Thread: Heidelberg "Sherlock" cd

This following is a statement from the Heidelberg Legal Department concerning Sherlock or any other Proprietary information. It does not pertain to operations manuals as they are sold by Heidelberg to the public.

“Please be aware that Heidelberg is very diligent about taking legal action against the sale or purchase of its property. If you are referring to service manuals or information provided to Heidelberg service technicians, Heidelberg will take action against the seller and the purchaser. Anyone in the printing industry selling or attempting to purchase such material ought to be aware that technical service information is proprietary and copying or sale is unauthorized. In fact, civil proceedings have been instituted against the parties believed to be responsible for producing illegal copies , use of trademarks, and purchasing unauthorized copies of technical information."

For those who are not aware, "Sherlock" is a proprietary software program for the field service technicians of Heidelberg.

Thanks, should have known better.

Not a problem, some people think "Sherlock" is just a parts catalog when in fact it is not

I'm very familiar with Sherlock. It has everything. Parts, specs, service. Unfortunately the newer versions are getting less detailed.

Hi

First of all I have to thank Paul for all his great posts. Especially his posts about the QM-DI are pure gold for us QM-DI owners. Hope that this post doesn’t scare you away, Paul, we need you!
Second: I truly acknowledge Heidelberg’s copyrights regarding their intellectual property.

When that is said, I simply don’t get it…
I’m currently 32 years, and practically grown up in the family printing business, left the business a couple of years in favour of the IT business. Now im’ back in the family business as owner of a small, combined printing shop, advertising- and web bureau. (9 employees)
That I don’t get is how the big players in the market can get away with their costumer service… We both have Heidlberg and Man-Roland presses and some Canon digital presses.
From my time in the IT business we quickly learned that sharing information is the key!
Share the information and we are all better of. Just look at the booming market of open source software. Most of the software got some very enthusiastic fans who contribute to the project in different ways, so the final product got better and we could all get earlier home to our families!.
If I stumble upon a thing I cant figure out myself or don’t have the time to do. I simply hire in n expert in that field. And in that case I can be sure it’s a real expert, and not just a guy got the job because the Heidelberg HQ was just around the corner….
Now the printing business is a different ballgame. I can’t see what I could hurt for Heidelberg to publish all it’s service manuals for free?? Most of the bigger printing shops, with printers there don’t want to get their hands dirty, they would call Heidelberg anyway. And be willing to pay the big bucks.
For a small printer like me it would be a great help to have a system like Sherlock on hand.
The same goes for Canon, nope they don’t want to sell me a service manual….. Should be certified canon technician and so on…. I have been repairing our on Canon CLC copiers for 5 years it’s not rocket science you know, but would be a little bit easier with the correct service manual. Grrr…
Man-Roland is just the same, hold the information tight, and the charge the suckers when the need us. Some one please explain me why the printing business is like that..... anything secret in their manuals? My local Heidelberg mechanic is nice and I get what I want, but that’s not the official policy… It’s the official policy and the way the run their businesses towards us smalle printers I disagree with, Sky high prices on spare parts, bad service, not willing to share valuable service information on a lump of iron that the manager paid big $$$$$ for 2 years ago.
Sometime when we small printers get big enough, we will unite and buy KBA (if they are any better in sharing their information??)

Mutti8000 Thank you for the compliments concerning my posts on the QMDI. It is a pleasure to help each of you with these machines when possible in order for you to become profitable and possibly be able to someday replace your machine or add another piece of Heidelberg equipment to your business.

Even as I write my responses helping each of you to fix the various issues you encounter with the QMDI, I must remain cognizant of the fact that I cannot lead you to repair issues that may cause physical injury or damage the equipment, or make your problem worse if not done properly, hence my suggestion to have a technician come in and look at your machine after attempting my suggestions. It would be a liability for an equipment manufacturer to give out service information that may endanger an operator or the machine itself by trying to guide them through the course of a repair without adequate experience, tools or equipment. Not that it has not happened, but when is the last time you have heard of a copier inflicting a permanently debilitating injury? As the person responsible for training our field technicians in the US I can assure you a field technician's skill set does not evolve overnight. In addition, the machines themselves are subject to various proprietary rights, like patents. A manufacturer is responsible to protect those rights by preventing others from copying them --if you don’t you can lose those rights.

This is why Heidelberg is adamant about protecting their proprietary service information with appropriate legal action if necessary.

maybe if heidelberg was more customer friendly they wouldn't be in so much financial difficulty

Originally Posted by tom

maybe if heidelberg was more customer friendly they wouldn't be in so much financial difficulty

I'd agree with that, I love my press & find the parts department helpful, but they wanted to take my credit card for technical advice on a dampner issue. I think it was going to be £70 just to talk to someone.

Originally Posted by Inky

I'd agree with that, I love my press & find the parts department helpful, but they wanted to take my credit card for technical advice on a dampner issue. I think it was going to be £70 just to talk to someone.

The helpline is a value to our customers as many times the technicians are able to fix the problem over the phone thus preventing the cost of having a techician go onsite. Not to mention it is far more costly than the charge for phone support when your equipment is down and not running. Furthermore, if the problem is not able to be repaired over the phone the charge is deducted from the cost of the service call if a visit is indeed deemed necessary. Lastly, in most instances the phone support technician is able to determine which parts are needed to repair the problem so they are onsite when the field technician arrives, this saves you an extra day of waiting for parts.

It is not unusual for a company to charge for technical support over the phone. The cost to man a support department with full line service technicians is not an inexpensive venture. The technicians who answer our customers calls are field veterans with many years of experience and take great pride in trying to get our customer's up and running as quickly as possible. Does it seem out of line to charge a small fee to compensate for this use of this experience?