In order to manage efficiently, it is essential to see down to the microscopic level of the business. Many construction companies believe they have this data while using spreadsheets, forms and other various ways of storing numbers. However, without inventory or rental management software, you're left looking at your business through a cheap magnifying glass that isn't going to yield the insight you need for effective business decisions.
Without accurate and comparable data, these businesses are left making blind decisions when all the answers are right in front of them. “What was your utilization of your excavators last month? When was the last time you maintained the scissor lift and when is it due for its next maintenance? Who's the last manager who used it?” While some of this data may be stored somewhere, it can still take hours of time to find and compute the data.
Construction companies don't naturally think of rental software for their needs; after all, they aren't renting anything. However, rental management software automatically captures the data construction companies need to accurately and efficiently manage their equipment. In the rental industry, profit is all about utilization — every time you can rent a machine, you're increasing your bottom line. Utilization is a key component of profit in a construction company, too, but in construction, you're focused on decreasing expenses.
Many construction companies have fleets larger than the largest rental stores; information such as utilization, GPS tracking, automatic reading of hour meters, and notifications of maintenance due is essential to maintaining that fleet in the most efficient manner.
Simply put, if you have a piece of equipment on a job site, not being used, it's costing you money. On another job site, a manager may be looking to buy or rent the same piece of equipment. If the company knows it has the equipment that manager needs available over on the first site, they can save themselves the expense of buying or renting unnecessary equipment.
Poor management can cost more than time and money, too — it can cost you your equipment. The National Equipment Register reports that $300 million to $1 billion worth of equipment was stolen from job sites last year. With GPS integration and tracking available in your rental management software, you can see where vehicles are at all times. With other integrations, you can remotely lock or unlock, start or stop a vehicle, and even set up geofences to kill an engine if your equipment goes outside a certain location.
Rental software also puts you ahead of the game if you decide that you're going to diversify your business. If down the road, perhaps you want to rent out unused equipment to increase your income, the software is already configured to help you schedule and process those reservations and contracts as well.
Wrangling relevant data is the hard part of running a business. On a spreadsheet, you don't have data — you just have lines on a spreadsheet. It doesn't tell you if the equipment is being used or if someone has moved it, but rental and inventory software captures all of this data and makes it accessible to you for accurate job costing. When you're asking yourself, “How much did we spend on this project?” you can have answers in seconds from one of thousands of customized reports within the software.
And when you have your information within seconds, you're able to put more time into making the key decisions that will help your company grow. Isn't it time you got the most out of your business?
Point of Rental Software will partner with SmartEquip at the ConExpo-Con/AGG conference on March 7 to 11, 2017, at booth number S61706. To reserve a spot, use promo code e7e69c at http://www.conexpoconagg.com to save $100 off your registration.
About Point of Rental Inc.
Named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America, Point of Rental Software provides smart, scalable rental and inventory management software to more than 4,700 business locations of all sizes and industries. With offices in the UK, United States, and Australia, Point of Rental offers the global rental and hire industry customer support and products designed to streamline operations.
For more information, call 1-800/944-7368, or visit pointofrental.com.
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