SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 2, 2025 - More than 3,000 print service providers worldwide are now using the cloud-based HEIDELBERG Customer Portal as a digital control center for their end-to-end production, underscoring how system integration and workflow automation are becoming decisive competitive factors in the global print and packaging industry.
Cloud platform becomes a digital command center for print plants
Three years after launch, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG's (HEIDELBERG) customer portal is evolving into a central hub for managing production, service and commercial processes. Over 7,000 individual users are actively leveraging the platform to digitalize and automate their operations, with a clear focus on improving efficiency, transparency and sustainability.
The portal now offers more than 15 specialized apps, including Maintenance Manager, Inventory Management and Print Shop Analytics. Together, these tools are designed to reduce unplanned downtime, lower inventory costs and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) through digital assistance, automated workflows and real-time data. HEIDELBERG also plans to simplify procurement so that purchases of consumables and spare parts can be completed in just two clicks, making the portal a one-stop interface for operational and commercial tasks.
Prinect workflow as the backbone for integrated automation
For HEIDELBERG, the portal is both a customer touchpoint and a key lever for production optimization. "The HEIDELBERG Customer Portal is a milestone in the digitalization of customer relationships and at the same time a strategic tool for process optimization and managing complex workflows in print shops. And our Prinect workflow forms the backbone of this." said Dr. David Schmedding, Executive Board Member for Technology and Sales at HEIDELBERG. "Put simply: the Customer Portal just makes our customers' work easier."
The platform integrates tightly with the Prinect workflow, linking administrative functions like estimating and order management with prepress, press and postpress. This end-to-end architecture allows print shops to standardize data flows, reduce manual handovers and continuously benchmark performance across machines, shifts and sites.
Real-world gains: speed, setup and color consistency
Customers report tangible gains from combining Prinect-enabled production with portal analytics and performance consulting. "The new Speedmaster XL 106-7+L with Prinect tripled the printing speed, reduced setup times and improved color consistency on every job. With the support of the HEIDELBERG Performance Team and the analyses from the Customer Portal, we are further increasing efficiency and optimizing the results week by week." said Mark Mills, President of Spectrum Packaging Corporation in Orlando, USA.
For packaging and commercial printers facing short runs, frequent job changes and rising quality expectations, such improvements can translate directly into higher throughput, better service levels and more predictable margins. Portal-based analytics help management teams identify bottlenecks, standardize best practices and track the impact of continuous improvement initiatives in near real time.
New Data Capture App closes information gaps on the shopfloor
A new "Data Capture App" extends the portal's capabilities by enabling comprehensive capture and real-time analysis of production data. The application pushes planning and job information directly to workstations, supports job and status tracking and returns operating data for reporting and post-calculation.
"The Data Capture App is self-explanatory and a great relief compared to the previous process. It saves time, accesses a central data source and allows all available production times to be booked without gaps. The introduction went almost smoothly and the support from HEIDELBERG was always professional and fast." said Marco Rassfeld, Head of Prepress & CtP at pilot user Meinders & Elstermann GmbH & Co. KG.
By standardizing data collection and connecting it to a central source of truth, the app becomes a lever for greater transparency, more accurate costing and tighter production control-particularly in mixed environments where offset, digital and finishing systems must be coordinated across shifts.
Roadmap toward autonomous, data-driven print production
HEIDELBERG sees the current portal architecture-largely built on Prinect integration-as an intermediate stage on the way to higher automation levels, up to and including autonomous print production. The company plans to continuously add new digital services and intelligence, creating a scalable infrastructure that allows printers worldwide to run their operations more intelligently, autonomously, flexibly and securely.
For print and packaging providers, the growing app ecosystem around the HEIDELBERG Customer Portal and Prinect workflow signals a shift from isolated machine investments to platform-based, data-driven production strategies that can better absorb market volatility, labor constraints and sustainability requirements.
For more information about the HEIDELBERG Customer Portal and its automation and analytics apps, visit https://www.heidelberg.com.