Mississauga, ON -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/14/2011 -- According to Grant Skinner, vice president of Equip-Soft, “Rental equipment firms must manage their operations through complete management of short term and long term rentals, consolidated fleet management, instant availability of rentable equipment, easy setup of rental contracts and complete integration with fixed assets and service management. For efficiencies it is also important that technology solutions for rental equipment firms provide easy handling of re-rents, exchanges, and returns.”

Manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler recently profiled Equip-Soft in the current issue of Business Excellence. According to Cutler, “Equipment rental dealers need technology solutions to manage their fleet, their customers and their supply chains. When a customer calls an equipment rental company, nothing is more important than the ability to provide accurate information regarding availability and scheduling. It is equally critical to manage effectively the utilization of the rental fleet in order to maintain profitability.”

Equipment dealers and distributors realize the increasingly competitive nature of their business, making it far more difficult to differentiate from other dealers. Many equipment distributors are looking to improve their bottom line through improved business efficiency; specifically, finding better ways to deal with vendors. Others are looking to grow their business by adopting additional product lines, or new geographies. Equipment rentals cross many different industries including material handling, agricultural equipment, pumps, power generation, office automation, construction equipment, medical equipment, audio visual equipment, electronic payment devices and likely many more you could name yourself.

The key issue with fleet maintenance is keeping an optimum sized fleet of assets running at the lowest possible cost for any given customer. Accurate up to date information about fleet operations and utilization provides a control mechanism for fleet costs as well as simplifying fleet maintenance. Ultimately, technology solutions must provide a deep understanding of fleet usage/utilization while minimizing or even eliminating paper work, a fundamental lean process.

Selling a piece of equipment must be made less complicated in part by avoiding duplicate data entry. Real-time, accurate information regarding contacts allows for better decisions. “With the right technology solutions, equipment rental and sales professionals are able to effectively work with customers and prospects through opportunity management, campaign management, new equipment sales, as well as industry specific equipment configurators,” said Skinner.

The complete article can be read at http://www.bus-ex.com/article/supply-chain-technology.

Equip-Soft (http://www.equip-soft.com) helps equipment distributors manage growth and improve efficiencies through its rentals, service, sales, parts, and fleet management software. Equip-Soft aligns the best technology with the best business processes. From fleets to forklifts and trucks to power generators, Equip-Soft’s Dealer Management Systems (DMS) allow companies to lower the price point, integrate accounting with core fundamentals, achieve cost-savings, while permitting scalability for future growth. Equipment distributors with a sales force, field technicians, providing supplies parts and short-term rentals, require better ways to monitor, manage, and maintain data. Continuous improvement is a central principle with Equip-Soft; customers gain access to a product roadmap and upgrade path that allows them to find and make improvements in their businesses long after the initial implementation.

Partnering with Microsoft Dynamics means that all the benefits of working with an Industry specific software provider, with the backing of the largest provider of business software in the world.

Equip-Soft
http://www.equip-soft.com
Michelene Maguire
pr@equip-soft.com
905.361.2841