Informa takes travel and sustainability to new heights with Navan

Informa is a leading international events, research, and digital services business and FTSE 100 member with 10,000 employees across 30 countries. In the area of sustainability, Informa has been a certified carbon neutral company since 2020 and is recognised as a leader by industry analysts including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

Informa previously used a legacy travel provider, but the experience was inconsistent. The provider had different platforms for different markets, so the travel team had to maintain more than 30 platforms and piece together data from each. Meanwhile, a suboptimal user experience and travel inventory meant some employees booked off-platform instead. All in all, these data challenges made it difficult for Informa to stay on top of its travel programme in real time, including spend and use of carbon.

Informa recognised it needed one consolidated travel solution to boost platform adoption and provide comprehensive spend and sustainability data. That’s why, in 2021, the company chose Navan as its new travel provider.

The search for a new provider

When Informa began searching for a new travel provider, the company sought a solution that would give it high-quality, real-time spend and sustainability data, plus superior reporting capabilities, in one centralised platform for the entire company.

“With all the changes in the industry, we needed a platform that was agile enough to accommodate new technology and processes,” said Melissa Watson, Group Travel & Corporate Events Director. One of these technologies, she said, was the growing importance of New Distribution Capability (NDC) air content and the savings potential it provides.

Duty of care has always been central to Informa's approach to travel, so the company was particularly interested in enhanced traveller tracking capabilities and ensuring maximum adoption. Prior to Navan, 35% of travel spend was booked off-platform.

“After conducting an extensive RFP, we felt that Navan met this criteria,” said Watson.

Why Informa chose Navan

1. Rich reporting capabilities

Informa admins can pull reports with ease from Navan’s intuitive data dashboards.

“Travel spend is now delivered in real time, so we no longer have a seven-day lag in data flow,” said Watson.

The Navan platform also allows Informa to “report on travel data in a timely, cohesive, consistent, and understandable way,” said Ben Wielgus, Head of Sustainability.

This experience differs from the travel provider Informa previously used, which gave the company incomplete data and made it “difficult to get a detailed report from the system,” said Nicolas Desolino, Group Manager of Sustainability & Reporting.

Navan’s data dashboard has also significantly simplified the sustainability reporting process. Navan provides the calculations and evidence that Informa needs to report on its emissions accurately and meet the requirements of its third-party auditor.

Whereas previously, Wielgus and Desolino needed to pull data that used different methodologies and piece this information together manually, they now get all the data easily from the Navan platform, saving significant amounts of time and improving the accuracy of the reports.

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"With all the changes in the industry, we needed a platform that was agile enough to accommodate new technology and processes."

Melissa Watson

Group Travel & Corporate Events Director

2. User-friendly platform 

With Navan, adoption has increased. Employees are happy using the platform and the year-to-date net promoter score of +30 is testament to that.

Watson says Informa employees “enjoy the platform, find it easy to use and intelligent, and with good access to inventory.”

As a result, all travel data is centralised on one platform and the company booking policy is consistent across the company. “Navan gives us a global solution, which allows our remote offices to use the same platform,” said Wielgus.

With high platform adoption, Informa now gets far more comprehensive travel data and a much stronger grasp of its carbon emissions.

What, as a travel manager, does Watson enjoy most about Navan? “The fact that my travellers are happy!”

3. Comprehensive sustainability data

One of the main reasons Informa chose Navan was the detailed, real-time sustainability data and tracking capabilities the Navan platform provides.

Informa uses the platform’s carbon reporting dashboard to get real-time visibility into the company’s emissions and to track trends over time. The dashboard includes granular emissions data so Informa can understand which teams, departments, and routes are most travelled, as well as get breakdowns on things like which cabin classes employees book.

With the Navan platform’s data, the company can make more informed choices around its sustainability efforts and tweak its travel policy to ensure its travel activities are both valuable and environmentally responsible.

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"We like the fact that the platform reminds people of their carbon footprint. They can make educated choices between the budget, the times of the flight, the airline they’re flying with, and the carbon footprint."

Ben Wielgus

Head of Sustainability

4. Features that encourage sustainable choices

Another key reason Informa chose Navan was the platform’s sustainability features, which empower travellers to make informed choices when booking travel.

When searching for a flight between two cities that have a suitable rail option, like London to Paris, a pop-up appears in the booking flow, letting travellers know there’s a viable rail alternative. In these instances, travellers can easily swap their view of flight schedules to see rail options, then switch back if they still prefer to fly.

This feature is part of Navan’s mission to empower travellers to make informed travel choices —  something other platform features also enable. For example, during the flight booking process, travellers see the CO2 impact of each flight option based on factors like flight route, aircraft type, and seat class. Additionally, the platform contextualises the impact for travellers by quantifying emissions using real-life examples.

Wielgus appreciates the softer approach that nudges travellers rather than imposing a choice upon them. “We like the fact that the platform reminds people of their carbon footprint,” he said. “They can make educated choices between the budget, the times of the flight, the airline they’re flying with, and the carbon footprint.”

5. Empowered to travel, responsibly

Like Navan, Informa is a big believer in the power of in-person connections. At the same time, said Wielgus, “when our people get on a plane, it’s really important that they’re going for a good reason.”

Navan allows Informa to travel for business responsibly and in a way that's mindful of carbon emissions.

These benefits come through the full visibility into its emissions, the sustainability features that encourage travellers to make environmentally conscious decisions, and the user-friendly platform and broad content range that mean travellers don’t need to book elsewhere.

From a cost perspective, Informa has saved 22% on hotels and 14% on flights since onboarding with Navan.

These savings are set to continue to grow, thanks to Navan’s 15 NDC connections with the likes of British Airways, KLM, and American Airlines. Based on booking data from the first quarter of 2024, Informa is set to save more than £160,000 annually through bookings made via NDC.

A strong travel partner

With Navan as its partner, Informa feels well-equipped to achieve its travel-related sustainability goals. 

Watson’s team now manages the company’s entire travel programme on one user-friendly platform, with detailed reporting and traveller tracking features, as well as access to NDC content.

Wielgus and Desolino, meanwhile, have data and sustainable travel features that help them deliver Informa's wider sustainability programme. The ease with which Navan provides high-quality data on emissions, spend, and traveller whereabouts makes it an invaluable part of Informa’s toolkit. 

Said Wielgus: “Navan is a really good partner for us going forward.”