The Heidelberg subscription model follows the growing pay-per-use trend in mechanical engineering and aims to move away from growth based solely on selling and installing printing capacity.
Under this Heidelberg model, customers only pay for the number of sheets actually printed. Under the conventional business model, they buy the presses and pay separately for consumables or services. With the new digital business model, all the equipment, all consumables required – such as printing plates, inks, coatings, washup solutions, and blankets – and a comprehensive range of services geared to availability are included in the price per sheet to be charged. This differs significantly from the click charge model already introduced by digital press suppliers. Although these suppliers also charge per sheet, they mainly base this on their own costs and not on the customer’s business model.
“Under the Heidelberg subscription model, the economic responsibility for optimum technical availability, increased productivity, and maximum utilization of the installed equipment no longer rests solely with the customer, but for the first time also with the supplier,” explains Professor Ulrich Hermann, member of the Management Board and Chief Digital Officer at Heidelberg. “After all, a customer only enters into a long-term agreement with us if the benefits are permanent. We ensure this will be the case with our operator model. A situation in which customers are looking to make full use of the opportunities of digitization throughout the system also represents a forward-looking solution,” he adds.