Equipment suppliers need organization and reliable data management systems to operate successfully. In a space with a constant influx of price changes, part supply, quality valuations, repairs, equipment tracking, and administration costs, reliable digital systems are invaluable.
The American Rental Association (ARA) reports that equipment rental demand will grow by 9.68% in 2022 to hit a revenue of $52.5 billion. The industry is expanding because more original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) realize the potential for digital systems.
This article explores the trends in the rental equipment space and shows you how Infor M3 offers a fitting solution to the challenges rental companies and OEMs face in 2022.
Key trends in the rental equipment industry
The equipment industry comprises OEMs and their suppliers. Many companies in this market are family-owned and risk-averse. There has been a global shift toward rental in recent years, with fewer companies keen to purchase equipment. Let’s consider some of the key trends in the rental equipment industry that are driving the change:
High consumer expectations
In manufacturing, the end-users demand immediate consumer-grade service. They aren’t prepared to hold spare part stocks and would much rather get the finished products in a quick, efficient way.
High maintenance for OEMs
For the OEM, equipment management is becoming a more significant challenge. You need reliable data for a customer’s complete service order history, so you can understand the equipment, maintenance, parts, and inventory each customer uses.
Stringent regulatory guidelines
Many OEMs operate with global production facilities and run global supply chains to serve international markets. It’s increasingly challenging to maintain fast delivery times and stay within budget when dealing with tightening regulatory and compliance requirements. You face added cost, complexity, and risk with every new market.
Aftermarket is no afterthought
OEMs must spend a lot to offer an aftermarket service. However, they can offset this cost by pivoting to serve as a profit center. In doing so, this will help OEMs gain high margin revenue and also add value to the end customer. The increasing significance of aftermarket paves the way for flexible pricing and profit maintenance on service packs. There will also be differing KPI management for service over manufacturing.
Digital transformation is in full flow
Digital is positively changing industry attitudes to technology. More companies now see the potential for growth and sustainable competitiveness that technology presents, and so there is an increase in new product and service innovation. Many companies are replacing disparate, legacy systems in favor of integrated, centralized infrastructure.
Equipment dealers are not entirely in control
Many equipment dealer companies are fully or partially privately owned. Also, equipment companies tend not to be sophisticated ERP buyers or users. As a result, many owners don’t fully understand the value of integration. When it comes to investing in company growth, they opt for best-in-class solutions or quick fixes instead of identifying the root cause issues.
How does Infor help equipment rental suppliers?
Today, Infor M3 is widely used by the largest rental equipment companies in the world. This ERP solution is ideal for the sale, service, and rental of vehicles and equipment. It is a powerful application that provides powerful analytics and resource management that streamline your business operations. Let’s see how it impacts the key stakeholders in manufacturing and the rental equipment markets:
- OEMs: A critical tenet of successful rental equipment management is the ability to have seamless integration between your financial system of record and the OEM systems you use. With this integration, you can harmonize inventory levels and customer data to simplify a vast array of activities, such as stock control, pricing, and parts re-ordering.
- Dealers: Infor Equipment gives users greater visibility into their customer’s equipment needs. They can track sales, leases, and service usage and make accurate predictions about the demand for future service and parts requirements.
- Rental: Infor Equipment helps connect all departments and branches with a scalable business system. Rental equipment companies will have improved visibility over equipment, customers, processes, and finance.
How Infor helps with industry-specific challenges
Managing equipment throughout its lifecycle requires data synchronization across several digital tools. Thankfully, Infor can integrate with multiple business applications:
- Dealer Management Systems: If you employ dealer management tools to organize equipment inventory, Infor will help administrate each of these tasks, allowing you to maximize profits, control stock, and make data-driven inventory decisions in real-time.
- Job Shop Management: Infor gives you complete visibility and control of digital systems that handle job production, optimizing aspects such as production scheduling, quote follow-up, projected late deliveries, or bottlenecked work centers.
- Rental-Specific Solutions: Equipment rentals involve a wealth of paperwork, and you use specific business solutions to control such administrative tasks. Infor integrates those rental-specific tasks, managing all asset-related information such as purchase orders, requisitions, fleet planning, authorizations, and warranties.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): CRM tools help drive leads and improve any customer-focused operations. When connected with Infor, you get a complete view of all customer interactions, helping locate where you can best serve high-priority clients.
In short, Infor M3 optimizes business processes used for equipment supply and rental services, overseeing all aspects of the equipment lifecycle from “cradle to grave.”
How Doppio can help support your rental equipment system integrations
Integrating Infor with your existing tech stack can turn into a time-consuming and complex task. At Doppio, we have the Infor experience and expertise to provide tailor-made support to our rental equipment companies.
As your technical partner, we can build your rental equipment integrations to meet your needs, so you can continue to drive profitability throughout the lifecycle of each piece of equipment you make, move or maintain.
Here’s how we can help:
Improve communications with OEMs
We help you build interfaces that simplify and enhance your communications with OEMs. With the integration in place, you can pass data back to the manufacturers without a hitch.
Rudd is an equipment distributor in Corbin, Kentucky. It had a Rolodex of 1600 suppliers and needed to migrate its customer base from on-premise solutions into Infor M3 multi-tenant. We helped Rudd automate their end-to-end business processes, making it easy to work with any supplier.
Accelerate troubleshooting
ERP and OEM dashboards give you clarity and context when reviewing your inventory and order pipeline. As you share all inventory data, order requests, and order fulfillment information in real-time, you can get quicker at detecting any potential disruptions or identifying opportunities.
Optimize supply chain efficiency
With our guidance, you can use these interfaces to find an equilibrium between demand and supply. As you strike a balance, you can also mitigate supply chain bottlenecks—which have been a significant issue during the pandemic. A better overview and expert advice will help prevent the problem of stockpiling parts in one geographical location when there is a dramatic shortage in another region.
Build connections with international supply chains
Doppio supports the largest Caterpillar dealers in Canada and the Middle East, including Finning. The company used an older version of Infor M3, which meant all systems needed constant customizations.
Doppio has handled multiple Infor M3 modifications to develop a customized support program that ensures Finning has no business operation downtimes.
Our OEM network includes many leading manufacturers and shippers, including Ahern and Custom Truck, and others with complex systems integration use cases. Our dedicated professionals can facilitate connections with these companies to help you grow and manage your supply chain.
Wrap Up
As an equipment supplier, you need simple and efficient systems that can organize the many aspects involved with rentals. Rental equipment companies can use Infor M3 to bring order and control to internal processes and maximize the efficiency of their equipment utilization.
When you customize this software with industry-specific functionalities, it gives you a holistic overview of your entire inventory. You can optimize the asset lifecycle, manage equipment and parts availability, and prepare for previously unforeseen rental challenges.
Get in touch with Doppio by filling out this contact form to help us learn more about your rental equipment needs.
