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Heidelberg Assistant: One year after market launch

One year after its market launch, the Heidelberg Assistant digital platform is now operating in more than 400 print shops in the pilot markets of Canada, Germany, Switzerland and the United States. The rollout in Japan, Poland and Austria has also started, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) says.

“Digitization is becoming increasingly important at a great many print shops, and our customers appreciate the digital service portfolio we offer them 24/7 with the Heidelberg Assistant,” says Professor Ulrich Hermann, Member of the Management Board and Chief Digital Officer at Heidelberg. “Designed as an open digital platform, it is used by customers of all sizes and from all segments with their own personal Heidelberg ID.”

Jeff Taylor, Senior Vice President Manufacturing at Hemlock Printers Ltd. in Burnaby, B.C, sums it up: “This is exactly the data and information we need to manage production efficiently.”

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“The Heidelberg Assistant represents a major step into the digital world, enabling far better analyses of press performance than simple service reports. The option of logging into the Heidelberg Assistant to arrange service callouts will also without doubt improve our customer satisfaction,” adds Jürgen Herr, Head of Printing at August Faller GmbH & Co. KG in Waldkirch, Germany.

Described as a new era of digital customer communication, the Heidelberg Assistant aims to pave the way for creating and ensuring the smooth operation of a printing company’s new digital business models. Heidelberg explains that customers using the digital solution benefit from a transparent process workflow together with smart and efficient print shop operation. Each user has personal access to the customer portal and is able to see an overview of the print shop’s service and maintenance status, including data-driven failure prediction. In addition, they can access big data performance analyses, which can help create further potential for boosting productivity.