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A No Risk Commerce Subscription
Researchers at RWTH Aachen University and TUM Campus Heilbronn have developed an online tool designed to help mechanical engineering companies offer subscription models with less risk.
20.05.2026
Tobias
Lenartz
I
In the field of mechanical engineering, more and more companies are turning to subscription models. Instead of selling their equipment, they lease it to their customers—including maintenance and repair work. This promises higher revenues and long-term business relationships. But a subscription model is not without risk, because the investment costs for machines are high and, and unlike with sales, are only recouped gradually.
Researchers at RWTH Aachen University and TUM Campus Heilbronn have now investigated how to make this business model less risky as part of the SCALA project—and developed the Subscription Business Case Calculator. Our aim is to help small and medium-sized companies in the mechanical and plant engineering sector in particular to identify customers with whom they can enter into a subscription model with relatively little risk,” says Yannik Gabelmann, a doctoral student at the Center for Digital TransformationCenter for Digital Transformation (CDT) at TUM Campus Heilbronn, explaining how the calculator works.
Risk scores at the touch of a button
Together with Sebastian Müller, a professor of finance at the TUM School of Management, Gabelmann defined six key categories to assess risk. These include, among others, creditworthiness, subscription costs, and the sales market of the respective company. To analyze additional critical financial data, the SCALA team works closely with lenders.
Based on these data and criteria, the free SCALA calculator calculates a risk score for potential customers and evaluates the chances of a profitable subscription agreement.
About TUM Campus Heilbronn
TUM Campus Heilbronn is part of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), one of the leading universities for entrepreneurship. It combines innovative research, talent development, and social responsibility with entrepreneurial spirit, and works closely with the economically dynamic Heilbronn-Fränkisch region, which is characterized by both medium-sized and global market-leading companies. With a focus on management, computing, information, and technology, TUM Campus Heilbronn promotes the skilled workers of tomorrow, enables knowledge transfer, and advances innovations to meet the challenges of the digital age—regionally based, globally networked, with an eye on the future.
The Dieter Schwarz Foundation initiated the development of the TUM Campus Heilbronn. It not only provides the infrastructure for the educational campus in Heilbronn, but also supports professorships, research centers, and numerous initiatives, for example in the field of digital transformation.
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