“We trust Pliant to digitize our credit card system.”

Thanks to the experts from Vincit, businesses improve through digital technology. In order to modernise the company's credit card system, they decided to switch to Pliant. In this case study, Merelle Ahlman, Finance Administrator at Vincit, explains why she recommends Pliant for its ease of use, time-saving features and reliability across multiple entities.

Vincit

Vincit, a global team of 450 specialists, aims to improve businesses by leveraging digital technology, prioritizing its practical advantages over following trends. The company's shares are listed on the First North marketplace, operated by Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. Responsible for renewing the company’s credit cards, Ahlman chose to implement Pliant’s digital credit card solution for Vincit's entities in Finland and Sweden. Her responsibilities include overseeing all the cards, managing users, and ensuring accurate accounting for the company.

Benefits of using Pliant

Self-Management: Ability to issue and lock credit cards and manage card-level controls.
Real-time transaction monitoring: Transactions appear immediately, allowing for prompt receipt submission.
Time-Saving: Eliminates the need for form-filling and bank communication.
Compliance: Direct control over card issuance and cancellation improves security and reliability.

Challenge: Making Vincit better through digital technology

Before implementing Pliant's digital credit card solution, Vincit encountered inefficiencies with their traditional bank-issued company credit cards.

The process of managing these cards was cumbersome and time-consuming, requiring emailing the bank for issuing new cards, terminating old ones, or adjusting credit limits.

Additionally, transactions took three days to appear in their expense management system, Bezala, causing delays in expense tracking and a frequent issue of missing receipts.

Solution: Streamlined Operations with Pliant's Digital Credit Card Solution

Vincit connected Pliant with Bezala, bringing the card management and expense tracking processes up to date.

The API integration with Bezala ensures real-time transaction visibility, improves financial oversight and enables instant submission of receipts. This seamless process has significantly improved compliance, as employees are more incentivised to submit receipts promptly, supported by automatic reminders. "They see the transaction immediately and simply take a picture of the receipt to upload it. Now, our accounting looks much, much better and is up to date compared to before", says Ahlman.

One of the most beneficial features for Vincit is the ability to independently manage all aspects of their credit cards, including issuing, canceling, and adjusting credit limits instantly. This self-service capability eliminates the lengthy wait times and administrative overhead associated with traditional bank-issued cards. Employees now receive virtual cards within minutes, enabling prompt payments for urgent needs.

“The process where we are saving the most time is when ordering a new card. We just add the name and email address in the Pliant App, and create the new virtual or physical card. Before, the employee needed to fill in paperwork, and we had to send it back to the bank. If someone needs to pay for expensive software or something, we can just say, ‘Okay, wait a minute,’ and then I can send them the virtual card. It’s so smooth and fast.”

Merelle Ahlman, Finance Administrator at Vincit

Outcome: An up-to-date credit card system

Pliant has streamlined Vincit's credit card management, improved accounting accuracy, and enhanced overall efficiency, making it highly recommended for other multinational companies.

The time-saving benefits are substantial, especially when creating new cards. Ahlman simply adds the employee's name and email address in the Pliant apps, as opposed to the previous cumbersome paperwork and bank communication.

For most tasks she doesn’t need to contact her card provider anymore, but "if an employee has a tricky question, Roni, my account manager at Pliant quickly finds the right answer. He has made my work easier. His support and proactive outreach ensured the implementation went smoothly. He's a keeper and very good at what he does”, says Ahlman.

Canceling cards has also become more reliable and efficient, as it is now managed directly through the Pliant apps, eliminating the uncertainty and delays associated with bank processing.

Accounting accuracy has greatly improved, with up-to-date records due to real-time transaction monitoring, ensuring that accounting is more current than ever before. Pliant's integration with Bezala means transactions are visible immediately, enhancing the reliability of financial records.

“With Pliant our credit card system is more up-to-date than ever. The finance team saves a lot of time, especially when tracking expenses, collecting receipts and ordering new cards, as the process is instant and paperless. Managing and canceling cards directly through the Pliant apps has also made the system more secure. I absolutely recommend Pliant to other multinational companies. It's so easy, time-saving, and reliable. I have actually already told a friend, ‘Why don't you have Pliant cards in use?‘ They are so good and easy to handle and manage.”

Merelle Ahlman, Finance Administrator at Vincit