Breaking the Barrier: How a Pay-Per-Use Model Makes Predictive Maintenance Accessible to Everyone

By Jordi Torné. May 4th, 2025

In the world of modern manufacturing and industrial operations, there is a phrase that keeps many managers awake at night: "If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it... but if it breaks, we’re in trouble."

For decades, businesses have been trapped between two equally frustrating options. You either wait for a machine to explode (Reactive Maintenance), which is incredibly expensive and stressful, or you replace perfectly good parts on a rigid schedule (Preventive Maintenance), which wastes money and resources.

Then came the "Holy Grail": Predictive Maintenance (PdM). By using smart sensors and data analysis, we can now "listen" to machines and predict exactly when they will fail. It sounds like magic, but for many small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it has felt like an expensive, unreachable dream.

Historically, the "entry fee" for this technology was a massive wall of costs: expensive software licenses, complex server installations, and hiring specialized IT teams.

But what if you could have all the benefits of high-end predictive maintenance without the heavy upfront investment? What if you only paid for what you actually used?

As an expert in condition monitoring, I am thrilled to walk you through a revolutionary shift in the industry: the Pay-Per-Use model and how Akalta, powered by the Avibana platform, is finally democratizing industrial intelligence.

The "Wall of Investment": Why Companies Hesitate

To understand why a pay-per-use model is such a game-changer, we first need to look at the traditional hurdles that have stopped companies from adopting IoT (Internet of Things) technologies.

1. The CapEx Nightmare (High Upfront Costs)

In the traditional model, if you wanted to monitor your factory, you had to buy the hardware, pay for the software licenses upfront, and pay for the installation. This is called CapEx (Capital Expenditure). For many businesses, committing $50,000 or $100,000 to a system that they aren't even sure how to use yet is a huge risk.

2. The IT Headache (Server Installations)

Most traditional industrial software requires a "local server." This means you need a dedicated computer room, a secure network, and an IT department to maintain it. For a company that specializes in making car parts or processing food, managing a mini-data center is a distraction they don't need.

3. The "Shelfware" Risk

We have all seen it: a company buys a complex, expensive software suite, uses it for three months, finds it too complicated, and eventually, it sits on a digital "shelf" gathering dust. In the old model, you still had to pay the full price even if you weren't getting the value.

What is Pay-Per-Use? (An Analogy)

Think about how you watch movies today. In the 1990s, if you wanted a movie library, you had to buy each DVD for $20. Whether you watched the movie once or a hundred times, the cost was the same. That is the "License Model."

Today, we have streaming services. You pay a small monthly fee to access everything, or you "rent" a specific movie for a few dollars. You don't own the DVD player; you don't store the discs. You enjoy the movie.

The Pay-Per-Use model for Predictive Maintenance is exactly like that. Instead of buying a "power plant" to turn on a lightbulb, you simply pay for the light.

With this model:

• No Licensing Costs: You don’t pay a massive fee to "own" the software.

• No Server Installations: The "brain" of the system lives in the cloud (secure remote computers), so you don't need to install anything in your factory.

• Scalability: You can start by monitoring one critical motor this month and grow to a hundred machines next year. Your costs grow only as your benefits grow.

Introducing the Akalta and Avibana Solution

At Akalta, we realized that the technology wasn't the problem—the business model was. That is why we’ve partnered with the Avibana platform to offer a seamless, pay-per-use experience designed for people who are not tech experts.

Who is Akalta?

Akalta acts as your expert partner. We don't just give you a box of sensors and wish you luck. We help you identify which machines are most critical to your profit, set up the initial monitoring, and ensure the data makes sense. We are the bridge between your factory floor and the digital world.

What is Avibana?

Avibana is the "brain" behind the operation. It is a cloud-based platform that collects data from your machines, analyzes it using advanced algorithms, and tells you—in plain English—how your equipment is doing.

