IFAN: Transforming Maritime Billing with The Development of The MENAS Lightdues App

Sector

Not-For-Profit-Maritime

Location

London, United Kingdom

Revenues

–

About

The International Foundation for Aids to Navigation’s (IFAN) is a company and charity headquartered in London, United Kingdom, whose overall objective is the promotion of safety at sea and the protection of the marine environment. IFAN achieves this by contributing to the efforts of several other maritime organisations, through funding of global Aids to Navigation projects and supporting education initiatives.

Outcome

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Custom cloud-native application hosted on Microsoft Azure

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Automated vessel data import and billing workflows

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Real-time reporting and operational insights through Power BI

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Ensures IFAN can continue directing collected tariffs to charity, education, and maritime safety projects without operational bottlenecks.

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Accurate and consistent invoicing, powered by data matching

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Full data ownership and operational independence from legacy constraints

Executive Summary

IFAN – Charting a New Course with Full Control

The International Foundation for Aids to Navigation (IFAN) a UK-based organisation supporting maritime navigation safety, sought a way to modernise its billing operations. Although they owned their existing platform, it was legacy-bound, unscalable, and heavily reliant on manual processes. These inefficiencies posed challenges in billing accuracy, data handling, and reporting. The Technology Transformation Group (TTG) was brought in to rebuild the platform from scratch — designing, developing, and deploying MENAS LightDues: a scalable, cloud-based solution tailored to IFAN’s operational requirements. Today, IFAN is enjoying streamlined processes with a secure and future-ready system that optimises billing, boosts reporting accuracy, and simplifies data workflows.

However, a further challenge was the support received from those responsible for managing and maintaining the legacy service. The team overseeing the old platform were often uncooperative and, at times, did not possess the depth of knowledge required to deliver a first-class service. This led to slow issue resolution and an overall lack of confidence in the system’s ongoing stability and performance, further highlighting the need for a new, expertly managed solution

The Challange

IFAN was trapped in a system that was not built for them

IFAN’s legacy platform, had long outlived its usefulness. The system had grown rigid and incapable of supporting the needs of a modern maritime environment. There were no scalability pathways, and users had limited visibility into performance data or reporting insights. What IFAN needed wasn’t a patch, it was a complete rebuild.

Daily operations revealed the strain. Vessel tracking data from Lloyd’s, including GPS coordinates and port arrival timestamps, had to be manually downloaded and imported into the system using Excel, a process vulnerable to human error.

Data discrepancies were common, and IFAN’s team often didn’t know why they were occurring. The platform lacked the intelligence to match data automatically or alert users to mismatches. Billing certificates, maintenance status logic, and exchange rate applications were inconsistent, and staff were left to work around errors instead of solving them. Without proper reporting functionality, tracking invoice history or vessel movements was equally difficult, impacting both billing accuracy and business insights.

The platform had limitations in automation, security, and user control that made the system more of a burden than an asset. They needed a partner to build a solution from the ground up — one that could support both current operations and future scalability.

The Solution

Building from the Ground Up

TTG stepped in to architect, design, and deliver a fully cloud-based platform called MENAS LightDues, developed to replace the legacy Navdues system. The new application was built on Microsoft Azure, leveraging the cloud’s flexibility, security, and scalability to provide IFAN with a system that could adapt to their evolving needs.

The solution was structured around a modular development plan, prioritising critical functionality first. The new platform automates the process of importing vessel data from Lloyd’s, removing the need for error-prone manual Excel uploads. Data is automatically matched against known billing criteria, allowing the system to flag or process dues without human intervention.

Key modules include Data Import, Billing, Agent Workflows, Reporting, and Master Data Management. Billing workflows now allow IFAN to approve or cancel vessel movements for invoicing, while the Agent module enables quick generation of certificates and communications. The Reporting suite integrates with Power BI to provide dashboards on vessel movement and billing history — giving the team real-time insights into operations.

While Xero wasn’t directly integrated, the new platform supports efficient data extraction, allowing IFAN to export financial data for streamlined import into their existing accounting systems.

Training was also a key component of the solution. TTG delivered structured workshops for both admin users and agents, with recorded sessions available for ongoing staff onboarding and reference.

The Success

Control, Clarity, and Confidence Restored

The deployment of MENAS LightDues has fundamentally transformed how IFAN manages its operations. The organisation has moved from a fragmented, manual system to a robust cloud-native platform that supports real-time billing decisions, enhances data reliability, and improves transparency.

The biggest win has been control. IFAN now owns a system that works entirely on their terms — no reliance on legacy tech, and no outdated processes. With automated data matching in place, accuracy has improved across the board, significantly reducing errors and freeing up staff to focus on higher-value tasks. Operational visibility has also improved thanks to live dashboards and reporting tools, giving leadership the insights they need to plan, forecast, and optimise.

Most importantly, MENAS LightDues has been built with the future in mind. It is scalable, secure, and modular — designed to evolve alongside IFAN’s operations and support new innovations as the maritime sector continues to modernise.