How crucial are customer demands and mobility to the equipment rental business?

If you look at the recent trends in the way rental companies’ demands have changed, you will notice a noticeable shift. The main shift that stands out is the way traditional equipment renting services are moving to online services. Being on top of new technologies, and being flexible and agile is essential for any industry. With customer demands on the increase, competition getting fiercer, and margins getting thinner, you need to get your operations in shape to be able to manage.

While that is a small snapshot of the equipment rental market scenario, the good news is that you have various options to help you manage your rental equipment business. That being said, you need to do a careful analysis of your requirements and the features of each solution before making a decision. Given below are a list of the main features that you should seek in an equipment rental solution, the options available, and the way each of these options meet these requirements.

• Logistics and planning
• Mobility enabled
• Graphical plan board
• IoT enabled
• Business intelligence
• Scalability
• IT support
• Integrated solution

Here are some of the options that you can go with for an equipment rental solution:

Best-of-breed solution: While this option looks like the most viable one, and it does offer many of the features, it also has some limitations. A best-of-breed solution can be expensive to deploy and maintain. What is more, the IT requirement can be high due to the complexity of the solution.

Integrated software: The look and feel for all users in the system is similar making it more comfortable and constant for the entire team. It would mean one solution, one version, and one source of truth. This option has the advantage of freeing up of time, but on the other hand, it could be limited in terms of the functionalities. Another limitation of this choice is that of concentrated resource investment in the development of software in the initial phases. 

Customized work solution: For this alternative, you will see that there is the marked advantage of customization of your solution to suit industry-specific requirements. You also have the advantage to adapt the solution to your changing needs. However, on the other hand, you may have to take on additional costs and increased risks with this option.

Local rental solution: In this option, you will find that you get something that is developed locally for you. At first glance, this may seem like a great option but remember; this option would not have many of the features that global solution providers can offer. Additionally, if your rental business is run on an international scale, you will find that it does not offer the kind of insights you would require to run your business.

Cloud-based rental solution: The cloud-based equipment rental solution offers the features that an equipment rental company requires and is also scalable, cloud-based, has mobility and IoT enabled. You also have the additional advantage that the services are hosted on the solution provider’s end. The software upgrades and support would be in the purview of the solution provider.

As you go through the list of options, you will be able to view what would work for your equipment rental operation and make a choice. However, we would like to leave you with the thought that the equipment rental business has an emerging scope in terms of business as well as operational aspects. What this means is that you should go with a solution that not only meets your current needs but also help you meet your emerging needs.

Selecting the right fit for your company may be a difficult decision to make. Our guide is aimed at helping select the best solution for your business. Download your free copy below.