Because Avibana is a cloud-native platform, it perfectly enables the pay-per-use model. There are no servers for you to buy and no complicated software to install on your office PCs. You log in through a web browser or a tablet, and everything is there.

How it Works (Without the Technical Jargon)

If you are worried that this sounds too "high-tech" for your team, let’s break down the process into four simple steps:

1. The "Listen" Phase (Sensors): We place small, wireless sensors on your machines. They are about the size of a lemon. These sensors "listen" to vibrations and "feel" the temperature.

2. The "Talk" Phase (Gateway): The sensors send their information wirelessly to a small box in your factory called a Gateway. This box safely sends the data to the Avibana cloud.

3. The "Think" Phase (Analysis): This is where the magic happens. Avibana looks at the data. It knows what a "healthy" machine feels like. If it detects a tiny change—something a human can't hear or feel—it realizes that a bearing might fail in three weeks.

4. The "Act" Phase (Your Dashboard): You receive an alert. You don't see complicated graphs (unless you want to). You see a green, yellow, or red light. "Machine 4: Bearing wear detected. Schedule maintenance within 15 days."

The Massive Benefits of "Zero Licensing" and "No Servers"

Let’s dig deeper into why the specific "No Licensing, No Servers" approach of Akalta and Avibana is so important for your bottom line.

1. Instant Return on Investment (ROI)

Since there is no huge upfront cost, the system starts paying for itself almost immediately. If the system prevents just one unplanned stoppage in the first month, the savings from that avoided breakdown likely cover the cost of the service for the entire year.

2. IT Independence

Most industrial IoT projects get stuck in "IT Purgatory" for months while the tech team debates server security and installation. With Avibana, there is no server to install. It works "out of the box." Your maintenance team can have it running without needing to bother the IT department for weeks of setup.

3. Freedom to Experiment

The pay-per-use model removes the fear of making a mistake. In the old days, if you bought a $100k system and didn't like it, you were stuck. With Akalta’s flexible model, you can test the technology on a small scale. Once you see the value, you can expand. It’s "Proof of Value" without the "Price of Admission."

4. Always Updated

When you buy a software license, it eventually becomes "old." You have to pay for "Version 2.0" or "Version 3.0." With a cloud-based pay-per-use model, you are always using the latest version. Every time we improve the algorithms or add a new feature to Avibana, you get it instantly, for free.

Transforming Maintenance from a Cost to a Competitive Advantage

In the past, the maintenance department was seen as a "black hole" where money went to disappear. It was a necessary evil.

By adopting the Akalta and Avibana pay-per-use model, you change the narrative. Maintenance becomes a strategic asset.

• For the CFO: The costs are predictable. No more "surprise" $20,000 repair bills that ruin the quarterly budget. You have a steady, manageable operating expense (OpEx).

• For the Plant Manager: You have peace of mind. You know that the machines are being watched 24/7, even when you aren't there.

• For the Operators: They work in a safer environment where machines don't fail unexpectedly, and they can take pride in keeping the "heartbeat" of the factory steady.

Is Your Business Ready for the Change?

You might think, "We’re just a small shop, we don't need this." But the truth is, small shops are the ones who suffer the most from a breakdown. A large multinational can survive a machine being down for two days; a small business might lose its biggest customer over a late shipment.

The pay-per-use model was designed specifically to bridge this gap. It takes the most advanced technology on the planet—technology used by aerospace companies and giant power plants—and makes it as easy to buy as a Netflix subscription.

Conclusion: The Future is "On-Demand"

The era of heavy industrial software and massive upfront investments is coming to an end. The future belongs to companies that are agile, data-driven, and focused on value.

With Akalta and the Avibana platform, we have removed the excuses. You don't need a massive budget. You don't need a team of data scientists. You don't need a room full of servers.

All you need is the desire to run a smarter, more profitable, and less stressful business. Predictive maintenance is finally here for everyone. Why wait for the next breakdown to decide it's time to start?