Press giant Heidelberg is expanding its subscription model, which sees printers not pay for the press but rather the sheets they produce, to create four distinct contract packages.
The company says the subscription model has proved successful with some printers, and it is therefore further expanding its data-based contract business and adding to its existing portfolio, placing greater emphasis on its partnership-based approach.
All the new options support the Smart Print Shop concept developed by Heidelberg. The now available Print Site Contracts provide a variable combination of consumables, services, software, performance consulting, training, and equipment solutions in a single package with the aim of further improving print shops’ machine availability and overall performance.
Print Site Contracts are available in the form of lifecycle agreements or subscription. Printers have a choice of four packages with different scopes of services and methods of payment. They range from a Lifecycle Smart contract that includes services and consumables to a Subscription Plus package that covers consulting, training, service, consumables, Prinect software, and equipment solutions.
The company says all four packages aim to maximise customers’ overall equipment efficiency, which represents the actual added value when compared to purchasing individual components.
Heidelberg says that along with reducing makeready and throughput times, the overall focus is on increasing net output while also generating less waste. In addition to state-of-the-art equipment solutions and on-site process consulting, customers also benefit from the many years of experience and expertise on which Heidelberg application specialists base recommendations, such as the appropriate consumables for a particular situation.
The monthly fees for the standard Lifecycle Smart and Lifecycle Plus packages are determined by the services used. In the case of the Subscription Smart and Subscription Plus options, on the other hand, they depend on the actual output. The packages can be combined with the purchase of a new press or based on the customer’s existing equipment.
The company says the Heidelberg Assistant digital portal plays a key role, too, providing contract customers with a digital link to a whole host of additional services such as a vendor-managed inventory, important real-time information relating to their company’s performance, and easy access to the Heidelberg eShop.
“Heidelberg is helping to improve the print shop production process with our new range of partnership-based Print Site Contracts, leaving customers to focus more on their market, and on developing service and product innovations,” said Garo Derderian, head of lifecycle business at Heidelberg.
With its expanded contract portfolio, Heidelberg says it is making an altogether more active contribution to improving print shop performance. “Perfect interaction of the various components is the only way of optimising the production process. The extensive wealth of data obtained via the link to machines in the service environment, which Heidelberg makes a point of using for the new contracts, plays a key role in this regard,” Derderian says.
