Just in the past few years we’ve seen a shift in how equipment-driven rental companies are thinking about their market niches—primarily that they’re looking at rental through the prism of omni-channel retail and commercial sales.
Top 3 “must haves” for equipment rental ERP software: That’s transforming traditional business models—one example among many is the . Other changes to business as usual include 24/7 collaborations with third-parties, lots of new options for renting and things to rent, and a widespread embrace of mobility, from Mobile field service to mobile apps to leveraging the Internet of Things.
That’s just brushing the surface of how equipment rental industries are changing. You’ll find many areas to look into, and what they will all have in common is a willingness to embrace technology innovations. That’s been a hard task for equipment rental companies, who need extremely reliable software that can handle complex, industry-specific financial and operational demands for rental and integrate everything with ERP. The good news is that rental companies are finding ISV solutions that pay close attention to rental challenges and sculpt their offerings so that they wrap tradition and innovation together. Three important areas to look at:
- Pre-configured software packages for equipment rental and services. While it’s really not possible to “plug and play” a rental software package that can handle complex needs, you can find solutions with industry and business templates that let you map functionality to your specific needs, deploy efficiently, and even standardize “custom” training for IT and end users. Within the Microsoft Dynamics world this is part of . Equipment rental industries can save significant time, effort, and cost when they select rental software from an ISV that combines the latest technologies with expert handling of pre-configuration possibilities.
- Software that gives you maximum flexibility. Equipment rental companies are looking at constant change regardless their industry niche. We hear often from businesses that one of the biggest struggles they have with an otherwise rugged rental solution is that it’s rigid. And no matter how strong the asset management or quote-to-invoice features, today’s rental software needs also to be flexible. You may be working with market trends such as mobility and the shift to online. Or you might find soon that you want to deepen third-party collaborations, or expand rental options, offerings, or locations. In truth, what you know today may change tomorrow, so you’ll want a modular solution that’s built on an open platform, with a strong backbone of integration and access to information. It should be ready to give you plenty of functionality now, but designed to let you change at any time with minimal disruption.
- Software that balances innovation with security. Equipment rental companies deal with high volumes of sensitive information, and of course you need to assure customers and your own business that you can store and protect data and records. Your rental software should rate highly for role-tailored security that allows for information to flow easily but be filtered in the right way. The quality of integration with your ERP system is going to be a strong measure for your security quality, so look for ISVs that rate highly for the business system you use or are considering. And keep in mind thaequipment rental ERP softwaret if the software you’re exploring offers strong configuration templates and well-designed flexibility, it’s a good bet that the ISV has taken the same care with security. It’s part of the package!
