How Digital Wallet Technology Revolutionizes Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) Process for Cruise Companies

The inner payment ecosystem of cruise companies plays a key role in both direct interaction with passengers and during cruise trip preparation and maintenance. One of the inner payment ecosystem processes is Purchase-to-Pay (P2P).

No surprise, P2P requires payment precision, order, reporting, and overall stable synchronization for any business, including cruise companies. The P2P process can be managed within a convenient digital wallet ecosystem.

Digital wallet technology proved to satisfy inner payment needs both for employees and business management of the cruise industry. In this post, we want to explore how digital wallet technology can improve the P2P process of a cruise company.

5 Ways Digital Wallet Technology Transforms P2P Process for Cruise Procurement Department

The cruise industry is constantly evolving, driven by technological advancements and changing customer preferences. One area where technology significantly impacts is the purchase-to-pay (P2P) process. Expense management software, particularly digital wallets, is at the forefront of this transformation, offering a seamless, secure, and convenient solution for passengers and cruise lines alike.

These are five key ways how they transform the P2P process for cruise procurement departments:

Streamlining the approval process

Traditionally, the P2P process involved manual steps, such as obtaining approvals, matching invoices with purchase orders, and reconciling payments. This manual process was time-consuming, error-prone, and often led to delays in processing transactions.

Digital wallets automate these steps, allowing procurement departments to quickly and easily approve purchases, match invoices, and reconcile payments. This not only saves time and reduces errors but also enables procurement teams to focus on strategic tasks, such as supplier management and cost optimization.

By streamlining the approval process, digital wallets improve efficiency, reduce operational costs, and enhance the overall procurement process for cruise lines.

Read more: How Digital Wallet App Impact the Cruise Industry Growth in 2023

Enhanced visibility and control

Digital wallets provide cruise procurement departments with greater visibility and control over their P2P process. The software offers real-time insights into spending patterns, supplier performance, and contract compliance, enabling procurement teams to make data-driven decisions and optimize their operations.

For example, procurement departments can use digital wallets to identify trends in spending, such as frequent purchases from a particular supplier or increased demand for specific products or services. This information can be used to negotiate better pricing and terms with suppliers, ultimately driving cost savings and improving the bottom line.

In addition, digital wallets can help procurement teams monitor contract compliance and ensure that suppliers adhere to agreed-upon terms and conditions. This can help cruise lines avoid potential disputes and maintain strong supplier relationships.

Improved compliance and risk management

Digital wallets can help cruise procurement departments improve compliance and mitigate risks associated with the P2P process. The software can be configured to enforce company policies, such as spending limits, preferred supplier lists, and approval workflows, ensuring that procurement teams adhere to established guidelines.

Moreover, digital wallets can help procurement departments identify potential risks, such as fraudulent transactions or non-compliant suppliers. By flagging these issues in real time, procurement teams can take corrective action and reduce the risk of financial losses or reputational damage.

By improving compliance and risk management, digital wallets help cruise lines protect their assets, maintain strong supplier relationships, and ensure the smooth operation of their procurement processes.

Integration with other systems

Digital wallets can be easily integrated with other systems and tools used by cruise procurement departments (ERP systems, accounting software, and expense management software). This seamless integration enables procurement teams to consolidate data from multiple sources, providing a comprehensive view of their P2P process.

For example, integrating digital wallets with an ERP system can help procurement departments track inventory levels and forecast demand more accurately. This can lead to better resource allocation, reduced waste, and improved cost savings. Similarly, integrating digital wallets with accounting software can help procurement teams streamline their financial reporting and ensure that all transactions are accurately recorded and reconciled.

Overall, cruise lines can reduce operational costs and pass these savings on to passengers through lower prices or enhanced amenities.

Seamless order and payment processing

Digital wallets enable smooth approval, ordering, and payment processing through the operational system in the background. This allows the procurement and account departments to concentrate on more valuable workflows.

