“An ERP solution has to fulfill several key prerequisites if you want to tap its true cost-cutting potential," says Frank Jakobi from the Sycor Executive Board. First, the solution should allow for international use across a company’s sites. If it is scaleable, it can also be used to map the future growth of the company. The ERP solution will be an extremely safe investment if the software vendor has a roadmap for providing long-term support and upgrades. “And if the solution is also fully integrated and industry-specific, i.e., if it perfectly maps all the relevant processes in your company, it will enable you to cut costs,” Frank Jakobi continues. “As an equally crucial factor, the ERP solution must provide functions that allow you to optimize revenues.”

Sycor Rental does all this and more. It is the perfect industry solution for rental of mobile goods, combining all the advantages of the industry standard Microsoft Dynamics AX software with Sycor’s industry expertise. The Microsoft Dynamics AX platform can be easily integrated into existing IT landscapes and offers global availability, scalability and configurability. Thanks to Sycor’s process know-how and industry expertise, the ERP solution covers all processes involved in both individual and bulk rental of mobile goods.

Frank Jakobi: “Sycor Rental gives you control of the entire rental process, from customer inquiries, materials planning for rental goods, transportation to and from the customer's location right through to maintenance and billing. It also features a fully integrated finance management module—for financial, asset and cost accounting—and a unique business analysis module.” Since all functions access the same database, employees enjoy faster access to rental goods data and customer data in real time at all locations. The fully integrated solution lowers costs by eliminating the need for repeatedly updating and maintaining data.

Tools developed by Sycor depict processes graphically and provide complete access to all the data necessary for an effective workflow with faster processing times. Features such as the quick entry screen make creating orders and quotes faster, more convenient and ultimately more cost-effective. It features an integrated filter function that makes it easier to find customers who have already been created in the system.

Sycor Rental allows businesses to realize cost-cutting potential in yet another area. The solution lets users know where and when rental goods are available for all locations in real time through a combination of efficient inventory management and clear materials planning. For one, this means that there are never more rental goods in the warehouse than absolutely necessary. The result is an optimized inventory of stocks, which means less capital commitment. Secondly, thanks to better access to information and a perfect overview, customer orders no longer have to be refused unnecessarily or satisfied through expensive third-party rentals or by renting larger equipment than necessary. This not only cuts costs dramatically, it also boosts sales. Since rental goods can also be moved between locations and construction sites, empty trips are eliminated. Frank Jakobi adds, “The full benefits of the solution really begin to unfold when the integrated shipping module is used. It supports specialized components by PTV AG (map&guide) that allow you to plan the best route for delivery and return shipment of rental goods. This minimizes shipping costs. And better delivery reliability means a dramatic increase in customer satisfaction.”

The built-in shop floor module for processing maintenance and service increases customer satisfaction in yet another way: Rental equipment is not only delivered to the right place at the right time, it also performs reliably. The direct result is more customer loyalty and a steady increase in order numbers and sales figures.