Choosing the Right Rental Management System: It’s About More Than Software

Choosing a new Rental Management System (RMS) is one of the biggest decisions a hire business can make.

Get it right and it can make life easier for your team, improve visibility across the business, reduce manual processes and give you a platform you can grow with.

Get it wrong and you can spend a lot of time and money simply replacing one set of problems with another.

I've spent years working in the hire industry and then moved into rental software, so I've seen this from both sides. I've been the person using the system every day and I've also been involved in implementing software into hire businesses of all different shapes and sizes.

One thing I've learned is that choosing the right RMS isn't about finding the system with the longest list of features.

It's about finding the right system for your business.

Start With Your Business, Not the Software

Before sitting through demonstrations, take some time to understand how your business actually operates.

It sounds obvious, but this is something I think gets overlooked.

Look at your day-to-day processes. How does an enquiry become a quote and then a contract? How do you allocate equipment? How do you manage transport? What happens when equipment comes back? How are servicing, inspections and repairs managed? How do you invoice and deal with damage?

Then ask your team a really simple question:

Where are we wasting time?

If people are maintaining spreadsheets outside the RMS, entering the same information multiple times, creating workarounds or relying on one person because they're the only one who knows how something works, those are the areas I'd be looking at.

A new RMS shouldn't just recreate everything you already do in a different piece of software.

It's an opportunity to improve the way you work.

Don't Choose Software Based on the Demo

A good software demonstration can make almost any system look impressive.

The salesperson knows exactly where to click. The demonstration database is clean and every workflow works perfectly.

Real hire businesses aren't like that.

Instead of asking a software provider to simply "show us the system", give them real examples from your business.

Something like:

A customer calls at 3pm needing three machines delivered tomorrow morning. One is available at another depot, one needs servicing before it can go out and the third needs to be cross-hired. Show me how your system handles that.

That's going to tell you far more than watching someone create a basic quote.

Give vendors your difficult scenarios, not your easiest ones.

Involve the People Who Actually Use It

Another mistake is making the RMS decision entirely at management level.

Management obviously needs to be involved, but so do the people who are going to use the system every day.

Your hire controllers, workshop teams, transport coordinators, accounts staff, salespeople and depot managers will all look at things differently.

A workshop manager might spot something during a demonstration that your finance manager would never think to ask about.

A hire controller might immediately recognise that a process requiring eight clicks is going to become painful when they're doing it 100 times a day.

You don't need everyone involved in every meeting, but get representatives from the important areas of the business involved.

Think About the Whole Operation

Rental software isn't just about creating contracts and invoices anymore.

A modern RMS can touch almost every part of the business.

Hire Desk → Sales → Transport → Workshop → Finance → Management → Customer

Depending on your operation, that could include transport scheduling, driver apps, workshop management, preventative maintenance, inspections, electronic signatures, customer portals, online payments, reporting, integrations and mobile applications.

You might not need all of that today.

But what about tomorrow?

Where Will Your Business Be in Five Years?

Don't just choose an RMS for the business you have today.

Think about the business you're trying to build.

Are you planning to open more depots? Acquire another hire company? Introduce new product categories? Centralise some of your operations? Give customers more self-service options? Improve your workshop processes?

If you're running three depots today but want to run ten in the future, you need to know whether the system can comfortably support that.

Changing RMS platforms is a big project. Ideally, you don't want to be doing it again in a few years because you've outgrown the system.

Integration Matters

Very few systems operate completely on their own anymore.

Your RMS might need to talk to your accounting platform, ERP, CRM, GPS provider, payment gateway, website or reporting tools.

This is an area where I'd ask plenty of questions.

Does the system have an API? What information can you actually access through it? Is it included or an additional cost? Are integrations real-time? Who supports them when something goes wrong?

And importantly:

Who owns your data and how easily can you access it?

Never assume that because you can see something on the screen, you'll automatically be able to get it through an API or reporting tool.

Ask the question before you buy.

Don't Forget Reporting

Reporting often gets left until quite late in the selection process.

I'd move it much higher up the list.

Think about the information you actually need to run your business.

Fleet utilisation, revenue by asset, revenue by customer, workshop costs, downtime, transport performance, damage, outstanding off-hires, customer profitability and depot performance.

A system can collect huge amounts of data, but that doesn't necessarily mean it makes that information easy to use.

Ask to see the actual reports and dashboards.

Even better, take some of the reports you currently rely on and ask the vendor how they'd produce them.

You're Also Choosing the Implementation Team

This is a big one for me.

You're not just choosing software.

You're choosing the people who are going to help you implement it.

Ask who will actually deliver the project. Find out how data migration works, what you're responsible for, how much training is included, what testing looks like and what happens around go-live.

