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 Trinity House Light Dues (06/02/06)

Trinity House's new Light Dues collection system is delivered on time and within budget.

Strategic Thought Group, an IBM Premier Business Partner, has helped to deliver a new Automatic Light Dues Information System (ALDIS) to Trinity House for the collection of Light Dues from commercial shipping around the coast of England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.

Trinity House provides nearly 600 aids to navigation ranging from lighthouses, buoys and beacons to the latest satellite navigation technology. Trinity House is funded from Light Dues levied on commercial shipping in some of the busiest sea-lanes in the world at no expense to the taxpayer. Until early 2004 the process of collecting Light Dues and issuing Light Due Certificates was done manually and carried out by shipping agents in the UK.

Strategic Thought completed phase two of the ALDIS project, an internet based system which assesses liability, calculates the Light Dues and prints the Light Due Certificates. The second phase of the project involved the migration of data from an HP 3000 written in COBOL to a more modern open environment to enable the checking of vessel movements against Certificates issued and the incorporation of a financial system for the collection of unpaid dues.

Gerry Callen, Finance Manager at Trinity House said, "We went out to tender to select a professional services company to work with for Phase Two of ALDIS. Strategic Thought was chosen because of an understanding of our business. The people were open and clear about what they would achieve. The fixed price approach Strategic Thought took was good value and even better - they delivered what they said they would deliver."

Chris Booth, Strategic Thought Senior Management Consultant said, "ALDIS was built on an IBM solution based on DB2 and WebSphere Application Server. This gave Trinity House the open platform, thin client approach they required combined with the assurance of a resilient and robust system needed for such a business critical system."

Phase Two of ALDIS went live on 1 April 2005 and has shown significant benefits in terms of a reduction of the number of errors in comparison to the paper based system which involved a great deal of data entry. Payments are now collected from the shipping agents' bank accounts by direct debit reducing the amount of errors and time involved in banking.

Gerry Callen concluded, "The whole project was delivered on time and within budget. We have calculated it will have paid for itself within 24 months as a result of reduced costs. The system has also been designed to allow for change, for example if the Merchant Shipping Act is altered – we have the flexibility to quickly change the way in which Light Dues are collected or the levels of the dues. I wonder what King Henry VIII would make of the changes since he first issued Trinity House with the Charter to collect Light Dues in 1514?"

About Trinity House

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