CASE STUDY
Billtown Pumps
Industry
Energy
Sector
Natural Gas Production
Application
Fleet Deployment and Management
Project Type
Custom Deployment
01
Background
Billtown Pumps Inc., located in Linden, PA, supplies and services pump equipment and pump systems for the natural gas industry and other sectors. They provide mobile pump systems (called 'totes') to natural gas production customers for injecting chemicals such as defoamers and methanol into wells. While the system includes a control panel with a touchscreen for automatic and manual operation, it lacks networked communications capabilities for remote data collection and operation.
02
Problem
Without a SCADA solution platform, Billtown faces a significant competitive disadvantage. In an industry focused on reducing labor costs and increasing efficiency, automation is essential for survival. The chemicals are very expensive, and customers put high value on tracking usage precisely.
Billtown attempted to develop the technology in-house, but the project would require enormous resources and take nearly two years to complete. They needed a platform and mobile application to provide visibility into wellsite operations running their equipment, enabling them to help customers better utilize equipment, reduce downtime, and optimize the use of valuable chemicals.
However, Billtown discovered that while they excelled at control panel design, they lacked the internal expertise in networking, software development, cloud management, and analytics needed to build a competitive application. They had to look outside for a solution.
03
Solution
03
Results
Within six months, Billtown scaled from proof of concept to 50 operational sites, with 90 additional deployments planned for the following quarter. Billtown's customers now have centralized visibility, control, and analytics capabilities that were previously impossible with standalone systems.
The total implementation cost was 40-50% less than purchasing a commercial off-the-shelf solution or pursuing internal development. The operational efficiencies gained offset both the system cost and ongoing service fees, delivering an ROI of less than one year.
Beyond achieving the original goals of SCADA visualization, alarms, and reporting, Billtown gained a significant competitive advantage. The platform offers substantially more features and capabilities than competitors' offerings. Both Billtown and their end customers have embraced advanced asset management capabilities that extend well beyond traditional SCADA functionality—opening new service opportunities Billtown hadn't initially anticipated.
CoStream's combination of engineering support, project management, and domain expertise enabled the rapid deployment timeline, overcoming technical and operational obstacles to bring Billtown's connected solution to market in half the time an internal development effort would have required.