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Date:
7.04.2026
Author:
Tomasz Tokarski – Chief Operating Officer

This post aims to present professional telemetry systems from a slightly different, namely financial, perspective and to show which parameters of an offer should be taken into account when assessing the costs of implementing and operating a professional telemetry solution, in order to avoid the trap of “apparent savings”. Perhaps this is obvious to some readers, but…

Let’s start by introducing the concept of TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). This is a methodology for assessing the total cost of ownership of a given solution, which focuses not only on the purchase price, but also on all associated costs throughout the product’s entire lifecycle. To illustrate this approach, let’s use an example from everyday life: when buying a new car, we don’t just look at the price of the car in the showroom, but we also check the cost of the insurance policy, the interest rates on a loan or lease, fuel consumption, and the costs of servicing and consumable parts.

This is usually a natural approach, but when it comes to industrial solutions, there is a tendency to cut corners. Let us therefore move on to identifying the typical pitfalls that lie in wait for us in the world of telemetry.

Find out:

• Maintenance continuity

• The hidden cost of man-hours

• The ‘tax’ on accessories and licences

• Regulatory compliance

• Competence and regulatory security

• Complexity of the solution

• Integrated functionality

• Licences that don’t drain the budget

• Total cost of ownership assessment table

Complex systems resulting from integration work, often lacking proper and up-to-date documentation, implemented in-house or by an external entity, are only seemingly cheaper until we no longer have access to someone possessing ‘tribal knowledge’ of the solution, the ability to configure it and diagnose issues. The word “seemingly” was not used by accident, but we will return to this later in the post.

What happens when the solution’s author is no longer available?

Are you familiar with complex solutions built “in-house”, which work brilliantly but, once the developer leaves, become completely unsupportable, and the cost of taking over and maintaining the project would be on a par with buying a new solution? Because there is no documentation. Because there is no one else who could take over the project, and hiring someone else costs significantly more.

Since we promised to return to the issue of the ‘apparent’ cheapness of a solution, this is the right place to expand on this idea. For some reason, when it comes to full-time employees, companies often overlook the man-hours they spend on configuring, installing and maintaining solutions in their TCO assessment. Perhaps this is because when we see a VAT invoice, the cost is tangible, whereas when we pay salaries ‘anyway’ every month, this cost gets lost somewhere between the lines under the heading ‘it has to be done anyway’.

What about service call-outs? Solutions made up of various components and inherently more prone to failure result in more frequent service call-outs. Can the apparent saving of a few hundred zlotys at a site cover the costs of service call-outs, often involving a two-person team, a vehicle and fuel? The reliability of a solution is not only about the safety of the infrastructure it monitors, but also about savings in working time, fuel costs and staff labour costs. Whilst taking ‘shortcuts’ may seem attractive for individual sites, as the number of sites grows, their ongoing maintenance becomes a significant cost that rises sharply.

It is also worth noting that the time saved by staff from dealing with a problematic system can be allocated to other tasks that benefit the company.

Once again, let’s use the analogy of buying a car. In an advert, we see a model with almost all the accessories and a price of 100,000 PLN, but somewhere at the bottom there is a note stating that the price applies to the basic model. We like the car, so we move on to configuring it, where it turns out that the base version doesn’t satisfy us, so we choose a higher trim level and add the accessories necessary for comfortable use. And there you have it! After ‘tapping’ the configurator, the price soared to 150,000 PLN. On top of that, it turns out that an annual service visit will cost a small fortune to maintain the warranty and keep the car in good technical condition.

The situation is similar in professional telemetry. The basic logic unit costs X, but after purchasing the necessary accessories, i.e. I/O resources, a communication module, and a larger cabinet, it turns out that the final price has risen by as much as 100%. Added to this arethe costs of purchasing licences for configuration software and the right to updates.

No less important an area to consider when evaluating a proposal is regulatory compliance with NIS2. If you choose the cheapest solution, can you be sure you will meet current and future regulatory requirements? Are you able to estimate the cost of these measures? Who is responsible for ensuring the compliance of the ‘system’ as a whole?

How do we optimise TCO within the Inventia ecosystem?

Choosing the Inventia telemetry ecosystem means, in addition to product security and continuity of supply, ensuring compliance with NIS2 and access to our business partners who are able to navigate this ecosystem efficiently. This model ensures the long-term sustainability of the solution, even when collaborating with another entity.

No more reliance on ‘tribal knowledge’!

Inventia is a globally operating Polish manufacturer of advanced telemetry solutions. The offering includes not only telemetry modules with PLC functionality, but also a complete software stack, secure data transmission via a private APN, and cloud systems, making the solution fully compatible and cost-effective in terms of integration and maintenance, which translates into a shorter time from order to implementation.

As our customer, you have complete freedom to select the products and services necessary for your actual needs – we do not force you to use what you do not need, so the solution is not over-engineered.

Depending on the device type, a wide range of resources is available, including binary inputs and outputs, counter inputs, analogue voltage and current inputs and outputs, binary outputs, RS-232 and RS-485 communication interfaces, M-Bus, Ethernet, 1-Wire, and HMI panels… Phew, that’s quite a lot, and on top of that there’s an integrated communication module, usually LTE, and PLC functionality based on the well-known CODESYS^® environment.

Integrating these extensive resources, the PLC and LTE into a single device createsa powerful solution that significantly improves TCO:

1. improved solution reliability – fewer components, fewer connections = lower implementation costs, fewer service call-outs,
2. simplified configuration and diagnostics – a single MTManager tool is used to configure both the LTE communication module and local resources = lower labour costs during implementation and subsequent operation,
3. savings in cabinet space, cabling and time spent on cabling = lower labour costs, lower costs for purchasing accessories, and reduced costs for logistics and tendering processes,simplified firmware update process – a single firmware
4. version takes care of everything – lower IT support costs, easier to maintain NIS2 compliance after years of operation.

Inventia supplies licences for the software used to manage its devices, as well as for integration with higher-level systems, such as SCADA. This means you incur no additional licence costs at the outset (CAPEX), nor any subsequent maintenance costs (OPEX) over the product’s lifespan, which is often 10 years or more. At the same time, you have the option to update this software to the latest versions, which include various improvements and advancements in the field of cybersecurity, in line with the requirements of the NIS2 Directive. The software supplied with the device includes, amongst others:

1. CODESYS^® – the standard in PLC programming,
2. MTManager – a configuration and diagnostics tool,
3. MTLib – an API for integration with host systems,
4. MTDataProvider – a solution providing other integration methods, e.g. OPC DA/UA, CSV, SQL.

The question an investor should ask themselves is not “How much does this device cost?”, but “How much will every hour of downtime and every service call cost me if this system stops working?”
Choosing Inventia is not just about buying equipment – it is an investment in the financial predictability of your business.

To facilitate a comparative assessment of offers, below we present a simplified table that can be used to assess the total cost of ownership of a professional telemetry solution. Feel free, dear Reader, to adapt it to your needs. We recommend filling in the table with actual figures and/or working hours based on the requirements of the specific area.