Pipeline Software
Providing an Advanced Outage Management Solution for Utilities

Two things are very close to Charlie Sundling’s heart—adventure and innovative technology. “The only way to determine if an idea is good or bad is to implement it and get some customers to provide feedback” Sundling noted. Taking this philosophy ahead, Sundling ventured into unknown territories, driving Pipeline Software (PIPELINE), which provides advanced technology so- lutions to help companies optimize their Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) business processes. PIPELINE was originally founded to develop middleware technology for supply chain integration. “Though we ventured into completely different markets, we have continued to leverage our original IP portfolio and expertise in enterprise application integration,” says Charlie Sundling, CEO, Pipe- line Software. PIPELINE focuses on electric utilities, including generation, transmission and distribution businesses. The company has fostered a culture of innovation which keeps it at forefront of the technology curve in meeting customer needs and keeping pace with changing market conditions. A perfect example of PIPELINE’s expertise is their Syntempo technology.

“Pipeline Syntempo technology is an industry-first solution for real-time out- age schedule management. It revolutionizes communication, coordination, and the way people work an outage. It enables utilities to measurably increase the productivity and performance of their human capital during both outage and on-line operations” Sundling explains. Syntempo provides extremely rich functionality and its features are 100 per- cent customer-driven. “There is a plethora of indirect competition for Syntempo, but we have not identified any direct competitors,” affirms Sundling. Syntempo enables utilities to get more out of their existing workforce by streamlining work management activities. For instance, consider the case involving a client who per- forms nuclear refueling outages.

These refueling outages are typically intense 25-30 day projects with nearly three thousand people working 24 hours a day, trying to coordinate precise execution of 20,000 or more complex work tasks.

With costs of nearly two million dollars per day any slippage in the schedule can become expensive quickly. Slippage is of- ten attributed to “avoidable critical path delays,” which are essentially resultant of poor coordination, communication and job hand-offs. PIPELINE’s Syntempo provided the client with a revolutionary communication and work coordination system for their outages. It provided real-time visibility to progress and problems enabling the outage team to dynamically optimize resources and stay on schedule.

Pipeline Syntempo is an industry-first real- time work schedule that revolutionizes communication, coordination, and the way people work a plant outage

In the 2014, in a single refueling outage, the client was able to save 63 hours of critical path delays saving more than $4 million dollars. Syntempo’s unified outage dash- boards also created new levels of visibility and transparency to organizational and business process problems. Throughout its existence, PIPELINE has helped its clients to increase efficiency and productivity. Some of its utility clients include PG&E, Southern California Edison, Arizona Public Service, SRP, Entergy, Exelon, First Energy, Areva Nuclear, Westinghouse, and General Electric. Going forward, PIPELINE’s mission is to expand its solution offerings in the energy sector. There are several strategic offerings that the firm is working on which will extend their existing product capabilities. Particularly, PIPELINE is adding “mobile work management” features that enable Syntempo to be utilized more effectively by the latest mobile technology platforms in the field. This will provide enhanced abilities for utilities to not only improve the productivity of their workforce but to accelerate the transfer of knowledge from their seasoned/retiring workforce to the new generation of workers.