Switching software platforms is never a simple decision. Organizations carry large bases of installed tools, established workflows, and sometimes significant financial commitments tied to the platforms they already use. But change is the one constant in software, and Kenexis® Open-PHA® offers a genuinely new approach to Process Hazards Analysis (PHA) and Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) — one worth taking a serious look at.
This post is written for organizations that already use a PHA/LOPA software tool and are wondering whether a switch makes sense. If your organization hasn’t yet committed to a platform, the decision is straightforward: Kenexis® Open-PHA® desktop edition is free to download, actively maintained, and scales easily as your needs grow.
For those already using another tool, we’ll walk through the top five features that set Kenexis® Open-PHA® apart from competing PHA/LOPA software — and make a case for why those differences may be worth the effort of making a change.
#5 Collaborative Working Environment
A Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud version license includes full access to the collaboration features of the Kenexis Integrated Safety Suite from day one. Your PHA/LOPA data is stored securely in the Kenexis cloud and can be shared with an unlimited number of licensed Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud users anywhere in the world. As the data owner, you control who has access — granting or restricting permissions for users within your own organization or at other organizations as needed.
Access to PHA/LOPA study data can also be restricted to view-only access for reviewer’s and/or auditors. The collaborative tools of the Kenexis Integrated Safety Suite streamline the review, approval, and auditing of PHA and LOPA studies by providing a single repository when the study data is stored which is accessible to all licensed and authorized colleagues.
For an operating company, this means that data can be shared with engineering contractors for project work or with corporate PSM groups for auditing purposing without the need to generate reports or make local unsecured copies of the original project files. You simply need to create an authorization for the user requiring access.
For an engineering contractor or consultancy, this means that you can share access to the native PHA/LOPA study files with your clients directly in the Kenexis Integrated Safety Suite, provided that your clients are also licensed Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud users. If clients are not licensed in Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud, files can be exporter from the Kenexis Integrated Safety Suite and shared in the native Kenexis® Open-PHA® format which is readable and writable with the free to download Kenexis® Open-PHA® desktop version. In either case, your PHA/LOPA studies can be provided to your client in the native editable file format which provides added value to your projects over the traditional PHA study report deliverable. Clients will have the capability to maintain their own study data following the execution of an engineering project.
#4 Open-Source and Immutable Data Structure
At this point, you’re probably thinking one of two things: either you’re not sure what “open source” and “immutable” mean, or you understand the terms but aren’t sure why they matter. Either way, bear with us — this is worth understanding.
What does “open source” mean for Kenexis® Open-PHA®?
Open source means the file format used to store Kenexis® Open-PHA® data is publicly available and fully documented. Kenexis® Open-PHA® stores data in JSON — JavaScript Object Notation — a widely used data format that has largely replaced XML as the standard for transferring data across the internet. Your computer and mobile devices are almost certainly exchanging data in JSON format right now without you knowing it.
By having an open-source data structure in JSON format, Kenexis® Open-PHA® study data can be easily queried by any modern programming language. This means that the transfer of valuable information from your PHA/LOPA studies can be easily and automatically integrated with other process safety, management of change or maintenance management applications you may currently be using. This is in contrast to other PHA/LOPA software tools which store your data in proprietary, closed, and undocumented file formats.
Because competing PHA/LOPA software uses proprietary file formats, extracting data from those studies means manually exporting to spreadsheets or word processors and re-entering it elsewhere. For a single study that may be manageable — but scaled across multiple operating units or sites, the time and effort adds up quickly. With Open-PHA’s open JSON format, that process can be automated, freeing your team to focus on process safety work rather than data maintenance.
What does “immutable” mean for Kenexis® Open-PHA®?
Immutable means the data structure cannot be modified. Traditional PHA/LOPA tools allow users to customize the database structure — adding fields they want, removing fields they don’t. On the surface that sounds flexible, but in practice it creates inconsistency across studies, sites, and time.
Kenexis® Open-PHA® takes a different approach. Rather than letting users reshape the data structure, Kenexis® Open-PHA® ships with a fixed superset of fields covering everything you might want to track in a PHA or LOPA study. Instead of adding or removing fields, you simply show or hide the ones relevant to a given study. The underlying structure stays the same.
