Picture this; a construction company needs a crane to lift a 150-ton air conditioner onto the 10th floor of a building for installation. The estimated time to do this is two business days. The construction company approaches the equipment rental company to rent the crane with a 150-ton capacity for two days. The good news is that the equipment rental company has two cranes with the required capacity. They offer the crane to the customer at a daily rate.
However, the construction company demands better rates because they are a repeat customer. Both parties strike a deal. The equipment rental company realizes that one of their 150-ton capacity cranes is out on rent, and the other one is in the workshop for some repairs because they did not have the latest information when they struck a deal with the customer.
They go back to the customer and offer them a 200-ton capacity crane at a slightly higher rate. However, the customer demands the same price they were offered before. Both parties agree on the rate and the terms.
After two days, the construction company comes back to the rental company with a request to extend the rental period to two weeks because they have some more work to complete. The weekly rate for the crane is different, so the new rates are calculated, and a new agreement is created.
In the meanwhile, the finance department starts to bill the company on the original terms that both the parties had agreed upon. At the same time, the front office has offered the 200-ton crane to another customer because they did not have the information about the changes that had taken place and that the crane was no longer available.
After a couple of days, both 150-ton capacity cranes are back from the customer and the workshop, respectively. However, the front office is still under the impression that only one crane is available for rent because the customer renting the 200-ton crane is not updated in their system.
As a result, one piece of equipment is lying idle while the front office staff is offering an asset that is not available to customers.
Can you imagine the same scenario but with multiple pieces of equipment and numerous customers? Have you been there yourself?
Siloed information can be a big hurdle to your equipment rental operations. It can result in idle equipment, wrong billing, poor customer experience, and give rise to many other problems.
At To-Increase, we advise our customers to leverage an equipment rental ERP software like DynaRent to avoid information silos. With an easy-to-use graphical planboard, different departments have access to the latest information.
Here’s how equipment rental ERP software can help you avoid information silos
Let us take a look at how rental ERP ensures that you avoid double bookings, errors on rental agreements, billing issues, idle equipment, and other issues.
You need to know the location of each machine, the state it is in, and the various characteristics to be able to make the right decision when facing a customer’s requirements. With the right equipment rental software, all your teams (operations, front office, service and maintenance, transport, billing) will be able to get the correct information at the right time.
Configuration of the offers and various terms that you can offer
In the rental business, you will need to have the ability to put together attractive offers on the fly as customer demands and requirements are dynamic. An equipment rental ERP can ensure that you have all the information to configure offers based on the various terms so that you can meet customer needs on time.
Details of the pricing agreements and contracts
The management of pricing agreements and the contracts you have with your customers needs to be available to all your teams or it can result in chaos and more importantly, revenue and reputation loss. Equipment rental software can help you create contracts and pricing terms quickly with a unified dashboard of all the details.
Equipment service and maintenance details at all times
With equipment, service and maintenance is an essential part of your rental business. Renting out equipment that is not in working condition will result in penalties and customer dissatisfaction. Committing to rent equipment when it is under service and repairs and not meeting the commitment is also another issue that you need to avoid.
By ensuring that information silos are avoided, equipment rental ERP software ensures that the operational, financial, and technical teams are in sync.
How to go from here
You can start the process of avoiding information silos by analyzing the current situation in your business with a cross-functional team. Once you have the list of the problematic conditions listed out, talk to possible equipment rental solution providers to find how they can help you.
Use this as a starting point to find and implement the right equipment rental ERP software for your business.
