5 Features To Consider When Purchasing Rental Equipment Software
By Emily Newton, Revolutionized
Equipment rental software is an essential tool for any business that relies on rental vehicles or rental income.
Feature sets can vary significantly from platform to platform, and not every tool will be a good fit for every business.
These are five of the most important features to consider when investing in rental equipment software.
1. Flexibility
While no program developer can anticipate every possible situation, effective tools are built for a wide range of market conditions, business scenarios, and end user needs.
Flexible equipment rental programs are intended to slot easily into existing workflows, providing functionality without requiring that a business reinvent its approach to use the tool.
If a large number of companies use the same tool, it’s often a good sign that the program is capable of meeting a variety of different business needs. Diversity in the types of business using the program also can indicate the software’s flexibility.
Reaching out to companies that use a tool and asking for a review or recommendation may tell you more about how flexible the solution is.
2. Integration With Other Tools And APIs
Your rental equipment software likely won’t be an all-in-one solution that covers all of your business’s software needs. Most companies need to support their rental software with tools like accounting apps, analytics software, CMS platforms, storage programs, and similar solutions.
Not every rental equipment software will natively or easily integrate with all the tools your business uses. Instead, a program will typically offer selective integration with popular tools.
Many rental equipment tools also offer APIs, which will allow your IT team to integrate the tool with other solutions and more easily migrate data from the rental equipment software.
With these integrations, you can take full advantage of the data your business already collects, helping your team to avoid digital waste and make the most informed decisions possible.
When shopping for new software, be sure to research or reach out to the vendor about integrations and APIs.
Reviews and testimonials from other businesses can tell you how well the rental equipment software integrates with the tools your business already uses. Even if a tool integrates with the solutions your team uses, these integrations may be ineffective, limited, or buggy.
A combination of reviews and vendor-provided integration documentation will tell you how well a new tool will fit into your business’s existing workflows and technology stack.
3. Reporting And Compliance
Data has become one of the most valuable assets that a business can have. Effective rental equipment software makes it easier to gather and use data on your business’s rental equipment — helping your team optimize equipment use and management operations.
For example, renting is typically cheaper than purchasing and maintaining new equipment outright. With the right data and analytics — for example, a combination of ROI, utilization, and maintenance cost numbers — it’s possible to determine exactly how much your business is saving by switching from owning to renting.
The right data and reports may also be essential for staying compliant with industry regulations or transparency initiatives.
The average rental equipment solution should store up to 10 years’ worth of data, including information on rental income, ROI, asset depreciation, utilization, and industry analysis reports. Your business may need additional information or reporting capabilities.
When shopping for a new rental equipment tool, ask about the reporting capabilities that the software offers. It may be a good idea to request example reports that include specific data your business will need. These reports will demonstrate that the software can handle reporting key metrics for your business.
4. Dashboards And Ease Of Use
The data that a rental equipment tool collects will be most useful if easy to access and understand. Customizable dashboards, analytics, and data visualization features help ensure that any employee can use the tool to better understand a company’s equipment rental operations.
Ease of use is key for a rental equipment tool. The easier that the software is to learn and operate, the more productive employees will be and the less time that the business will need to spend on training.
If data analysis and visualization tools exist — but are difficult to configure and customize — they may not provide the ease of use that your team needs.
Demonstrations of software should tell you how long it will take to complete tasks that your employees perform daily — like contract writing, quote generation, or data analysis.
If the demonstrating makes the performance of basic tasks seems cumbersome, confusing, or difficult, it could be a sign that the tool could slow your team down.
5. Dedicated Customer Support
Even the most reliable and straightforward software may fail, serve unfamiliar errors or confuse your business’s end users.
Not every rental equipment platform provider offers a dedicated customer support line, meaning that you may be left without support or a point of contact when things go wrong.
Many software providers offer toll-free support lines that may be available during business hours or 24/7. Others may also host a user support forum where you can discuss issues with other business users of the software. Some developers also offer training and technical support seminars where they will help your team learn more about using the software correctly.
When selecting a rental equipment tool, speak with other business users about their experience with the tool’s support team. The quality and reliability of support teams can vary significantly from developer to developer, and you may find that an otherwise perfect tool doesn’t offer the support your business needs.
The average customer service team takes around 15 hours to respond to service requests, according to data from SuperOffice. If a vendor reportedly takes days or weeks to resolve issues, it may be worth investigating alternatives.
Asking about experiences with the support team and how quickly the business responded to support requests will tell you more about the experience your team is likely to have when the software doesn’t work correctly.
Look For These Features When Shopping For Rental Equipment Software
The right feature set will ensure that a rental equipment solution works well for your business.
Integrations with tools that your team currently uses, reporting features, customer support, and design that enables flexibility and ease of use are some of the most important features for rental equipment software.
About The Author
Emily Newton is the Editor-in-Chief of Revolutionized. She regularly explores the impact technology has on the industrial sector.