How Can Equipment Rental Companies Standardize and Automate Rental Processes?

Companies in the equipment rental industry are not new to managing numerous processes related to a single rental product. Each item goes through multiple stages to ensure smooth operations from the point the item is rented to being rental-ready again.

However, most equipment rental companies still have different systems to manage various processes. Multiple solutions that are siloed lead to communication gaps, scattered information, and the hassle of maintaining each solution.

Based on our 17+ years of experience in the equipment rental and manufacturing industry, we understand the struggle rental companies face with multiple systems and have helped address these challenges by adopting a single solution.

We have empowered various international enterprises to standardize, streamline, and automate their end-to-end rental processes with DynaRent, a rental-specific solution embedded in Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management.

In this article, you will discover:

• 6 challenges of using non-standardized processes for a rental business
• How rental companies can standardize and unify their processes
• How we can help rental companies with standardized operations

6 Common challenges of using non-standardized processes for a rental business

When rental companies choose customized solutions that are unique for each business process, all the company operations are not standardized. Here are some common challenges with non-standardized rental processes:

1. Manual operations

If all your processes are not automated, you could be doing manual work, increasing effort and chances of human error. Multiple user interfaces and systems could lead to a duplication of effort, with the need to manually populate various systems.

This means that you could be using one software to manage your assets, a separate one for invoicing and billing rental orders, and another one for equipment maintenance.

2. Scattered documentation

With no single source of information, data such as customer information, rental orders, accounts, and invoices, could be documented in separate locations. There is no unified view of data across rental businesses or departments.

You may have to refer to multiple sources before comprehensively understanding your customer base and analyzing which assets are performing well.

3. Upgrade and maintenance issues

When you purchase separate software from multiple providers to support different functions in your business, you must ensure they always run on the latest version. Your internal expenses increase by having to maintain multiple solutions.

In scenarios where you do customizations, you need to be sure that any customizations done are not affected by the upgrade, as you would have to redo them, increasing time and effort.

4. Training challenges

Using various solutions, each having a core function and different functional users, means training your staff with those many solutions, making it extensive and costly.

The process of user onboarding and software adoption can become a taxing and time-consuming affair for the trainers and users.

5. Extensive integration

Each rental object goes through a lengthy process from depot to on-rent and workshop. This makes it essential for rental companies to have a well-integrated rental management system in which the various solutions can ‘talk to each other.’ Different disconnected solutions pose challenges:

• Downtime and loss of productivity
• Multitasking and work duplication
• Increased IT resources
• Communication silos
• Cumbersome processes

You will face additional expenses to carry out an extensive integration, which, if not done correctly, leads to a loss of critical information.

6. Limited ability to scale and grow

As an equipment rental company, you could be dealing with large enterprises that are operational on a global scale, with each country having varying regulations you must comply with. If your software system does not support varying localized regulations, you won’t be able to scale operations swiftly.

Localized solutions require further integration and management, increasing costs and inefficiencies.

How can rental companies standardize and unify their processes?

Minimizing the number of solutions you use is the first aspect you must consider when looking to standardize your rental processes. You can achieve this by unifying operations to the maximum with a software system that can support multiple business processes.

There are many names for this solution, such as embedded solution, end-to-end solution, and all-in-one solution, which all mean the same — a solution with which rental companies can fully manage operations in a single system.

Consolidating your operations on a single technology stack with an embedded ERP software solution is the way to go. It can easily handle and automate all your rental-specific processes, finance, supply chain, human resource management, etc., as a truly transformational solution.

Points to consider when you are looking for a solution that manages all your rental processes:

• Standardized business processes to support different functions in your rental business
• Industry-specific business processes to manage operations
• Model all business processes to align with your organization's strategy through guided procedures
• Define business-role-specific training and be operational faster
• End-to-end process automation and standardization
• Evergreen software strategy
• Access to the latest innovation in rental software technology
• Potential to scale up and grow with a future-proof solution
• Easy user adoption and usability with a single source of truth
• Uniform systems, reducing complexity with integrations

How we can help rental companies standardize operations

If you are interested in a solution that provides the above-discussed features, you could explore our rental-specific software solution, DynaRent.

DynaRent is an end-to-end, cloud-based solution embedded in D365 and leverages the full Microsoft technology stack. There is one source of truth for the entire rental lifecycle. This means that your financial, operational, and administrative tasks are processed and managed in the same solution, lead to cash.

As an embedded solution, it leverages the standard Microsoft ERP capabilities with the rental-specific functionality we have created. You can read more about the benefits DynaRent adds to D365 F&SCM here.

Here is an overview of how DynaRent handles the rental lifecycle

The maintenance of the solution is more straightforward as it is one software solution managed by us and aligned to Microsoft’s upgrade policies. As To-Increase, we can fully support you in the maintenance process, guaranteeing an evergreen solution for your business that always runs on the latest version.

As a standardized rental solution, your time to value is faster, allowing you to take advantage of the latest technology and rental processes.

Since there is one system for everything and everyone, the training for the end-users and staff also becomes easy.

Here is a visual representation of how DynaRent within D365 F&SCM is a single technology stack solution for equipment rental companies

Additionally, DynaRent offers valuable add-ons to support the latest innovation in the equipment rental industry, allowing business agility and rapid expansion:

• Analytics for Rental and Lease provides strategic, tactical, and operational KPIs of assets across the different rental lifecycle stages
• DynaRent Mobile App connects field engineers and technicians with access to data remotely
• DynaRent Customer Portal provides customers with insights into their rented equipment and equipment usage
• DynaRent for D365 Sales manages your entire lead-to-cash processes in one location

What is next for you as a rental business?

As a rental company, if your long-term business goal is to move to cloud-based ERP with standardized processes and have end-to-end visibility into your equipment lifecycle, DynaRent might be a good choice.

If you want to know how to start adopting single technology efficiently and seamlessly, you can check out the DynaRent solution factsheet.

The factsheet shares information on:

• The solution’s features and benefits
• The different industries the solution supports
• The features of each optional add-on solution
• How DynaRent can help your business