Building on the success of its Heidelberg Subscription “pay as you print” model, the company has launched its new Heidelberg Every-Component-as-a-Service-based offset press. Where Heidelberg Subscription includes the press, workflow, consumables, and service, Heidelberg ECaaS goes one step further and makes each part of the press—feeding, fountain solution, plate mounting, inking, stacking, even touchscreen-based press controls—available as a separate subscription. Integrated electronics connected to the cloud allow each component to determine if a subscription is up to date. Users who do not need specific functionality can suspend or cancel a particular subscription. Therefore, says the company, “you only pay for what you actually use.”

The modular subscription model is not just for printing equipment. Standard Finishing is announcing a three-knife trimmer in which each knife features its own subscription. Don’t need all three? Cancel or suspend one or two knives. “Again,” said a company representative, “you only pay for what you need.”

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