And ask what happens afterwards.

A great system with a poor implementation can still become a bad project.

The people implementing it need to understand the software, but I also think it makes a massive difference when they understand the hire industry.

Be Prepared to Change

No RMS is going to fix every problem in your business.

Sometimes the software isn't the problem.

Processes might need changing. Data might need cleaning up. Responsibilities might need to be clearer. People might need more training.

And sometimes when someone asks:

"Can the new system work exactly like our old system?"

The answer should probably be:

No.

If you're spending the money and putting your team through the disruption of changing systems, use it as an opportunity to challenge some of the things you've always done.

"We've always done it that way" isn't necessarily a good reason to keep doing it.

Look Beyond the Monthly Price

Cost matters, of course.

But comparing systems purely on the monthly subscription isn't going to give you the full picture.

Look at implementation, migration, training, integrations, reporting, mobile licences, additional modules, support and any custom development you might need.

Then look at what the system could save you.

If you can save time across ten depots every day, what is that worth?

If better workshop processes get equipment serviced and back on hire faster, what is that worth?

If better reporting helps you make better fleet decisions, what is that worth?

The cheapest RMS isn't necessarily the cheapest one to operate.

Speak to Existing Customers

Before making a decision, speak to businesses already using the system.

Ideally, speak to businesses that look a bit like yours.

Don't just ask whether they like it.

Ask what the implementation was really like. What would they do differently? How good is the support? What surprised them? What doesn't the system do particularly well? Were there additional costs they weren't expecting?

And probably the best question:

Would you choose the same system again?

You can learn a lot from that answer.

Why I Think Point of Rental Is a Good Partner

I obviously can't write about choosing an RMS without mentioning Point of Rental.

I work for Point of Rental, so I'm not going to pretend I'm completely independent, but I also spent a long time working in hire before moving into software.

For me, one of the biggest positives with Point of Rental is that they understand hire. Rental isn't just one of a hundred industries they sell software into, it's what they do.

That makes a difference.

When you're talking about things like off-hires, transport, workshop, servicing, cross-hire, damage, utilisation or getting equipment turned around quickly, you're generally talking to people who understand why those things matter.

I've always believed that choosing an RMS is about more than the actual software. You're potentially going to be working with that company for 10 or 15 years, maybe longer, so the relationship matters.

Your business is also going to change during that time.

You might open another depot, acquire another company, introduce a new type of equipment, change your accounting system or decide you want customers doing more online.

What you need from your RMS in five years could look very different from what you need today.

That's where I think Point of Rental is strong. There are different products and tools covering the hire desk, workshop, transport, mobile working, reporting, customer-facing technology and integrations.

You don't have to try and do everything on day one either.

In fact, I think that's often the wrong approach.

Get the important stuff working properly first and then build on it.

The people are also a big part of it for me.

There are plenty of people within Point of Rental who have actually worked in hire businesses. They've sat behind the hire desk, dealt with customers, managed equipment and experienced the everyday problems that come with running a hire operation.

Sometimes that's more valuable than knowing every feature in the software.

A good implementation shouldn't just be someone asking how you currently do something and then configuring the new system to do exactly the same thing.

Sometimes you need someone to ask:

Why do you do it that way?

I've seen plenty of processes over the years that exist simply because they've always been done that way. Changing your RMS is a great opportunity to challenge some of them.

That's not to say Point of Rental will be right for every hire business.

No system is.

If you're looking at Point of Rental, I'd suggest treating them exactly the same as every other supplier you're considering.

Challenge them.

Give them your difficult scenarios. Ask them to show you how the system handles them. Speak to customers who already use it. Ask about implementation, training, support and costs.

Find out what it does well and, just as importantly, where you might need to compromise.

At the end of that process, if Point of Rental is the right fit, I think you're getting more than an RMS.

You're getting a company that knows the hire industry and has the products, people and experience to be a long-term partner.

And for me, that last bit is just as important as the software.

My Biggest Piece of Advice

Don't start the process by asking:

"Which rental software is the best?"

There isn't one answer.

A system that's perfect for a huge multinational rental company might be completely wrong for an independent hire business with three depots.

Instead ask:

"Which system best supports the way we want our business to operate?"

Understand your processes.

Understand your problems.

Understand where you want the business to go.

Then look at the technology.

Changing an RMS isn't easy. You're moving years of data, processes and knowledge into a completely different environment while still trying to run a hire business every day.

So take your time.

Ask difficult questions. Challenge the vendors. Get your team involved. Speak to other hire businesses and don't be afraid to walk away from a system that looks impressive but doesn't feel right for your operation.

The goal isn't to buy the system with the most features.

It's to find the right partner and the right platform for the next stage of your business.