Winged Boots, part of Ocean Holidays Group and one of the UK’s largest independently owned tour operators, was struggling to manage complex forward payments across multiple currencies and extended timescales. Our platform solved their operational challenges, delivering significant cost savings and freeing up their team to focus on what they do best.
About the client
Winged Boots is a luxury travel management company that specialises in bespoke worldwide travel for both leisure and corporate clients. Led by Managing Director David Ox, who’s also one of the founders of Ocean Holidays Group, they’ve built their reputation on delivering personalised service with dedicated travel managers who each bring over 15 years of industry experience.
Part of Ocean Holidays Group, one of the UK’s largest independently owned tour operators, Winged Boots handles everything from multi-centre adventure itineraries to romantic honeymoons on private islands. It’s been a pleasure working with them for so long.
The challenges
Given their role, cross-border payments are central to Winged Boots operations and it’s perhaps unsurprising that they have faced significant operational challenges with managing this side of the business. Those challenges included:
Complex forward payment scheduling: Managing payments across extended timescales proved extremely difficult. With bookings often made months in advance and payments needed at various stages of the travel planning process, keeping track of when payments were due became increasingly complex.
Operational inefficiencies: The existing payment system required significant manual intervention and oversight, tying up valuable team resources that could have been better deployed elsewhere in the business.
Lack of visibility: Without proper payment management tools, it was difficult to get a clear overview of outstanding payments, cash flow requirements, and forward commitments across multiple currencies and suppliers.
Cost implications: All of this combined to create added costs to the business.
What we did
Implementing our platform addressed Winged Boots’ operational challenges:
Advanced payment scheduling: Our platform handles complex forward payments for identifiable goods and services with complete visibility, managing payments across extended timescales without the manual oversight that was previously required.
Streamlined processes: We simplified their entire payment workflow, reducing the administrative burden and removing the complexity that was consuming valuable team time.
Enhanced visibility: With IFX, clients get clear oversight of all payment commitments, giving the team complete control over their cash flow and forward payment requirements.
Cost optimisation: By improving efficiency and providing better payment management tools, we’ve delivered tangible cost savings that directly impact their bottom line.
The big wins
It’s all contributed to significant improvements across Winged Boots’ operations, including freeing up team time, delivering measurable cost reductions, reducing stress associated with cumbersome admin and providing a robust platform for Winged Boots’ continued growth. Now their staff are focused on revenue-generating activities and client service rather than payment administration.
What they’re saying
“IFX has made a huge difference to everyone’s lives in the business.” – David Ox, Managing Director, Winged Boots
It’s an impressive and generous appraisal of the impact this partnership has had. David described us as “efficient, reliable and trustworthy” and explained that the changes have “been a dream for our guys in the office. At the end of the day we want happy staff because if we have happy staff, we’re more profitable, more successful as a business. That has been very much the case with IFX.”
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