IGLU Ski / Cruises

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, businesses worldwide were forced to adapt quickly. For IGLU Cruises - the UK’s largest online cruise retailer - one of the biggest challenges was maintaining a clear and accurate view of their cash position while managing thousands of transactions every day. Their existing payment tracking process was manual, time-consuming, and prone to error.

Faced with this challenge, IGLU made the strategic decision to modernise their accounts payable process. While most UK cruise retailers remained stuck on dated systems, IGLU took the leap forward - partnering with us to scope, design, and deliver a smarter way of working.

About IGLU

Founded in 1998, IGLU has grown into one of the UK’s leading digital travel agencies. Through its Iglu Cruise, Iglu Ski, and Planet Cruise brands, it connects travellers with over 1.3 million holidays worldwide.

Every year, more than 250,000 customers trust IGLU’s award-winning team of 400+ specialists to make their travel dreams stress-free and memorable.

The Challenge

IGLU’s teams were spending far too much time reconciling supplier statements, correcting data errors, and navigating inefficient workflows that lacked transparency. The heavy reliance on manual effort meant that mistakes were inevitable, and the lack of visibility made it difficult to get an accurate view of cash flow at any given moment.

It was clear that a more intelligent, automated solution was needed - one that could handle the complexity of high-volume supplier transactions, eliminate repetitive tasks, and provide the finance team with accurate, real-time insights.

 The Solution: PayWise

Over the course of several months, we worked closely with IGLU to design and deliver PayWise - a state-of-the-art platform that digitises and automates supplier payment workflows. Built on OutSystems for speed and scalability, PayWise brought the entire supplier statement lifecycle in-house, with automation embedded at every stage.

With PayWise, IGLU gained access to:

• End-to-end statement management - from import to reconciliation, all in one organised platform

• Automated payment matching - intelligent algorithms automatically match ~90% of statement lines, saving hundreds of hours of manual effort

• Automated reconciliation - complex logic streams reconcile statements without human intervention

• Payment search tool - enabling IGLU to search, compare, and track any payment in their database for full transparency

• Detailed reporting and exports - formatted reports and data extracts available instantly, removing manual rework

• Automated file uploads - seamless integration with services like FTP and S3, now fully managed in-house

The Results

The transformation was both immediate and measurable. With industry-leading auto-match rates of around 90%, IGLU drastically reduced the time their finance team spent reconciling statements.

Within just 12 months, the platform delivered a 240% return on investment, driven by automation and efficiency gains. This translated into substantial cost savings, freeing up hundreds of thousands of pounds that were previously lost to manual processes and inefficiencies.

Beyond the financial benefits, PayWise has given IGLU’s finance team far greater visibility and control over payment data. Real-time insights into cash position now support better decision-making, while the automation of repetitive tasks has freed up valuable time to focus on higher-value work.

Most importantly, the system has laid a scalable foundation for future digital transformation, ensuring IGLU can continue to streamline and innovate with confidence.

What’s Next

With PayWise firmly in place, IGLU is continuing their digital transformation journey. Together, we are exploring new opportunities to extend automation and streamline financial operations even further - ensuring IGLU remains ahead of the curve in efficiency, visibility, and control.

Interested in streamlining your own finance processes?
Get in touch with us to see how we can help.