What the Heidelberg and Unisource Partnership Means for Printers

PI: Are there issues from a salesforce standpoint in terms of who's bringing in the business and who's getting the credit?

DRAGONE: Not really, at least not on our side. Our salespeople are very excited because, first of all, the preeminent brand in commercial printing is Heidelberg. Our salespeople feel like they have died and gone to heaven having the Heidelberg name associated with the Unisource name in the marketplace. They see it as a tremendous opportunity with their customers.

DUNN: It was delightful to know just how many of the salespeople within our respective organizations who already knew each other in a given area. In the early going, we brought the sales teams together. They got the message from both companies that we are not going to put any of them in a position to lose an opportunity.

PI: I know it's still early in the game, but do you foresee your relationship expanding beyond what it is now?

DRAGONE: I haven't thought that far ahead. But, for instance, if Heidelberg were to become a dominant force in wide-format digital, that's an exciting area where we'd be interested in expanding our relationship. That's purely blue-sky thinking on my part, but could be attractive to us.

DUNN: One area that I've thought about, for more than a year, is based on an in-house ink management provider. There are several ink manufactures which are already providing this service. However, we think that these existing installations have a narrow focus compared to what is possible. The core of the service would still be ink mixing, but would immediately extend to Print Color Management and related lithographic trouble shooting. We believe that we can expand that with all of the other things that our organizations offer, from maintenance, to cleaning supplies, to first-line services. The value is that we can help the print run their operations with reduced waste, rework and wasted time. As soon as I find a customer that sees that the same way, I'm willing to work with them and give it a try.