Top 9 Benefits of Equipment Rental Software You Must Know

Last Updated: December 13, 2023

The equipment rental industry is growing, with the world becoming more environmentally conscious and embracing the concept of servitization.

More and more businesses are looking to be cost-effective and prefer to rent equipment rather than make an outright purchase.

While this boost in demand translates to happy news for the equipment rental industry, it also means rental companies must step up their game.

Close competition, competitive pricing, and flexible offerings can become overwhelming to manage while ensuring your bottom line is healthy.

So, which solution ensures you never skip a beat and stay ahead of your competition? It's a cloud-based equipment rental software solution.

With nearly two decades of helping equipment rental companies streamline their operations using rental software in Dynamics 365, we are more than familiar with how the right equipment rental software can transform your business.

This blog shares the top 9 benefits of equipment rental software and how it can successfully help your business undergo digital transformation.

What are the benefits of using equipment rental software?

1. Improve revenue

Improving revenue and cash flow while being competitive is an art — and equipment rental software can help you perfect this. Rental software can handle the financial management of your business, improving documentation and accountability of each rental transaction in your business.

It stores and manages all the rental contracts, renewals, invoices, and credits in a central location.

Such software empowers the sales team with proper knowledge of the fleet, improving cross-selling and upselling opportunities. Features like IoT (Internet of Things) can help monitor the exact utilization of the asset and lead to more accurate invoicing.

Additionally, you can support multiple revenue streams with equipment rental software and offer innovative packages or bundles to your customers, such as consumption-based or project-driven rentals.

2. Cut down costs

Cost containment is always the foremost priority in any business, and the equipment rental industry is no different. Equipment rental software helps you significantly cut down costs in various ways. It automates and digitalizes processes, reducing costs related to errors or manual processes.

It eliminates inefficiencies and inaccuracies, thereby reducing asset downtime costs. It offers logistical data with which you can save transport and maintenance costs.

Equipment rental software in cloud-based ERP also reduces software maintenance and integration costs. By streamlining end-to-end operations, you can cut down expenses that are otherwise spent on damage repairs.

3. Streamline operations

Rental companies are not new to managing vast operations running in parallel. Collaboration among teams involved in different stages of your equipment rental lifecycle is crucial.

Equipment rental software allows you to schedule equipment in real time, check availability, plan transportation, track location, schedule maintenance, and monitor asset usage.

Everyone can access a central data system, making collaboration and communication much more straightforward. Some equipment rental software solutions also offer a graphical plan board to streamline the planning and delivery of your fleet.

4. Enhance utilization with analytics

Data, information, and insights are the backbone of any equipment rental company. The right equipment rental software can offer analytics and business intelligence to optimize equipment utilization.

Analytics can benefit your business growth, maximize asset utilization, and improve your investments to offer a more lucrative equipment portfolio continuously.

You will be able to anticipate customer needs based on buying patterns and get insights on upcoming trends at the industry level.

You can leverage analytics to customize several elements within your operations, such as planning your fleet, setting strategic prices, and scheduling equipment maintenance.

5. Manage global fleet

As an equipment rental business, you could have fleet moving across different regions or countries. Work norms are different for each country and demand different rules.

Equipment rental software helps keep track of the financial and physical ownership of all your assets. It preserves the historical data of the equipment when it moves from one legal entity to another, making it easier to track ownership and prevent the loss of critical data.

You can have an overview of the asset history and get insights into the equipment's movement across different countries, details on usage, and previous transactions.

It can handle serialized and bulk equipment, making it easy to meet safety codes, comply with local regulations, and manage equipment audits.

6. Access data remotely

During the equipment lifecycle, field service engineers in rental businesses must communicate with the planning team, back office, and customers. However, dealing with multiple stakeholders while traveling can be challenging for them.

The right equipment rental software can efficiently address this challenge with a rental mobile app that provides access to critical information in remote locations.

Different touchpoints of your business are consolidated in a single location, simplifying decision-making. You can empower your workforce with the right information at the right time.

7. Have one equipment overview

Many equipment rental companies face the problem of siloed information because their rental solution does not synchronize with their ERP. This siloed information confuses operations, service, maintenance, transportation, logistics, and customer care teams.

With equipment rental software, you can automatically sync the software with your ERP and enjoy a unified data view. It can update operational and financial data, reducing rework, errors, and inaccuracies.

Data, such as customer information, rental orders, accounts, and invoices, are documented in one location. Communication and information exchange become effortless with a single source of truth.

8. Drive customer satisfaction

Rental customers want a seamless experience, and you can achieve this with a CRM solution. You can greatly benefit from investing in equipment rental software with a customer portal providing information on the product catalog or equipment list.

This empowers your customers with the user-friendly option of easy bookings while being informed on the equipment options, availability, and pricing.

You can also offer discounts or customized deals to your repeat customers to improve customer satisfaction using data provided by the software.

Some equipment rental software also has artificial intelligence capabilities to customize offerings or recommend products to your customers, enhancing their experience and interaction with your business.

9. Future-proof your business

One aspect that equipment rental software readily takes care of is the longevity of your investment in the software. You can choose software that aligns with your long-term goals and stay agile in the evolving market.

Based on the reports generated from the software, you can balance your portfolio with the right mix of high-fee, high-demand, long-term, and short-term rental assets.

You can also scale with speed and ease on cloud-based rental software. The investment required will be drastically lower, considering the amount your business will save on hardware.

Moreover, you can introduce innovation in your rental business, plan strategies based on evolving technology trends, and be dynamic with your business offerings.

Want to introduce these benefits in your equipment rental business?

You can catalyze your digital transformation journey with equipment rental software. Moving to cloud-based ERP can be overwhelming with the options available, but it can become a smooth journey with the right solution and ISV.

Before finalizing a solution, you must conduct extensive research and compare the list of requirements that will best fit your business needs. You can start with the selection process by reviewing the Equipment Rental Buyer's Guide below.

If you are interested in cloud-based rental software that can manage the entire lifecycle of your rental equipment, check out our solution: STAEDEAN Rental Management, embedded in Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management. Learn more about STAEDEAN Rental Management here.