"With Pliant, we avoid currency risk and the need for hedging."
Prianto PPM GmbH manages the purchasing of software products for large and medium-sized system integrators. Managing director Thomas Kasper talks about his experience with Pliant's credit cards. As a reseller, he and his team are also regular users of the virtual cards for payments abroad in foreign currencies.
Prianto Group was founded in Germany in 2019 and is now divided into two main divisions: Software Distribution and Purchasing Management for Software Licensing.
As Managing Director of Prianto Projects and Procurement Management GmbH, Thomas Kasper is responsible for reseller procurement services, offering IT resellers a standardized purchasing process and procuring software products worldwide.
"We are a wholesaler for resellers, basically the Metro for resellers," says Thomas Kasper, explaining that his team helps large system integrators to purchase software at competitive prices, thus relieving the customers' purchasing departments.
Prianto is responsible for the supplier management of thousands of software vendors in compliance with strict legal and business requirements.
Instant credit card payments with no currency risk.
Payments in foreign currencies with a 2% FX fee
Allows multiple employees to create virtual corporate cards.
Challenge: Using a single credit card for multiple employees
Thomas Kasper and his team purchase software in multiple currencies, primarily US dollars. Historically they made foreign payments by prepayment or by invoice with a payment deadline, and used a physical credit card from the company's bank that several employees shared at the same time. However, the two-factor authorization proved to be unsuitable for the day-to-day work of the company. "I always had the PIN on my phone and had to give it to the appropriate employee. That's not easy when you're in the middle of a meeting", says Thomas Kasper.
Solution: Virtual corporate credit cards for resellers
With Pliant's cards, Prianto PPM GmbH receives a corporate credit card solution that they can adapt flexibly to their desired application, and is suitable for purchasing software in foreign currencies. Prianto now uses virtual Visa cards with worldwide acceptance. They create corporate credit cards for multiple employees in the Pliant app where they also set the limit for each card.
"On one occasion, the information on the card was stolen. I was able to lock the card in the app and issue a new card to the employee on the spot. In the past, we would have had to wait a week or two for a new credit card to be issued," explains Thomas Kasper.
“Hedging is always a very difficult thing to track. How much are you going to pay now in dollars and how much are you going to get later from the client. Of course, this is easier with the credit card, because the exchange rate on the day of the purchase is used. This means that I have fewer losses on the currency side.”
Thomas Kasper, Managing Director Prianto PPM GmbH
Outcome: Higher margins and simpler processes
Margins are often thin in the IT industry. This makes being efficient and cost-saving even more important. With Pliant, Prianto avoids license purchase fees and also receives cashback.
“With Pliant, we have been utilizing credit cards for all foreign currency transactions, whenever possible, in order to mitigate currency-related risks. Pliant is a flexible and user-friendly solution that enables me to issue new cards to our employees, significantly streamlining our operations.”