Cruise companies can track orders in a more organized way, as well as automate the payment processing, accounting, and data collection. The collected data facilitates decision-making, improves negotiations and pricing, and uncovers possibilities for further process refinement. The wallet’s enhanced security and data visibility contribute to a seamless and secure P2P cycle for cruise procurement departments.

Read more: 7 Must-Have Features in a Digital Wallet App for Cruise Lines

5 Reasons for Cruise Companies to Use Digital Wallet Technology for P2P

Why should cruise companies use digital wallet technology when dealing with the Purchase-to-Pay process? It’s time to dive into the topic even deeper.

Let’s talk about how online payment wallets improve the whole P2P cycle, offering convenience, efficiency, cost savings, data visibility, and security.

Convenience: Seamless Purchases and Purchase Approvals with Digital Wallets

Unlike regular cruise ship wallets, digital wallets construct a seamless transition between offline and online purchases. One of the most important perks of digital wallets is the payment unification system: all payment-related information is securely stored in one place online.

“By utilizing digital wallets, the entire Purchase-to-Pay process can be managed through a single software platform. Once a requisition is approved by authorized parties, the requested items are uploaded into the payment wallet software, initiating the P2P cycle.”

What exactly do we mean by a convenient P2P process?

• Digital Wallet: Digital wallets ensure a seamless transition between offline and online purchases. They consolidate payment-related information securely in one place, eliminating the need for multiple payment methods.
• Vendor Management: Digital wallets allow procurement departments to manage a list of approved vendors. This ensures that purchases are made from reliable and authorized sources.
• Purchase Approvals: Digital wallets enable purchase approval workflows ensuring that all purchases are reviewed and approved by the appropriate individuals before processing.
• Tracking and Reporting: Digital wallets provide tracking and reporting features, enabling procurement departments to monitor and analyze purchasing activities. This helps with budgeting, expense management, and compliance tracking.
• Integration with Accounting Systems: Digital wallets integrate seamlessly with various accounting systems, such as QuickBooks. This integration ensures that purchase data is synchronized and accurately recorded in the organization's accounting system.

By offering a digital wallet for each user, managing vendor relationships, automating purchase approvals, and integrating with accounting systems, digital wallets contribute to the efficiency of procurement processes. It's important to note that the suitability of digital wallets may vary depending on the specific needs and requirements of each procurement department.

Efficiency: Eliminating Paperwork with Digital Wallets

Digital wallet technology offers cruise companies a way to streamline financial management tasks and improve operational efficiency. By leveraging automation and eliminating manual labor, digital wallets minimize errors and expedite payment transfers, and here’s how:

• Reduced manual & paperwork: Digital wallets eliminate the need for time-consuming manual tasks and paperwork while reducing errors and expediting payment transfers.
• Automated checks and verifications: The financial software integrated with digital wallets performs automated checks, minimizing human errors and enhancing overall performance quality.
• Scalability: As cruise companies grow, digital wallet software provides scalability without expanding procurement and finance departments simultaneously. Employees can utilize their time efficiently for tasks such as improving supply chain transparency and collaborating across departments to establish more precise budgets and forecasts.
• Accelerated settlement: Traditional bank checks and transfers can take several days for approval and processing. And e wallet without bank account enables almost instant payments, facilitating faster settlement processes and improving cash flow for cruise companies and suppliers.
• Enhanced supplier relationships: With faster settlement processes, cruise companies enjoy improved working capital and strengthen supplier relationships. This leads to smoother goods and services delivery to the final customers.

Digital wallets contribute to instant payments allowing cruise companies to transfer funds from their account to a supplier’s one. The final result includes a faster settlement process, better cash flow and improved working capital in the cruise company-supplier relationships, and better goods and services delivery to final customers.

Cost Savings: Automation with Digital Wallets

A digital wallet payment system can work as financial management software that automatically collects and analyzes data, along with other features like approving, invoicing, and reporting. This makes P2P and overall management significantly improved.

