Time-Synced Data Bridge for Utilities

Problem Context

Utilities companies use multiple systems—SCADA for grid operations, PI Historian for sensor data, SAP for finances, and Maximo for maintenance—each operating at different time scales. Engineers spend hours manually correlating events across these systems to understand asset performance, maintenance costs, and financial impacts. Without a unified view, critical issues like equipment failures or delays in repairs go unnoticed until they cause costly downtime or compliance violations.

Pain Points

Manual data reconciliation is error-prone and time-consuming. Engineers struggle to link sub-second SCADA alerts to weekly work orders or monthly financial transactions, leading to incomplete insights. Spreadsheets and custom scripts break when systems update, and consulting firms charge thousands to build one-off integrations that don’t scale. Compliance teams also face risks because audit trails are scattered across disconnected systems.

Impact

Undetected asset failures can cost $100,000+/hour in lost revenue. Manual workarounds waste 10+ hours per week per engineer, and incomplete data correlations lead to poor maintenance decisions. Regulatory fines for non-compliance (e.g., NERC/FERC) add another layer of risk. Without a solution, companies lose visibility into the true cost of operational inefficiencies, making it harder to justify budget for improvements.

Urgency

Downtime and compliance violations can halt operations entirely, and the problem worsens as IT/OT convergence accelerates. Engineers cannot ignore this because it directly impacts their ability to do their jobs—every hour spent manually reconciling data is an hour not spent on proactive maintenance or strategic planning. The longer this goes unsolved, the more money is lost to inefficiencies and the higher the risk of regulatory action.

Target Audience

Data engineers, asset managers, and finance teams in energy utilities, oil and gas companies, and renewable energy firms. These roles are responsible for bridging operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) data to make informed decisions, but they lack tools designed for the unique challenges of their industry. Mid-sized to large companies (500+ employees) with complex system landscapes are the primary targets.

Solution Approach

A no-code platform that automatically correlates data across OT and IT systems in utilities, normalizing time scales to provide a unified view of asset performance, maintenance, and financial impacts. The tool pulls live data from SCADA, PI Historian, SAP, Maximo, and other systems, then uses adaptive time windows and domain-specific rules to link events—such as a generator trip in PI Historian to a Maximo work order and a SAP cost entry—without requiring manual setup or ETL.

Key Features

1. Pre-Built Integrations: Plug-and-play connectors for PI Historian, SCADA (OSIsoft, Avanti), SAP, Maximo, GIS (Esri), and Oracle, with no coding required.
2. Impact Analytics: Automatically attributes costs to events (e.g., ‘this failure cost $X in downtime and $Y in repairs’) and generates compliance-ready reports.
3. Collaboration Hub: Teams can annotate timelines, comment on events, and set alerts for anomalies like unusual delays between failures and repairs.

User Experience

Users start by selecting their systems from a dropdown and mapping key fields (e.g., ‘Asset ID’ in PI Historian to ‘Equipment ID’ in Maximo). The tool then auto-correlates data, surfacing insights in a dashboard that shows critical events, their relationships, and financial impacts. Daily, users check the dashboard for anomalies, drill down into timelines to investigate issues, and take action—such as approving work orders or flagging cost overruns to finance. The tool saves 10+ hours/week on manual reconciliation and provides actionable insights that were previously hidden.

Differentiation

Unlike generic ETL tools or BI platforms, this solution is built specifically for the time-scale mismatches and correlation challenges in utilities. It doesn’t require manual scripting or IT support to set up, and its proprietary correlation logic—trained on domain-specific rules—outperforms off-the-shelf alternatives. Competitors either handle one system (e.g., PI System tools) or require extensive customization (e.g., Power BI), making them impractical for this use case.

Scalability

The product scales with the user’s needs through seat-based pricing ($99/user/month) and add-ons. As companies add more systems (e.g., GIS, customer billing), the tool becomes more valuable. Advanced features like predictive maintenance models ($49/month) and custom integrations for niche systems further increase revenue per user. The platform is designed to grow with the company, from small teams to enterprise deployments.

Expected Impact

Companies using this tool reduce downtime by 20–30% and cut manual work by 10+ hours per week per engineer. Financial teams gain visibility into the true cost of operational issues, enabling better budgeting and maintenance planning. Compliance risks are mitigated with automated audit trails, and teams can focus on proactive maintenance instead of reactive fire-fighting. The ROI is immediate and measurable, making the $99/month cost obvious compared to the alternative.