Inside Unit4’s “99% Self‑Serve” Global Travel Program

Headquarters

Netherlands

Company Size

Enterprise (2,500+ employees)

Industry

Tech

Products Used

• Navan Business Travel
• Navan Pro
• Navan Group Travel

Unit4 is a leader in enterprise cloud applications, serving more than 4,700 people-centric organizations worldwide across a range of industries, including professional services, nonprofit, and the public sector.

With 2,500 employees spread across multiple European offices, Unit4 needed a travel solution that could scale as their sales team’s travel needs grew — without requiring a dedicated travel manager.

Navan was already in place when procurement lead Kacper Canibol joined Unit4 three years ago. As a traveler and, later, as the internal admin, Kacper saw how little day-to-day oversight the travel platform required. “We never had anyone assigned to review travel invoices and manage them. It was basically just running on its own in the background,” he said.

Before Navan

Before Unit4 implemented Navan, its travel program was also running on autopilot — but in all the wrong ways. The existing travel policy was outdated and largely ignored; there was zero real-time visibility into travel spend, and manual email approvals were required for every booking.

When Kacper joined and dug into the previous solution’s performance, the inefficiency was obvious. “When I looked at the historical data from before the Navan platform, it was quite bad,” he said.

At the same time, Unit4 was growing rapidly, and its sales team was traveling more frequently. As a result, costs were climbing unchecked. The team needed a solution that could handle the increasing travel volume without any additional headcount.

Why Navan

Unit4 needed a travel solution that could largely run itself, keep costs in check, and still give employees real freedom to make travel plans that worked for them. Most of the company’s trips are straightforward, point‑to‑point journeys between major hubs and offices in destinations like Lisbon, London, and Wrocław, Poland — so a tool that makes simple trips fast and intuitive was essential.

“One of the reasons Navan was chosen was to give people this freedom and let them book travel with just two or three clicks,” said Kacper. “Most of our trips are not that complicated.” But even straightforward itineraries require policies, and Navan’s automated enforcement keeps spend in check without limiting traveler choice. “It gives employees many more choices for where to stay than they had before,” said Kacper. Navan’s smart features, such as the ability to track and use airline credits, allow the company to stretch its budget even further. “In the past, a lot of airline credits were just lost,” Kacper revealed. “Now they’re available for people when they book their next trip.”

The seamless ERP integration was equally important. New employees are automatically added to Navan when they join Unit4, explained Kacper. “When you start, you can just log in and book your travel.” Virtual cards eliminated reimbursement delays and removed the need for Unit4 to issue physical credit cards to employees for business travel.

For complex executive travel, Unit4 added Navan Pro, which has become an essential tool for the company’s EAs to book complicated multi-city trips and special requests.

“

Navan Pro is like a second assistant for our global leadership team right now. Our CEO’s assistant really likes the setup.

Kacper Caniboł

Senior Procurement Manager

Results with Navan

Since implementing Navan, Unit4 has achieved significant savings with a high level of traveler satisfaction.

Navan’s intuitive, policy‑driven experience has kept day‑to‑day admin work to a minimum. ”For 99% of the bookings, we don’t have any inquiries,” said Kacper. “People don’t message me. They just need to know their cost center from their manager, and that’s it.” Travelers now book in an average of 8.21 minutes — far below the industry average of 45 minutes.

When issues do arise, Unit4’s dedicated account manager at Navan resolves them quickly. “Occasionally, we might find a mistake in our ERP,” said Kacper. “I just message Billy at Navan, and he usually solves it that day.” Quarterly business reviews with the Navan team have also revealed optimization opportunities, some of which have led to major cost savings.

“

When you set it up correctly, employees can book travel without asking too many questions, so it’s not something I have to worry about. Navan is just simple — very simple.

Kacper Caniboł

Senior Procurement Manager

By using these insights to identify patterns, Kacper negotiated preferred rates in the company’s three busiest cities — Wrocław, London, and Lisbon — saving over €150,000 on accommodations in a single year. That comes on top of Unit4’s 25% savings on flights, even as booking volume increased. “If we hadn’t analyzed and tweaked our policy settings based on the data, we would be paying hundreds of thousands more per year right now,” said Kacper.

Unit4 travelers have embraced the platform, giving it a 94.1% CSAT score and +41 NPS rating, while policy compliance has jumped from almost zero to 70%. Navan’s real-time traveler tracking has also proved invaluable during a crisis. When an explosion occurred in Utrecht, Netherlands, Kacper recalled, “It took basically one minute” to check which employees were in the area and confirm their safety.

Future with Navan

With Navan, Unit4 has proven that companies don’t need additional headcount to run efficient programs — they just need the right technology. The platform saves time for the procurement team while giving travelers the freedom they desire, all while maintaining strict cost controls through automation.