Challenge
Global fintech firm Finastra set out to create a robust Virtual Collaboration infrastructure to reduce internal travel, ensure business continuity, increase employee productivity, and drive program savings.
When Finastra announced a major sustainability initiative in 2019 – to bring the company to carbon neutrality by 2030 – the need for cutting-edge solutions to reduce non-essential travel became clearer than ever. With the help of experts at Advito, the Finastra Travel team was ready to meet the challenge, ensuring the right tools and communications were in place for would-be travelers to remain productive, safe, and satisfied from anywhere in the world.
“The Advito team made it easy to set our goals, track our progress, and measure our success – and shout that success to leadership.”
Mauro Ruggiero
Global Travel Director, Finastra
Solution
Advito’s first step was to assess Finastra’s meeting practices. How often were employees traveling for internal meetings? And when? The team discovered that in 2018, nearly 43% of travel was for internal meetings rather than client-facing or revenue generating travel. For Finastra’s travel manager, Mauro Ruggiero, the answer was to run an integrated campaign to promote replacing internal travel with virtual meetings. The campaign’s aim was to set new expectations for travelers and make it clear when it is necessary to travel, and when it isn’t. It also aimed to educate travelers on ways to increase productivity with the right virtual tools, leading to increased satisfaction and improved work-life balance.
By coordinating efforts with the Facilities, IT, CSR and leadership teams, the Travel Team was at the forefront of company-wide behavior change. After building the business case and creating the strategy to shift behavior and reduce travel, the Advito team created adoption campaigns with key messaging centered around contributing to sustainability initiatives and realizing significant cost savings. Together, the Finastra Travel team and Advito set ambitious goals and put regular measurements in place to ensure they stayed on track and produced tangible results for all stakeholders.
“Our travelers are excited to contribute to the success of our sustainability initiatives. And ever more importantly, our early transition to Virtual Collaboration has allowed for business continuity as employees shift to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has ensured that our employees can conduct business safely and stay healthy, and that’s the most important thing we could ask for.”
Mauro Ruggiero
Director – Global Travel Management
Results
travel spend savings achieved
flights avoided in one year
kg less carbon emitted
Over the course of the campaign, the Finastra Travel team was able to cut travel spend by nearly 50%. Travelers were quick to adopt the virtual tools, and the percentage of internal travel decreased from 43% at the onset of the campaign to just 9.8% at the end of the four months.
Year over year that meant:
- $3.7M reduction in travel spend
- 2,500 fewer flights taken in 2019 than 2018
- 4M kg less carbon emitted
