At RELI, we recognize that our clients need more than just strategic advice; they need validated, innovative solutions that harness the power of emerging technologies without the high risk associated with new, unproven concepts. That’s the mission for RELI Labs – our agile innovation hub, where we apply leading-edge technologies to real-life business use cases to rapidly test, refine and validate the viability and potential impact of these technologies. When our clients turn to us for expertise and advice, we consider it our responsibility to make sure our expertise is sharpened and molded by real, hands-on research in our innovation hub. The goal of these rapid proofs of concept (POCs) is to prove the viability and market readiness of these solutions for our clients. In short, RELI Labs is where tomorrow’s business is proven today
In an era defined by constant technological change, the velocity of innovation matters. The key differentiator for RELI Labs is our uncompromising commitment to lean, agile, POC methodology. RELI Labs’ iterative cycles focus on the following core principles:
- Sharp Business Focus: Every technology we explore is diligently mapped to a specific client challenge or a business use case. In other words, it is not just a technical R&D effort. If a technology cannot demonstrate clear, quantifiable business value, it is not prioritized for a POC in RELI Labs.
- Minimum Viable Solution (MVS) Mindset: We prioritize velocity over scope. Our goal is not to build a finished product, but to build the MVS necessary to prove or disprove a core hypothesis and market readiness. This dramatically reduces the time required to move from concept to validated design.
- Adaptability: The nature of this work requires RELI Labs to be adaptable and decisive. If a POC doesn’t meet our goal of proving the viability and market readiness of a solution, it’s still successful by identifying the reasons it’s not ready for the market. It is critical to be able to separate hype and potential from real, practical, “ready for primetime” solutions. “Fail fast” is an acceptable outcome because it keeps us focused on delivering true value. In these cases, we document our findings and move on to the next item on our roadmap.
Innovation framework at RELI Labs
RELI Labs follows a structured framework designed to move ideas seamlessly through the idea funnel.
- Discovery and Ideation – This research and collaboration phase is fueled by deep industry expertise, domain knowledge, and a clear understanding of the challenges faced by our clients. We monitor the technology landscape for potentially transformative technologies, collect feedback from our experts and clients on their challenges, and create a funnel of potential use cases where we can harness technology to deliver tangible impact. The funnel of ideas is then prioritized into a roadmap of POCs for RELI Labs. For example, our current pipeline of prioritized POCs includes an AI and ML powered solution to identify potential fraud, waste and abuse (FWA) cases in healthcare. Another example is an Agentic AI solution to streamline business flows for more efficient outcomes, which can be applied in multiple domains.
- Rapid POC Execution – The RELI Labs team develops prioritized POCs in agile sprints, ensuring velocity and a continuous feedback loop. POCs usually require research into a new area, as well as some experimentation to assess the best design and approach. Since it is a lab environment, requiring a fair bit of research and an inquisitive approach, the team is more nimble than a regular agile team and prepared to pivot and adapt along the way. We accept that “failing fast” is preferable to pursuing a solution that may not be feasible or mature enough for real-world scenarios. In these cases, we use the lessons learned to come up with a better approach and solution.
The POCs focus on addressing the more complex, risky and unknown elements of a solution, rather than more straight-forward details that can be addressed later during implementation. We use synthetic data, representative of real client data, to simulate real world scenarios. The goal of every POC is clearly defined in terms of desired outcomes and metrics to prove that the solution is mature enough for real projects. - Implementation and Transition – Once a POC has proven successful and the business value is quantified, it is ready to transition from RELI Labs to RELI delivery team. The RELI Labs team creates a reusable blueprint with the POC code and best practices to extend the POC into production and integrate it with other applications. The work performed by the RELI Labs team significantly lowers the risk profile for the delivery teams and our clients, and facilitates smoother implementation because the delivery team receives a pre-validated blueprint, ready for accelerated deployment. The delivery and implementation teams are supported by the experts in RELI Labs as well as RELI’s Center of Excellence.
RELI Labs: Embrace the future
The world continues to change faster than ever, and we believe it presents unlimited possibilities if one is prepared to leverage them. RELI Labs is our dedicated accelerator, combining the agility of a startup with the deep expertise and rigor of a proven consulting and services company. We move beyond the theoretical and build validated solutions that will help our clients meet their mission more effectively. Our approach provides the intelligence needed to make proactive, rather than reactive, business decisions. RELI Labs helps to weed out the hype so that RELI delivery teams and RELI clients can focus on the real-world solutions.
Although RELI Labs is currently focused on research and POCs behind RELI solutions and expertise, it is also a very effective vehicle to co-innovate with our clients. Our innovation framework is flexible enough to adapt to a client-provided topic for ideation and POCs. If you’re interested in partnering with RELI Labs to build on your idea, we invite you to contact us, or follow RELI Group on LinkedIn to keep up with the latest innovations coming out of RELI Labs!
