A method for remote monitoring of an industrial machine having a relay based or PLC based controller includes steps of providing a hardware interface module for directly interfacing with the relay based or PLC based controller of the industrial machine, directly interfacing the hardware interface module with the relay based or PLC based controller to identify occurrence of power cycles of the industrial machine, registering the hardware interface module through a portal accessible through a network, communicating the occurrence of the power cycles of the industrial machine detected with the hardware interface module to a database in operative communication with the portal and storing the occurrence of the power cycles within the database, and providing a user interface indicative of performance of the industrial machine based on the power cycles of the industrial machine detected with the hardware interface module and stored in the database.