A perfect pair: finding the right partner for card program migration

For many financial organisations, the focus in card program management is squarely on the contentious and challenging build or buy debate. A less frequently discussed process however, one that is just as important and challenging is migration; transitioning customers from an existing card program to a brand new one, with all the complexities that accompany it.

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Thorbjørn Fink is COO of Pleo, the Nordic-born fintech darling has recently undergone this exact journey. Partnering with Enfuce, Fink takes us through his experience of choosing the right partner, troubleshooting challenges and planning for the future as a scale-up.

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Testing the waters

Pleo is a spend management platform – a fintech solution designed to help business simplify employee spending for optimal financial reporting, analysis and efficiency. Originally the company began with software creation and gradually it added the financial services arm of the business. By then, Pleo had thousands and thousands of plastic and virtual cards out in the world, so when the need for migration arose, the idea was a truly daunting one.

“Our partnership – or marriage if you like – started with transferring our existing customers onto the Enfuce platform and this was a huge endeavour and very risky. Because of the risk, we wanted to test the relationship thoroughly in the beginning.”

Fink is a realist and predicted that unknown challenges would appear throughout the process. For this, he believes the partner needs to behave in a very specific way. The speed of response and quality of solution to issues, for example, is vital. Pleo had chosen a slower migration which consisted of a recarding element – sending out new cards for consumers to adopt and use. This project was a big one, extremely complicated and took 6 months to execute, which meant that the relationship the business had with its partner was key to its success.

Download The builder’s guide to strangely satisfying card experiences, created for you by industry experts.

“When you choose a provider, make sure that you choose one that can support you for the long term. One that has high up-time, a tech staff and foundation that’s really solid. Modularity is also important – you need to know that your partner can add on new things if you need them in the future, because you don’t want to go through either migration or recarding again – this is a process you want to do once in your life, not twice.”

Is it a fit?

Risk was clearly a big concern for Pleo, so looking at a solution that was as safe as possible was paramount. Fink believes that because Enfuce is built on the latest technology, the proposition was more modern and up-to-date and as a result, less risky. The broader set of features offered was also attractive to the Pleo team, giving the business more options for future development and greater opportunities to serve their customer base. Payment processing was the service from Enfuce that Pleo felt was the best in class. But they had other ways of working that they needed Enfuce or any other partner to be on board with first.

One of the requirements was true collaboration. It was vital to the business that the team on each side worked together on solutions as opposed to in isolation, which isn’t an everyday request in this industry.

“We wanted access to the architects and the people behind the scenes at Enfuce. And they were like, sure, why not? They had nothing to hide and were quite proud of who they were and their capabilities. Our engineers met their engineers and worked together to figure out how new solutions could work and the pros and cons of each.”

When you know, you know.

Whatever business arrangement you’re embarking on, it’s tough to know at the beginning if you’ve made the right call or if the relationship is going to last. Fink says that even early on there were signs that Enfuce was the right match, and that the partnership was based on substance and not just a sales arrangement.

Surprisingly, being challenging from get-go was one of these signs.

“Even in the beginning when we were designing the program together, they were making sure that the right people were there and were really challenging us back. They asked questions like ‘are you sure you really want to go down this road? Because these are the three things you need to take into consideration if you really want to do this.’ They also consistently gave us extra food for thought, saying ‘maybe think about this way of doing it instead’ or ‘have you thought or tried this?’. In that was it was a true partnership which was not something we were used to.”

Another positive sign was clear and constant communication. As simple as it sounds, Fink underlines the importance of getting a speedy and thoughtful response back when questioned or when queries are made. And while he admits there have been speed bumps, wobbles and issues long the way, Enfuce and Pleo have solved them together, which in Fink’s eyes is the most important experience of all.

This use case is just one of many that highlights the significance of a strong partnership in complex transformation strategies and how collaboration has emerged as the most powerful route to efficient and effective change. By harnessing the skills of each business, navigating unchartered territory becomes less overwhelming, and the consistent support exchanged between parties breeds resilience and confidence, no matter the hurdle.