How Adyen Achieved 92% Traveler Satisfaction and Program Compliance with Navan

Region

APAC: Asia-Pacific, EMEA: Europe, Middle East, and Africa, LATAM: Latin America, NORAM: North America

Headquarters

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Industry

Tech

Products Used

• Navan Business Travel
• Navan Travel Payments

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Adyen is a global financial technology power-house. Headquartered in Amsterdam and operating out of 29 offices across the globe, the enterprise financial platform powers the world’s leading businesses while streamlining payments, banking infrastructure, and data services. 

For a multinational organization with more than 4,500 employees, keeping internal operations as fluid as its digital platform is essential to maintaining momentum. To better understand how the company balances its global footprint with its day-to-day operations, we spoke to Brett Parker, senior workplace project and program manager, and Gary Yang, svp, global head of account management and partnerships.

One key factor: The organization focuses heavily on its international culture and collaborative spirit. “Adyen’s unique in the way that we approach a holistic financial platform for the different aspects of businesses around the world,” said Parker. “I also think we’re different because of our people. We’re such a multinational company; every day I’m interacting with people from different parts of the world.” 

Because of this global footprint, corporate travel is essential for maintaining cross-border relationships, reflecting Adyen’s core corporate philosophy of an unwavering commitment to human connection. 

“

When we think about travel for the team, we want a frictionless experience. We want to take the administrative burden off of our employees and give time back to them so they can focus on more important tasks. Having a simple, modern, and powerful platform travel booking is so important.

Brett Parker

Senior Workplace Project and Program Manager

Before Navan

Prior to partnering with Navan, Adyen’s travel infrastructure was fragmented and highly manual. The company relied on disparate platforms and regional workflows, which created friction for both travelers and administrators. Coordinating global trips required immense administrative heavy lifting, often forcing team members to constantly reach out to external account managers on their legacy platform just to handle basic modifications or requests. The environment lacked cohesion, making everyday coordination incredibly difficult for the workplace teams.

“At Adyen, we’re really a face-to-face company,” said Parker. “We prioritize in-person meetings with our merchants and with our team. And before Navan, it was chaotic. We had different platforms. We had different ways of working; it was all over the place. Navan brought simplicity, reduced friction for our team, and simplified whole travel experience.” 

This disconnected setup directly impacted visibility, giving rise to significant program leakage. Because the internal platform lacked an intuitive interface and comprehensive options, employees frequently bypassed the company system altogether. As Parker explained, this leakage stemmed from a perceived lack of competitive options inside their old tool, which ultimately obscured data that the company needed to ensure employee safety.

“One of the biggest challenges we had before Navan was leakage,” he said. “Employees were booking off-platform, where they found better rates and fares, and the team didn’t have visibility into where our travelers were. But when we rolled out Navan, we were able to capture way more of those employee trips and get a much more holistic view of our travel.”

Why Navan

When Adyen began the search for a new corporate travel partner, leadership prioritized a system that could seamlessly match the company’s high standard of enterprise efficiency. They needed a platform that was fast, responsive, and intuitive enough to eliminate the administrative burden entirely. Navan stood out by offering a powerful, unified solution capable of scaling across Adyen’s 29 global offices.

The evaluation process focused on finding a platform that respected employees’ time. “I don't want my team to spend too much time booking travel,” said Yang. “The process should be easy and super-seamless, so employees can focus on building their business.”

“

If I had to pick just a couple words to describe Navan, I’d say it’s modern, fast, and convenient.

Gary Yang

SVP, Global Head of Account Management and Partnerships

Results with Navan

Seamless implementation and change management

Transitioning thousands of employees to a new corporate system can be a daunting, high-risk endeavor that often triggers internal resistance. So, rather than forcing a rigid, overnight cutover that could disrupt operations, Navan partnered closely with Adyen’s team to co-author a deliberate rollout strategy tailored to its cultural workflow. Acknowledging the anxiety around change management and mitigating it through a synchronized partnership was essential. 

“Rolling out a new system can send shivers down your spine,” said Parker. “But when we rolled out Navan, we partnered with our account managers really closely to develop a plan that worked for us. We wanted to start with a small group and then iterate up to the whole company. Navan took it at our pace and didn’t force us into a specific flow.”

“

Rolling out a new system can send shivers down your spine. But when we rolled out Navan, we partnered with our account managers really closely to develop a plan that worked for us. We wanted to start with a small group and then iterate up to the whole company. Navan took it at our pace and didn’t force us into a specific flow.

Brett Parker

Senior Workplace Project and Program Manager

Global inventory and compliance

By introducing a tool optimized for employee needs, Adyen avoided the typical friction of software onboarding. The company drove immediate platform adoption and successfully solved its leakage problem thanks in part to Navan’s vast global inventory and competitive pricing directly within the platform. 

That trend has continued. Employees no longer feel the need to hunt for better rates externally because Navan aggregates extensive worldwide flight routes and lodging options. Travelers can now seamlessly customize their journeys — booking a flight in advance and adding a hotel later, say — while capitalizing on company-negotiated hotel discounts. In the process, Adyen has significantly reduced off-platform bookings. 

Support and AI autonomy

Navan’s dual-layered approach to support integrates AI chat with around-the-clock human assistance to meet travelers wherever they are. And for basic tasks, like retrieving documentation or pulling past invoices, Navan’s AI agent can resolve issues instantly — without human intervention. This intelligent automation saves the finance team precious time during expense reconciliation. ”I utilized the chat support the other day to pull up an invoice for a previous trip to help with expense management,” said Parker. “The AI did it instantly, and all by itself; I never even had to talk to a support rep.” 

For more complex requests that require a human touch, travelers experience an internal response time of under 90 seconds. This frictionless blend of speed and automation has earned a remarkable 92% customer satisfaction score (CSAT) among Adyen employees.

Large-scale event logistics: Connect Week

The true stress test of Adyen’s travel infrastructure is its annual Connect Week, when the company flies its entire global workforce to Amsterdam to align on strategy, build cross-functional relationships, and reinforce company culture. Coordinating travel for thousands of internal team members simultaneously used to be a monumental operational burden.

With Navan, however, the event’s logistics have been transformed into a streamlined, automated process. The platform seamlessly steers thousands of travelers toward company-preferred flights and designated hotels where Adyen has pre-negotiated corporate discounts. 

Navan’s backend power is now critical for making this major corporate milestone a logistical success. “Navan is a massive part of making Connect Week successful,” said Yang. “With thousands of global employees traveling at once, ensuring everyone has reliable flight bookings, coordinated itineraries, and access to optimized corporate rates is an immense undertaking. Navan helps us seamlessly steer our entire team toward our preferred properties and preferred flights, driving program compliance while ensuring a premium traveler experience.”

This centralized management ensures that the massive company investment translates into an experience that helps keep the global team perfectly connected.

Future with Navan

By swapping a fragmented, high-friction legacy system for Navan’s comprehensive platform, Adyen has successfully aligned its travel management with its cutting-edge operational philosophy. The meticulous, phased change management strategy ensured that the transition was met with enthusiasm rather than friction, safeguarding employee productivity from day one. And the administrative burden that once weighed down travelers and coordinators alike has evaporated, allowing the company’s global workforce to focus entirely on driving commercial growth and supporting enterprise merchants.

As Adyen continues its global expansion — including major footprint expansions across critical regions like India — Navan remains a foundational asset. The platform helps ensure that whether employees are traveling for high-stakes quarterly business reviews or converging by the thousands for Connect Week, their journeys are smooth, secure, and entirely effortless.