Latent - Look-C

Latent Ltd was founded in 2004 to address a gap within the oil and gas market for a diverse consultancy providing software and analytical services within the maintenance, reliability and safety integrity management sector.

Before commissioning Codify to develop Look-C, Latent used 30 Excel workbooks to enable them to build a model for one asset. Using such a high number of spreadsheets made it hard for Latent to manage the data and great care had to be taken not to introduce any errors as they would be hard and time consuming to track down and rectify.

Latent approached Codify as they wanted to harness the power of software to combine everything into one system, remove their reliance on spreadsheets and create an interface for clients.

Codify worked closely with Latent to scope out the requirements for the software. A Windows application was created that used Microsoft SQL Server as a robust and scalable data store. The software, Look-C, can also present the data in both tabular and graphical format, eliminating the need for spreadsheets.

Look-C allows users to measure equipment performance and contains "drill-down" functionality to allow users to explore and analyse the data. Look-C also integrates with Profi-C, another application developed by Codify, which builds models using either P&IDs or equipment registers to create benchmarks.

Look-C is more robust, secure and efficient than the original spreadsheet approach and it has allowed Latent to enhance their consultancy services by giving them the ability to perform cost effective high-end analysis services.

Although Look-C was initially used internally, Latent now gives their customers access to the system. Latent has found this allows them to concentrate on providing other areas of service as Peter Adam, Operations Director explains, "Allowing our customers to use Look-C has enabled them to simulate changes to an asset themselves. This has given them ownership of the data and the results and they can use it day-to-day to perform cost/benefit analysis. Customers have also told us it is more cost effective for them as their engineers are able to spend more time engineering rather than on analysis."

Leaving the customer to generate their own results for smaller assets has left Latent free to focus on the larger assets that require their additional skills to analyse.

Latent has found both Look-C and Profi-C to be excellent introductory tools for new clients, by showcasing the software to potential customers they can highlight their capabilities and the high end analysis they provide.

Latent has continued to work with Codify since the creation of Look-C as Peter explains, "We have continued to enhance Look-C over the last few years to allow us to provide a better service to our customers. We also use the software as internal training for new staff to get them quickly up to speed with what we offer. Dealing with Codify has been excellent throughout and their level of support always exceeds our expectations. The team all have good communication skills and understand exactly what it is we are looking for. I have already recommended Codify to our contacts for software development and will continue to do so."