Lose a PLC without a backup and you're rewriting it from scratch. Capture gets the backups first.
Capture is the ECS site audit. Engineers back up every PLC and HMI program they can reach, and record the software, version and cable needed to restore each one. Every device is also located, photographed and checked against its manufacturer's lifecycle. One visit. No downtime.
When a PLC fails, the backup decides whether you reload it or rebuild it.
Same controller, same fault. With a backup, you're running again within hours of the replacement going in. Without one, it can be days.
- Fit the replacement controller
- Load the backup, with the right software, version and cable already recorded
- Check it against the machine
- Work out what the machine was supposed to do
- Find whoever still remembers how it ran
- Trace every input and output by hand
- Rewrite the logic from scratch
- Rebuild the HMI screens
- Test, re-commission, and find what was missed
On one site we audited, 11 controllers were discontinued and had never been backed up. No spare to buy, and nothing to load onto one if there were.
Capture takes the backup and records the software, version and cable needed to restore it. With Command Centre keeping every version, not having a backup stops being a risk: the one you load is the one that was running.
The backup, in Command Centre. Every version from the one taken on the audit onwards is stored, attributed and downloadable. Example data.
Every device, as it's found.
Engineering gets the software, the version and the exact cable. IT gets the IP, MAC and protocol. The backup column is the one that matters: every program Capture could reach, taken on the day. Lifecycle is greyed because it's what Command Centre adds.
| Identity | Network · for IT | Restore kit · for engineering | Command Centre | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location · machine | Device | Part · firmware | IP | MAC | Comms | Software | Version | Cable | Backup | Lifecycle |
Illustrative interface using sample data. Device records are real, from an anonymised ECS audit; machine and site names have been changed. Not live customer information.
Two things. One to read, one to use.
The findings report
A short document for the people who sign things off. What you have, what is at risk, and what to do first. Written for an operations or finance director, not only for an engineer.
Your Command Centre, populated
The full inventory, photos, backups and documents, live in the platform from day one. The report tells you what matters. Command Centre is where you act on it, and where it stays current.
What a captured machine looks like in Command Centre. Every device on it, with part number, lifecycle stage, support and contract status, filled in on the audit. Example data.
Captured. Built. Protected. Then a light goes red.
Capture collects it. Command Centre protects it. Connect puts an engineer on it.
Illustrative animation. Collect the data · Protect the data · Protect the asset.
One UK manufacturing site. As recorded. Including what couldn't be backed up.
From a real ECS audit, site anonymised. These are the figures in the export, not a projection.
Read the full audit-readiness case study.
Half a day to scope. One visit to know.
Scope
A call to agree buildings, lines and site access. Half a day of your time, at most.
Walk
ECS engineers on site. Every device photographed and catalogued where it sits. Typically one to three days, depending on the size of the estate.
Capture
Backups taken where accessible. Documents gathered. Every part number checked for lifecycle status. Devices that cannot be backed up are recorded as findings, with the reason.
Deliver
A findings report for the people who sign things off, and a Command Centre populated with your full estate. Walked through with you on a call.
No production downtime. Panel access needed; isolation only where your site procedure requires it.
How each part is classified: automation parts lifecycle status, by manufacturer and stage.
Nobody wakes up wanting an audit. They wake up with one of these.
- ·An audit is coming: BRCGS, a customer, an insurer, NIS.
- ·Obsolescence is starting to bite and nobody knows the full exposure.
- ·A key engineer is leaving, or has already left.
- ·You have acquired a site and do not know what is in it.
- ·The board has asked what happens if a line controller fails.
What most sites have before Capture, and what they have after.
- PLC backups on individual engineers' laptops
- Software versions nobody has written down
- A spreadsheet that was right a few years ago
- Drawings that don't match what's on the floor
- Legacy devices nobody knows the part number for
- Knowledge held by one engineer who is about to retire
- Every reachable program backed up on the day, with the software, version and cable to restore it
- Every device identified and photographed where it sits
- Part numbers and firmware checked against the equipment itself
- Lifecycle status for every device, discontinued kit flagged
- A findings report that says what's at risk and what to do first
- All of it in Command Centre, kept current from then on
Questions we get asked
Yes. Capture stands alone. You receive the findings report and a read-only export of the full inventory. Command Centre is where the data stays useful over time, but it is not a condition of the audit.
No. Panels open and machines running, unless your own isolation procedure says otherwise for a particular device. We work around production, not through it.
Those are findings, not failures. We record exactly why each device could not be backed up, whether that is a password, missing software or the wrong cable, and what it would take to resolve. On a recent site, 75 devices fell into this category. Knowing which ones is the point.
Into Command Centre, encrypted and access-controlled. They are never delivered in a document or emailed. If you take Capture without Command Centre, credentials are handed over securely and separately from the report.
Capture is always quoted, because every site is different. We scope it on a short call first: buildings, lines, devices and access. Command Centre is £300 per site, per month whether you take Capture or not. Full details are on the pricing page.
A short scoping call, then typically one to three days on site. The findings report follows within two weeks.
Yes. Most estates were built by several OEMs over decades, and most of what we catalogue was installed by somebody else.
Find out which half.
A short call to scope it. One visit to know what you have and what is at risk.