See why Fusion Consulting employees gave Navan's solution a +57 net promoter score

Fusion Consulting is on a rapid growth trajectory and is constantly looking for ways to optimise its processes. In 2017 it had less than 50 employees; today it has 400 — and plans to double in size over the next two years. As a global consultancy with clients around the world, its employees are typically on the road for several weeks per month, making it vital that the company travel programme runs smoothly. After deciding its previous provider couldn’t support its global growth plans, Fusion Consulting turned to Navan to get on the right track.

Before Navan—the problem

Multiple travel platforms and out-of-pocket payments

Fusion Consulting’s previous travel provider had different platforms for different countries, making it hard for travel admins to track employee travel plans and company-wide travel data. Managing and maintaining so many platforms was inefficient for everyone involved.

The platforms also weren’t digitalised — functionality was poor and the mobile app was inadequate. Franz Poike, Head of Operations at Fusion Consulting, remembers the previous solution was “old-fashioned, painful, and limited.”

When booking hotels, travellers had to pay with personal cards and then request reimbursement, leaving them out of pocket in the meantime.

Employees across the company were spending large amounts of time on travel management, which drove Fusion Consulting to look for a new travel partner.

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“Our previous provider had different platforms for different countries, which meant we had to maintain user information, hotel contracts, and everything else, across multiple separate platforms. It was a job in itself.”

Franz Poike

Head of Operations

Why Fusion Consulting chose Navan

Given its own strong brand identity, Fusion Consulting had a clear idea of what it wanted from its next travel provider. Culturally, it sought a partner with a similar commitment to growth and innovation.

From a product perspective, the company wanted a unified travel platform, in-depth data on programme performance and traveller whereabouts, and mobile app functionality.

Additionally, Franz says Fusion Consulting needed “a solution that can grow with us,” with a large global travel inventory that catered to its planned expansion into new markets.

Following positive meetings and product demos with Navan, Fusion Consulting knew it had found a solution that met its needs.

A perfectly executed onboarding

After choosing to partner with Navan, Franz’s team executed a seamless transition to the new platform. This included a series of informative emails to all employees, a presentation in the quarterly company all-hands meeting, and a training video that employees had to watch prior to the launch date. 

After launching Navan, the previous travel provider was deactivated, and employees were told that all bookings must be made through Navan. This created instant adoption of the Navan platform and gave Franz’s team full visibility into employee travel.

The Navan effect

Travel payments made easy

Before Navan, employees paid for travel themselves and requested reimbursement after their trips. When booking travel now, Navan’s travel payment solution simplifies the process by generating a unique virtual card for each transaction, so employees no longer pay out of their own pockets.

The purpose behind most of Fusion Consulting’s travel is for the consulting team to visit client sites, and travel costs are assigned to each client after a trip is completed.

The booking platform has a custom field feature so the finance team can easily assign a trip’s cost to the relevant client. The traveller just needs to select the client’s name or project code from a dropdown list when making a booking, and the finance team can quickly identify which client to invoice for the trip’s cost.

Each month, Navan totals the cost of all trips and sends Fusion Consulting a single invoice. In one click, the Fusion Consulting finance team syncs all travel spend data to its enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool and, using the custom field data, easily identifies how much each client owes. The company can then issue the corresponding invoice.

The app that does it all

Fusion Consulting employees consider the intuitive Navan mobile app a real bonus. “They can access the information they need easily, and the app proactively updates them about their trip with information about flight delays or gate numbers,” says Franz.

An impressive 81% of employees have the Navan app, and the excellent NPS score of +57 demonstrates the platform’s popularity.

Navan’s in-app chat support is also a big hit. “Employees can chat to support from anywhere and get the answers they need in minutes — it works really well,” comments Franz. The current rating of all chats, 4.6/5, underlines this sentiment.

The benefits

After implementing Navan’s travel solution, employees across the company have benefitted.

Travellers:

• No longer pay for hotels out of pocket
• Self-book travel in minutes on the consumer-grade platform
• Choose from a comprehensive travel inventory
• Access in-app support 24/7

Finance team:

• Benefits from a streamlined invoicing process 
• Can quickly identify which clients to invoice for each trip, saving significant time

Operations team:

• Manages only one travel platform
• Gets in-depth, company-wide travel data

Looking ahead

Scaling confidently

Fusion Consulting is poised to grow its headcount significantly over the coming years, and the company does so with confidence, knowing it can rely on Navan to meet its travel needs.