Here's how automation with digital wallets helps achieve significant savings:

• Automated data collection and analysis: Digital wallet payment systems automatically collect and analyze data, providing valuable insights for financial management. Cruise companies can make informed decisions based on real-time data, identifying areas for cost reduction and optimizing their spending.
• Elimination of manual tasks: By investing in automated wallet solutions and management tools, cruise companies can reduce the need for manual P2P tasks. This eliminates unnecessary human hours and associated costs, allowing the budget to be allocated more efficiently.
• Control over spending: Digital wallets serve as effective cost controllers for identifying areas of overspending. They help cruise companies to find and reduce areas of money waste, such as billing errors, wrong orders, and duplicate purchases. Without wallet data collection, it is not that simple for businesses to detect that two different departments are buying the very same thing.
• Streamlined approval process: Centralized digital wallet software can send notifications to responsible authorities about events requiring additional approval. This ensures that cruise companies have better control over their expenses and can prevent unauthorized or unnecessary spending.
• Invoice and purchase cross-checking: Digital wallet software offers the capability to cross-check invoices and purchases, minimizing the risk of overpayment. By automatically comparing invoices against purchase records, cruise companies can avoid paying more than necessary and reduce financial waste.

By investing in automated wallet solutions and management tools, cruise companies can realize significant cost savings in their Purchase-to-Pay processes. Automation eliminates the need for manual tasks, reduces human hours, and simplifies the overall process. This allows cruise companies to optimize their budgets and eliminate unnecessary expenses, ultimately improving their financial efficiency.

Security: Mitigating Risks & Fraud Protection with Digital Wallets

When it comes to inner digital wallets, payment security is as important as when issuing them for passengers. Digital wallets change how cruise payments work from the security and fraud protection points of view.

• Mitigating fraud risks: Although using a credit or debit card online even in the best wallet app is quite convenient, cruise businesses are often concerned regarding security matters. If corporate payment card data falls into the wrong hands, especially in the case of large cruise companies where tracking all the activity might be an issue, businesses could end up paying extra due to fraudulent actions.
  
  At the same time, suppliers have cybersecurity concerns as well, as they must protect clients’ financial data. Luckily, digital wallet technology allows issuing one-time use virtual cards. These virtual cards are generated by request only for approved payments, facilitating secure and fast-track B2B payments.
• Enhanced security & streamlined purchase approval: Since virtual cards, one of the best credit cards for a cruise, can only be used one time for a specific payment, it reduces the risk associated with electronic payments in general. And even more, issuing cards on-demand improves the check-out process because there is no extra waiting time for purchase approval.
• Real-time fraud detection: Real-time fraud detection powered by complex AI algorithms help cruise companies quickly identify fraud by analyzing business payment data and recognizing purchase trends along with certain behavior systems associated with individual employees. Advanced fraud detection with digital wallets allows cruise businesses to quickly and easily confirm if inner transactions are valid and due to be processed.

Final Thoughts

As businesses strive to stay mobile, organized, and secure, digital wallets offer tailored solutions to address management gaps, streamline integrated payment processing, and optimize the P2P cycle.

Do you still wonder what payment method is the best to use on a cruise? Are you looking for a custom digital wallet implementation for your particular business? ElifTech is one of the IT vendors to offer decent digital wallet expertise on the market.

​Here's how ElifTech can help your cruise company:

1. Custom solutions: We work closely with you to develop a digital wallet solution tailored to your specific needs, ensuring seamless integration and optimal performance.
2. Technical expertise: Following the fintech technologies and trends, ElifTech's specialists possess the expertise to build robust and secure digital wallet systems. Take a look at our digital wallet case.
3. Agile development approach: You'll have visibility and control throughout the development process, ensuring your digital wallet solution meets your expectations and requirements.
4. Continuous Support: Your team can address any technical issues, implement updates, and provide guidance as your business evolves.

Partner with ElifTech to streamline your purchase-to-pay process, enhance security, and drive operational efficiency for your cruise business!