply chain and costs? 

Great question. When it comes to reigning in costs and optimizing core processes, businesses that choose a strategic, software-minded approach — one that is centered through the lens of technology and innovation — will be able to automate tasks and drastically increase productivity in a way that sets the business up for much greater efficiency and financial outcomes. Every step should focus on improving outcomes and increasing business efficiency. Tedious tasks on the P2P spectrum (like entering in invoice details) can sometimes take hours, but they can be done in seconds with the proper tech tools and automated processes. Those changes have a direct impact on the business in terms of processing cycles, cost per invoice, cost per purchase order, etc. By putting more intelligent document processing in place, you can truly reduce the transactional costs for those documents. You can also reallocate resources into more strategic revenue-generating functions in the company, like labor arbitrage and savings. These are areas that can innovate and generate direct profits for businesses and improve profit margins.

Can you share a few thoughts on how/what your team will aim to keep adding as enhancements to Vroozi to meet new needs?

Our current and future focus is centered around artificial intelligence. By leveraging machine learning capabilities, we can take datasets at speed and scale them to make better business decisions with that data in hand. That said, it’s not only about implementing AI; it’s about doing so with purpose as it relates to the goals of our partners. If the goal of the business is to get better supplier visibility, we leverage AI to ensure those supplier records remain active and updated. If the goal of the business is to reduce transactional operating costs, we implement AI functionality for intelligent document processing and matching. There are countless elements in the business to business purchasing and accounts payable  spectrum in which AI capabilities can lead to better business outcomes. We’re proving to businesses that they don’t have to manually process data and pour through millions of records in order to get their daily work completed. Rather, they can let the AI engine within Vroozi make those decisions for them and present any issues with a packaged set of solutions to drive better efficiency and productivity.  Employees are consumers at work. If you give them time back, you will be surprised at the level of innovation that can come from within.