“Within two weeks our eight legal entities had Pliant up and running”
Jari Iltanen is the Operations Controller of Elämys Group where he's responsible for the finance team, ERP system, and technical operations. He shares his positive onboarding experience with Pliant and what it's like to use our digital credit card solution as a travel company.
Elämys Group is a Finnish tourism group offering a comprehensive array of travel and event services. These services cater to a broad spectrum of customer needs, both for consumer and corporate customers, in all areas of tourism, from active travel to business travel, and from group travel to event organization. With this diverse range of offerings, several Elämys brands are able to meet virtually any travel or event need a client may have.
Before adopting Pliant, the Elämys Group used a few physical credit cards in their business. They also tried another VCC provider, but it did not meet their needs.
Elämys Group uses credit cards for purchasing services like hotels, car rentals, or restaurants that aren't under contract. They need to purchase and pay for these services in advance. For Elämys, fast payments and immediate confirmation of purchases are essential advantages. On the other hand, the payment type surcharges charged by some providers are a disadvantage.
Credit card payments are the fastest and most convenient way to settle accounts with travel service providers, and they're an important means of payment for travel services.
Solution: Ease of use from onboarding to card issuing
Soon after onboarding, Jari and his team found that Pliant covered and solved practically all the known shortcomings of previous providers. Today, the main users of Pliant are tour operators and sales experts, but also people in management, marketing, and other industries.
When implementing a new credit card solution, the Elämys Group focused on attractive cashback and ease of use for the numerous users in the company.
With Pliant they are able to issue credit cards quickly on their own and can set flexible limits for each card within the available company balance. Further card controls for transaction limits and monthly usage restrictions enable low threshold issues of cards.
In fact, despite the increase in credit card users, the process for reporting purchases to the finance department has been simplified. "Both card users and finance staff are extremely satisfied with Pliant's solution," says Jari Iltanen.
He also describes the onboarding from the first contact with Pliant as very fast and simple. “All contacts to and from Pliant staff were quick and solution-oriented. It was also a nice bonus that we had a Finnish-speaking contact manager in Pliant,” Jari Iltanen explains.
“Our previous virtual credit card system had several shortcomings. After getting familiar with Pliant, we found that practically all of them were covered and solved.”
Jari Iltanen, Operations Controller on Elämys Group
Outcome: Eight legal entities were onboarded within two weeks
All eight Elämys Group units were onboarded within two weeks and now use Pliant’s credit card solution. They can easily switch between them in the Pliant app with a single login.
“The onboarding of our eight legal entities was a breeze. Now we can switch between them in the Pliant app with a single sign-on. All of our card users and financial staff are very happy with the Pliant solution. Our Finnish Key Account Manager, Karoliina, has been extremely helpful, fast, and pleasant to work with.”
Jari Iltanen, Operations Controller on Elämys Group