This immutability delivers two advantages that older tools simply can’t match. First, every Kenexis® Open-PHA® file has a consistent, predictable data structure — regardless of which fields are visible in any particular study, all data is present and formatted the same way. That consistency is what makes seamless data transfer between Kenexis® Open-PHA® and other software tools possible.
#3 Multi-Lingual Support and Translation Services
Kenexis® Open-PHA® was built from the ground up with the global engineering community in mind. Modern process safety projects routinely involve operating companies, contractors, and consultants collaborating across borders — and language shouldn’t be a barrier to that work.
To support teams around the world, the Kenexis® Open-PHA® interface has been translated into a growing number of languages by native-speaking process safety engineers, ensuring that users in regions where English is not the primary language can work comfortably in their own.
Beyond the interface, the Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud version goes a step further — providing full translation of entire PHA/LOPA studies at no additional cost.
#2 Integration with Kenexis® SIS Lifecycle Management
In modern process safety practice, a PHA is rarely complete without a LOPA — and a LOPA almost always identifies at least a few Safety Instrumented Functions (SIFs) that need to be addressed, even in revalidation studies. That means every PHA study eventually leads to the need to create, update, or revalidate Safety Instrumented System (SIS) documentation for the process under review.
Without proper integration, that handoff is a manual, time-consuming, and error-prone process. The Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud version and the Kenexis Integrated Safety Suite change that by connecting your PHA and LOPA work directly to your SIS documentation — eliminating the gaps and keeping your data consistent from study to final design.
Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud provides seamless integration with other Kenexis process safety applications. Most notable, it allows synchronization on IPL’s in Kenexis® Open-PHA® with the Kenexis® SIS Lifecycle Management application. An Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud study can be synchronized with Kenexis® SIS providing the functionality to automatically generate SIF lists for SIL Verification and SRS development. This ensures that consistency is maintained between the LOPA and SIS design information throughout the life of the process.
When PHA/LOPA studies are revalidated using Kenexis® Open-PHA® an automatic synchronization of the SIS design information can be performed, updating Kenexis® SIS Lifecycle Management studies with changes or additions resulting from the LOPA revalidation. All of this occurs automatically and instantly, saving you from the time and torment of maintained process safety information on multiple platforms.
#1 Cost / Licensing and Pricing Model
Kenexis® Open-PHA® offers a range of licensing models designed to fit organizations of any size and workload.
Desktop — Free
For users who don’t need the enterprise sharing and collaboration features of Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud, the Desktop version is available at no cost — making it the world’s first free PHA/LOPA software tool. The Desktop version is well suited for small consulting organizations that perform PHAs occasionally rather than as a primary line of business, and it provides a purpose-built alternative to cobbling together studies in tools like Microsoft Excel.
Kenexis® Open-PHA® Cloud — Concurrent User Licensing
The more popular of the two Cloud licensing models, concurrent user licensing issues a license to your organization for one or more concurrent users — meaning the number of users who can access Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud through the Kenexis Integrated Safety Suite (KISS) at the same time. KISS is a collection of process safety applications available around the clock and accessible from any internet-enabled device.
Concurrent user licenses are easily scalable. Additional seats can be added at any time and are prorated for the remaining license term. This model works best for operating companies where the number of simultaneous users is relatively predictable and large surges in usage are unlikely.
Kenexis® Open-PHA® Cloud — Pay-As-You-Go Licensing
With pay-as-you-go licensing, you only pay for the time your team actively spends working in Kenexis® Open-PHA® cloud. There is no limit on concurrent users, so your licensing scales automatically with your organization’s workload. During busy periods with many active projects, more users can work simultaneously — and costs reflect that usage. During slower periods, costs are naturally lower.
Pay-as-you-go is the best fit for large engineering and consulting organizations where the number of active users fluctuates significantly depending on the mix and volume of projects underway.
Conclusions
Cassette tapes were remarkable technology in their time. So were CDs and portable MP3 players. But streaming services and smartphones rendered all of them obsolete — not because they stopped working, but because something fundamentally better came along. It may be time to apply that same thinking to your engineering tools.
Modern web technologies make it possible to bring process safety workflows fully into the cloud computing era. The question isn’t whether that shift is coming — it’s whether your organization will lead it or lag behind it.
Ready to see what that looks like in practice? Download the free Kenexis® Open-PHA® desktop edition, request a free Kenexis® Open-PHA® Cloud trial, or reach out directly at [email protected] to start a conversation.