18
ACCESS, LIFT&HANDLERS
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2015
New developments
EugenRuss, CEO of Erento, says it is up to
rental companies to definewhether the Internet
is an opportunity or a threat.
“However,more business-heavy rental
sectors like tools,machinery ormedical
equipment are now seeingmore andmore of
their business coming through the Internet,”
Russ says. “This change constitutes a unique
opportunity for rental businesses.”
Russ highlights increased visibility and
customer reach as key opportunities – andnot
just for the larger players on themarket.
“The Internet is an additional sales and
marketing channel that allows even small
companieswith a small budget to advertise
their products and services effectively,” he
says. “Rental platforms like Erento provide
a level playing field for all companies. Even
the smallest, family run companies cannow
compete directlywith the bigplayers.
“This is because the Internet has a true
democratizing effect and is greatly transparent:
good customer service andproduct quality
are key.”
Erento is one ofmany online resources
targeting the rental industry – an arenawhich
has seenmany start-ups launched in recent
time, all jostling for space togetherwith the
well-known andwell-established equipment
auction sites like IronPlanet andRitchieBros.
Here are some examples of the latest launches:
Companies andwhat they say
Equippo.com
Equippo is an online used equipment
market designed to link sellers of used
L
arge rental companies have longbeen
early adopters of rentalmanagement and
price optimization software, but now the
reach of this technology is spreading further into
the industry.
“Companies [across] theworld and smaller
businesses are looking at the benefits,” says
HossamZaki, vice president of pricing science
at software developer Zilliant.
The company is launching a new software
program–MarginMaxRamp– that specifically
targets smaller rental companies to incorporate
the company’sRational Pricing approach. It
has beendesigned to improve utilization and
revenues, andbetter aligns rateswithmarket
and customer relationshipdynamics.
“There is a niche for small- tomedium-sized
rental companies, andwe think theMarginMax
Ramp software is a good stepping stone to
the full MarginMax package, which ismore
elaborate and sophisticated,” Zaki says.
“Whilewewereworking onprevious rental
engagementswe found that a lot of those
smaller companies haddiscountingpricing
mechanisms embedded in their invoicing that
were not obvious for the sales reps or for the
customers.
“The concept that we hadwas to create
reasonable, rational, persuasive, transparent and
rationale pricing–bringing out all the possible
discounts, andpresenting these upfront, not
hidden in invoicing systems. The ideawas also
to influence behavior – customerswould know
exactly howmuch of a discount theywouldget
for renting for longer.”
The company has seengood results including
increasing rental durations and revenues over a
three-month testingphase, involving comparing
a control set of rental companieswith a set
running the new software.
Users can tweak parameters offline and only
go to the fieldwith a pricing scenario they are
content with. They can also provide feedback
in to the software andmake adjustmentswhen
parameters change.
“The end result is that customers can trust the
price that they’re getting– all the reasons are
available to everybody. I thinkwe aremoving
the needle on total guess-work pricing tomore
data-driven rationalized science.Many small-
to-medium sized companies don’t have the time
ormoney to invest inpricing teams on the same
scale as the larger companies, so this software
canhelp them automate these systems.”
Internet opportunities?
SOFTWARE AND TECHNOLOGY
Softwarehas redefined rental
business –
frombigand small.
Lindsey Anderson
and
HelenWright
report.
