Improving business work efficiency through rental equipment software

Executive Summary
ODR has been slow to modernize and take advantage of the software that is available to streamline business practices and drive efficiency. An example of this is the company’s current manual process for rentals. The manual nature of the process not only makes it inefficient at the time of the rental, but makes it very difficult to maintain documentation over the long run. Tracking damages has been a particular pain point, as damages cost the company money, create customer service problems, and it is important to be able to track and recover damages. It is recommended that ODR replaces its current paper-based system for renting with rental equipment software that allows for rentals to be tracked digitally, and then integrated with the company’s billing software. This paper will outline the multiple different benefits of bringing in rental equipment software to digitize this process and improve efficiency and documentation.
Introduction
Outdoor Recreation Center (ODR) is a rental business that operates mainly on military bases. The business model is renting out outdoors equipment and large party supplies. The model is fairly simple, but in order to be profitable, the company must be able to rent out equipment at a price that reflects the purchase cost of the equipment, and the operating costs of the company. Damaged equipment is harder to rent out, so damages must be recovered from the person who damaged the goods, or from that person’s insurance company. ODR has a captive audience, which has meant that it has not emphasized modern business practices, because it simply has not needed to. However, attention should be paid to all aspects of business reputation, and the overall profitability of the business model.
Previous Approaches
The company operates in a very manual way, only using computers for scheduling appointments and for billing. For handling the rentals, the company still uses paper forms. This creates a few different problems. First, paper forms are relatively inefficient. The time it takes to fill out the paper form is about the same as digital, but organizing the documentation, and referencing it later, takes much longer than if this documentation was digital. The second problem is that in many instances the equipment is returned with damages. The paper documentation makes it difficult for ODR to track damages, and bill for them accordingly. A common scenario is that someone returns an RV, and there is some damage noted. It is difficult to reference prior rentals in order to determine whether the damage was pre-existing or not. In many cases, the damage is never charged to anybody because of this issue, and that reality is costing ODR money that it might otherwise be able to recover. This scenario can also result in disputes with customers over damages, and those disputes can end up on social media or otherwise in the public sphere, damaging the reputation of the company potentially.
ODR has normally been slow to change, but has been able to adopt billing software and scheduling software. There is potential for ODR to integrate billing software and rental equipment software, which would allow it to track rentals better, track damages better, and ultimately bill for those damages more effectively. The increased efficiency that would be associated with digital documentation of rentals could potentially lower labor costs, but the major savings would be in terms of tracking and recovery of damages. Improved customer service would also be a result, and this could help improve the company’s reputation.
New Findings
Specialized rental equipment software exists, and is designed to help companies that rent goods to track those goods more efficiently. Each good is assigned a number, and this is then used to track the good throughout its lifespan. Customers also receive customer IDs, which enables the company to do a few other things. One, it can track customers to determine if there is a customer that frequently returns goods with damages. Two, it can track customers who do not pay for the damages that they incur. These two things will help ODR avoid renting to customers on which it is not making money because of damages. The third benefit is that the company will look more modern, as customers can do a walkaround on the equipment and receive their contracts and invoices electronically, as is common in the car rental business. Modernizing the systems will help ODR’s reputation with the public. ODR can also set up a loyalty program, if it tracks customers digitally.
Rental equipment software should be selected on the basis of performance of basic rental documentation, but also on a couple of other criteria. First, the software should work on the computer systems that ODR presently uses. Based on the amount of software the company presently uses, there is the risk that its equipment is out of date and not compatible with all modern software solutions. Second, the rental equipment software should allow for easy searching, both of customers and of equipment. Referencing past transactions is one of the biggest sources of efficiency gains. In addition, being able to recover damages is another key financing benefit. These two benefits should pay for the system, and an analysis of each potential vendor should include that sort of return on investment (ROI) calculation.
The best rental equipment software will also integrate with the company’s billing software, and ideally with the scheduling software as well. Such integrations can track the total lifecycle of a transaction, giving the company a much clearer picture with respect to its operations, the buyer’s journey and other important marketing aspects. Integration with billing software also puts the company in a position to evaluate the effectiveness of the software at damage cost recovery.
Further, if possible, a nice to have with the rental equipment software is dashboard functionality, giving senior management greater visibility into the business as a whole, across multiple locations. This information would allow management to make decisions more quickly with respect to product mix, locations, and pricing. Lastly, rental equipment software is much more secure than paper – data is stored in the cloud, or on premises but backed up. Either way, it is safer from theft, and even more protected against fire or natural disaster (Rentrax, 2019). On top of this, the best software will enable customers to manage their rentals online, or via mobile, which could also be a pathway to increasing business, in addition to reducing labor (Leschohier, 2013).
Conclusions
Incorporating rental equipment software into ODR’s operations will deliver several benefits. The most important of these is the ability to more effectively track damages to the equipment that is being rented. The current manual process makes it difficult to document damages, and therefore it is also difficult to recover them. An electronic system of documenting rentals will allow for more effective tracking of damages, facilitate better recovery of damages from customers or insurance companies, and will deliver some other spinoff benefits as well.
Among these spinoff benefits is the possibility of integrating the rental software with the billing software, to streamline the recovery of damages. Furthermore, ODR will be able to maintain a customer database, which can aid in marketing, for example creating a loyalty program. The company will also be able to gain the ability to flag customers who routinely damage goods, and those from whom it proves difficult to recover for damages. All told, modernizing this aspect of the company will bring it into alignment with other rental companies, such as the car rental sector, and help it to deliver the digital customer service that customers expect in 2019.
References
Capterra (2019) Rental software. Capterra. Retrieved March 9, 2019 from https://www.capterra.com/rental-software/
EZ Rent Out (2017) 5 benefits of using equipment rental software this season. SlideShare. Retrieved March 9, 2019 from https://www.slideshare.net/ezrentout/5-benefits-of-using-equipment-rental-software-this-season
Leschohier, J. (2013) How management software innovations will benefit rental businesses over the long term. For Construction Pros.com. Retrieved March 9, 2019 from https://www.forconstructionpros.com/construction-technology/article/11189693/how-management-software-innovations-will-benefit-rental-businesses-over-the-long-term
Rentrax (2019) What are the benefits of using equipment rental software? Rentrax. Retrieved March 9, 2019 from https://rentrax.io/2017/08/30/using-rental-management-software-benefits/