V I S I O N I N G
Pay data ...3A8F2B3C...
Payment Processor
Pay data ...93AA4821...
$$
$$
...2934556F3C...
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Operational User
Cloud Service
Component Builders
System Builder
1x Invoice
1x $$$$$
I²M² – the Future of Industrial
Device Monetization
Figure 1
Software on desktop, server and cloud systems today represents a major part of business assets. Software in embedded devices,
however, is typically sold as a “free” part of the device hardware. One reason for this approach is that such devices are not
Internet-connected – licensing and modern software payment methods like subscription, feature-on-demand or pay-per-use
are difficult to realize. This will change with the IoT wave – when all embedded devices are finally connected to the Internet.
Embedded Devices are Different
The challenge ahead is that in a typical indust-
rial system many thousands of such embedded
devices will be installed from many different
manufacturers. Using an individual payment
method for the software on each device
(e.g. based on credit card and serial numbers
(tickets) as with today’s desktop software)
would be extremely cumbersome.
Instead, a technical standard, which automati-
cally manages the payment of all used devices
at the Operational User site by a centralized
cloud-based Payment Processor (as shown in
figure 1), would be useful. Much like a credit
card clearance service, this Processor collects
the money one time per payment cycle (e.g.
one month) from the Operational User and
distributes it in accordance with the