The Next Challenge

Once aggregation was solved, the bottleneck shifted to performance and payments. Millions of queries were hitting the system each day. Agents were booking faster than the database could confirm.

Meanwhile, every operator required a different payment logic, from local e-wallets to bank transfers, leaving reconciliation slow and error-prone.

ItTour needed a smarter backbone: one that could manage financial operations with the same reliability as its search engine.

Check the part 1

The Build

1. A Financial Core That Speaks to Everyone

Itera Research connected five payment gateways, including the largest national bank, allowing agents to complete bookings without leaving the platform.

The payment layer supports instant authorization, refunds, and multi-currency transactions. All financial data is synced automatically across partner accounts, cutting manual reporting by more than half.

2. Data Architecture for Constant Throughput

To keep performance stable, Itera Research deployed a distributed server network with role-based specialization ,  one cluster for booking logic, another for payments, and a third for analytics.

Redis caching, data sharding, and replication ensured sub-second query times even during national-holiday peaks.

3. Real-Time Monitoring and Fail-Safe Recovery

Using Nagios dashboards, Itera Research added continuous health monitoring for every API and payment node. If an integration fails, backup processes reroute traffic automatically, preventing downtime or lost transactions.

4. Secure, Auditable Transactions

End-to-end encryption and token-based validation were implemented across all gateways. Every transaction leaves a cryptographic trail, allowing partners to track settlements with bank-grade precision.

5. Scalable Analytics

Big-data pipelines now process user behavior, search trends, and financial stats in real time. This insight lets ItTour forecast demand, negotiate better operator rates, and fine-tune pricing algorithms.

How We Solved It

1. One API Standard for 67 Operators

Every operator had its own way of sharing data. Itera built a single SOAP-based API layer that pulled structured data from all operator systems and converted it into one unified format.
To open the platform for partners, we added a RESTful API, making ItTour a scalable B2B hub rather than a closed system.

2. Filling the Gaps with Smart Data Collection

Some operators had no API at all. To keep them connected, Itera built bots that navigated websites like real users, capturing tour details automatically.
This allowed the platform to display up-to-date results from every source, even those without technical integration.

3. Real-Time Search That Actually Stays Real-Time

With over 7,500 agents using the system, ItTour needed speed and accuracy.
We re-engineered its infrastructure using Redis caching, sharding, and distributed servers. Queries were balanced across specialized servers, cutting latency and keeping search performance stable under peak loads.

4. Reliable Payments Inside the Platform

Itera integrated five payment gateways, including Privat24 , so agents could search, book, and pay without leaving the ItTour ecosystem.
Transactions became instant, secure, and trackable, improving both agent experience and operational transparency.

5. Expanding Reach with Embedded Widgets

To help agencies extend ItTour’s reach, we built external widgets, search boxes, “hot tours,” and recommendation blocks, that could be embedded on agency websites.

This turned ItTour into both a service and a distribution network.

What Changed

• Instant in-platform payments via five connected gateways
  
• Over 70 % faster transaction reconciliation
  
• Sub-second search results sustained under heavy national traffic
  
• Financial data unified across 67 operators
  
• Automated monitoring and fault recovery for 24/7 uptime
  
• Actionable analytics from billions of data points

“The system doesn’t just sell tours ,  it runs an entire economy behind them.”

Tools & Technologies

• PHP
• MySQL
• Redis
• Memcached
• SOAP
• Nagios
• Sharding
• REST
• JavaScript
• jQuery
• Node.js
• JSON
• Orca
• Replication
• AJAX
• Bootstrap
• Apache
• Nginx
• FPM (FastCGI Process Manager)
• Big Data

The Bigger Picture

With the new financial and data layer, ItTour became more than a marketplace; it turned into a reliable commerce network where payments, search, and analytics work together to support thousands of people in real time.

What makes this transformation meaningful isn’t just the scale, but the purpose behind it: helping travel agents work faster, safer, and with less stress.

That’s the kind of progress Itera Research focuses on, technology that makes everyday work easier and people more effective.