A major North American midstream operator recognized that protecting critical assets required more than just meeting today’s compliance standards—it required building a system designed to grow with them. With American Innovations’ Pipeline Compliance System (PCS), they’ve unified processes, streamlined reporting, and established a scalable foundation to manage pipeline integrity well into the future.
About the Operator
This midstream operator plays a critical role in protecting infrastructure across its extensive network—covering transmission pipelines, gathering pipelines, compressor stations, rectifiers and bonds, including foreign bonds. With thousands of assets to safeguard, the company is committed to maintaining the highest standards of consistency and accuracy in compliance reporting.
When the compliance team evaluated how PCS was used across the enterprise, they recognized an opportunity to maximize its value by standardizing how data was captured, stored, and reported—laying the groundwork for continued growth and seamless integration of future acquisitions.
The Challenge: Limited Structure and Future Readiness
Like many large enterprises with diverse operating assets, the company faced the challenge of ensuring data consistency across its business units. Before a unified strategy was implemented, PCS was used in different ways across operating areas:
- Pipeline identifiers weren’t standardized.
- Reports followed different formats and structures.
- Some data was still stored in spreadsheets or on paper.
This decentralized approach created challenges for generating accurate, company-wide KPIs and planning for future growth. The goal became clear: transform PCS from a collection of siloed practices into a unified, future-ready system of record.
The Solution: Building a Scalable, Connected System with PCS
The company’s corrosion prevention specialist led a company-wide initiative to fully optimize PCS:
- A unified foundation: Created a formal, standardized way to identify pipelines and organize assets in PCS, ensuring consistency across all operating areas.
- Standardized reporting: Established uniform reports and procedures, enabling accurate KPIs to be run monthly, and giving the entire organization a clear view of their compliance health.
- Digital field-to-office workflow: Moved field teams from paper and spreadsheets to primarily Mesa tablets running PCS Field Data Collector (FDC) software. Data now flows seamlessly from the field into PCS, while an integration with SAP ensures pipeline information is always up to date.
- Enhanced visibility: Integrated their internal mapping system with PCS in addition to utilizing PCS data for Power BI dashboards enabling further visualization and analysis.
- Flexible audit and operations reporting: Leveraged PCS’s preset and custom reports for audits and operational decision-making.
By unifying processes in PCS, the company ensured the system would not only solve today’s needs but also scale with the company for decades to come.
Why PCS and American Innovations: A Foundation for Growth
For this midstream operator, choosing PCS wasn’t just about software — it was about building a foundation with a trusted partner.
“American Innovations is always one call away and always a great help.”
PCS offered the flexibility and connectivity required to maintain a strong compliance program:
- A single system of record for all external corrosion activity
- Audit-ready reporting with both preset and customizable formats
- Seamless data flow between field devices, PCS Field Data Collector software, and the central database
- Built-in scalability to integrate new assets into the same structure
This forward-looking partnership has given the company confidence that their compliance processes will remain resilient as regulations, technology, and operations evolve
The Results: Compliance Confidence and Scalability
With PCS as the backbone of their external corrosion program, this operator has realized measurable results:
- Mitigated significant financial risk: Proactive reporting has helped the company avoid costly fines that could have reached hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- Increased efficiency and accuracy: Eliminating paper and spreadsheets has lowered costs and reduced paperwork.
- Achieved enterprise-wide consistency in reports and KPIs.
- Saved time for all teams: faster, more accurate reporting benefits the field and office alike.
- Established a future-ready structure that simplifies onboarding of new assets.
“PCS has saved us from possible fines numerous times—fines that could have been tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars… PCS has made everything so much easier—running reports, knowing where focus needs to be directed and having data available in real time.”
The real success is that PCS doesn’t just solve today’s compliance challenges. It provides a scalable foundation to meet tomorrow’s.
Looking Ahead: Future-Proofing Compliance
The company is currently piloting Survey Manager, American Innovations' lightweight, web-based application that simplifies field survey work and validates survey data before it enters the compliance database. The corrosion prevention team already sees the potential for further time and cost savings. With PCS as its compliance backbone, the company is confident it can continue to scale operations without sacrificing accuracy or efficiency.
Conclusion
“American Innovations does an amazing job at managing support and helping us optimize PCS.”
For this midstream operator, PCS has proven to be more than a compliance tool. It is the backbone of a future-proof compliance strategy, giving the company the confidence to grow, adapt, and protect critical infrastructure for years to come.
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