Your equipment is the lifeblood of your organization. But, unfortunately, successfully handling it is easier said than done. From the procurement of assets to the retirement of them, properly managing your assets has a lot of moving parts. Let’s take a closer look at equipment management from beginning to end, as well as some great tools that can make this task easier.
Choose the Right Equipment Supplier
Rental asset management starts with the procurement of equipment. Choosing the right supplier may seem daunting, but there are some key steps you can take, and questions you can ask, to ensure you make the best choice in an OEM (original equipment manufacturer). Notice three questions you can ask to lead you in the right direction:
What is the total cost of ownership (TCO)?
Come up with a TCO model by determining the flat rate of the equipment, the kind of service you will get throughout the equipment’s life, and the residual value of the equipment when it goes out the door years from now. Use this model to determine the real value of what you would receive from the partnership.
What opportunities are there to innovate?
Find an OEM partner that is willing to work with you on maximizing the uptime of your equipment. Rather than relying on tradespeople to fix broken down machinery, a good OEM will take the initiative to target potential problems, discover weak points in equipment design, and proactively discover how to use technology to increase efficiency.
How does the OEM help monetize my equipment?
The right OEM will be in it for the long haul, giving your company post-sale support. They can show this support through joint calls with contractors, enhancing marketing, sharing best practice, training, lead generation, and more. Developing a long-term relationship with your OEM is key.
Track and Manage Equipment
In order to successfully manage your fleet, an advanced platform is required. Rental360 is such a platform. Embedded in Acumatica Cloud ERP, Rental360 was developed with a deep understanding of the rental industry, and it provides everything you need to successfully manage your equipment. From acquisition to retirement, Rental 360 presents an easy way for you to manage your assets while keeping tabs on their status, depreciation, and revenue generation, all in real-time. What are some of Rental 360’s key features?
An easy to navigate Equipment List can be filtered by customer, manufacturer, model, warehouse, location, or status, with status including: “available”, “in prep”, “on rental”, “returned”, “missing”, and “sold”. This interactive list allows you to quickly see how many assets you have and what their status is, providing you the ability to filter and focus on a specific group.
Each asset is given its own Rental Equipment screen with purchase history, service history, and calibration dates, cleanly organizing every asset’s specific information. The Complete Equipment Transaction History feature begins from the time of purchase and tracks each movement of the asset, following location, reason code, start and end date, and order contract, making transaction history easier than ever to follow.
The On Rent dashboard provides any information you need for equipment that is currently on rent. It shows the original equipment cost of on rent assets, as well as what equipment is on rent and where it’s located. You can filter to see where all of a particular type of asset is located, the total number outstanding, and the equipment value. This dashboard provides all the information you need for equipment on rent in an organized and easy to navigate manner.
Equipment management is essential to the success of your business and while it can be difficult, it’s not impossible. By asking key questions, you can ensure that you partner with the right equipment supplier from the start. Once you’ve acquired your assets, use Rental360 to successfully manage your equipment. With a variety of interactive and all-encompassing features, Rental360 provides the tools you need to ensure you seamlessly handle this crucial aspect of your business.
GET “AN EQUIPMENT RENTAL COMPANY’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION THROUGH ERP”
Source: Rental Management, April 2020, “Improving Fleet Management,” pg. 24
Originally Published May 12, 2020. Updated for relevance February 2, 2023.