High-Availability Digital Printing Systems in Data Centers

Heidelberg implements complete solution comprising hardware, software and services for life insurance company Gerling E & L

With its complete solution comprising the digital Digimaster 9110 printing system, DataXceed output management software and comprehensive service concept, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is helping the Wiesbaden-based life insurance company Gerling E & L to process its growing number of high-volume print jobs quickly and reliably.

"Heidelberg gives us a powerful, all-in-one system comprising hardware, software and service expertise", says Kai Seim, Departmental Manager for Information Technology at Gerling E & L. In addition to the printing system itself, the DataXceed software solution and, most importantly, the system service concept were the primary reasons why we opted for Heidelberg. Heidelberg's experts will respond within a fixed timeframe to any problem that occurs, and will solve this problem quickly, also within a specified period of time.

With DataXceed, Gerling E & L gets an open software solution that can be used to integrate various computer systems and print formats. "DataXceed has set us free from proprietary protocols and has therefore significantly enhanced our output management. We can now distribute print jobs more flexibly over our two Digimaster 9110 presses, but also over other printing systems", explains Seim. One further advantage is that the channel connections to the host systems, which required the printers to be near the computers, are no longer needed. Nowadays, printing and dispatch are carried out at a different location from the data center. The process runs more efficiently as a result, and does not disturb the data center's operation.

"The project involving output management at Gerling E & L is just one example of how Heidelberg is moving into new markets as a solutions provider by boosting its customers' competitiveness", explains Wolfgang Pfizenmaier, Member of the Management Board at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. For Heidelberg, data centers in the insurance sector and other industries with regular large-volume print jobs are a key target group that offers tremendous potential for growth.

Obligations regarding information and documentation continue to grow Initiatives by the legislator such as voluntary supplementary pensions ("Riester pensions"), high levels of policies outstanding and increasingly diverse products are just some of the reasons why data centers used by insurance companies are having to handle more and more print jobs of ever larger volume - and do so with reliability built in. Gerling E & L, which classified by premiums received and policies outstanding is one of the top ten life insurance companies in Germany, for example outputs between 700,000 and one million prints each month at the Wiesbaden site. "With the increase in the different types of policy available and the constantly growing number of policies outstanding - we have been experiencing double-figure growth for a number of years now - our obligations as regards information and documentation are also increasing. We therefore need maximum availability for our printing systems", says Seim.

The jobs mostly involve the time-critical printing of insurance policies, addenda or invoices. For example, an item of correspondence initiated before eleven o'clock must be both printed and dispatched on the same day. "Heidelberg gives us the means to maintain our self-imposed levels of service, unlike our previous Xerox installation ", says Seim, who in future is looking to obtain even better print performance and greater flexibility as regards output management. "We want to distribute our print jobs even faster and more easily over different systems in order to provide our internal customers with a faster, more flexible service".

For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communication
Matthias Hartung
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 77
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 46
E-mail: matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com