An independent report from a USA consulting company has now valdiated that statement.

Extract From Constuction Hire: AN INDEPENDENT research report by Tech-Clarity has found that hire equipment owners and dealers need to have centralised, efficient software systems if they are to be competitive in the market.

Tech-Clarity’s report shows businesses that integrate service requirements into their managing software are more effective than those that don’t. read more go click here

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

Construction hire and rental companies, particularly temporary fencing have some unique hire and rental requirements specific to their business sector. Previously many such companies have had to rely on multiple systems to manage their businesses.
Not so any more!

HireEzy v2.1 has been released with all the specific needs of Construction hire and Rental companies, particularly temporary fencing. Such companies need specific functional in addition to normal hire and rental functional requirements.

HireEzy 2.1 includes all standard hire and rental functionality PLUS
1. Estimation tools to support quotes
2. Management of services to support rental or hire solutions
3. The need for staff and contractor management
4. Issuing and tracking of safety data to meet safety requirements
5. Flexible payments and recurrent billing options.

HireEzy is a complete business solution for temporary roofing, scaffolding and fencing hire/ rental companies.

Natural Business Flow

HireEzy is a natural business flow software, part of the next generation of software solutions that are easy to use but also fully integrate with the internet. Natural business flow software follows the natural way businesses operate.

The natural flow in general terms construction rental and hire companies, specifically scaffolding, fencing and roofing rental and hire follows these broad business processes.

1. Market to create leads
2. Quotes supported by simple estimation tools and booking availability.
3. Convert quotes to invoices and confirmed bookings.
4. Manage and allocate materials and labor resources – (either internal or contractor).
5. Delivery, Assemble, Inspect, Dis-Assemble and Collect.
6. Account for the money.
7. Manage existing clients to generate new business.

HireEzy assists you to manage each of these processes with not only the tools you need, but some you may not even have thought of. Each of the processes will now be briefly discussed.

Marketing

The primary purpose of marketing is to create sales leads. HireEzy provides a full range of in-built marketing tools to enable you to produce your own high quality brochures, catalogue, e-mailers and newsletters. Most importantly it enables you to control your own marketing from one location.

Marketing – Integrated Web Option

The internet is now increasing the primary source of lead generation for most businesses. However for it to work for you it must have a high search engine ranking. That is if “scaffolding hire Melbourne” is typed by a prospect, your company web site must appear at a minimum on the first page of listings. It is worth noting, research has shown that prospects will click on a search result (organic result) over a paid ad appearing on the same page.

HireEzy’s web integration option can significantly help here. By integrating your hire or rental catalogue to the web site, any changes you make in the catalogue are published to the web site. Such changes ensure more frequent web site changes. This in turn means a higher search engine ranking, increasing the chances you will appear on the first page.

HireEzy is the only known system in the world to offer this fully integrated functionality – a critical business tool.

Quoting

HireEzy has some simple inbuilt tools to support your quotation process, such as:
1. An inbuilt length estimator,
2. Contractor resource availability,
3. Inventory availability for a given date range, and
4. Discount rate for approved clients

Such tools simplify the quotation process, meaning all information is at your finger tips. Once a quote has been produced, a simple high quality quotation with graphic images can be produced, and emailed to the client or printed and handed to them.

Invoicing

Quotes are turned to invoices with one click. Or allow quotes to be adjusted to reflect any changes in the original quote. Industry payment terms and conditions are included, such as recurring billing for long term rental or hire, part de-hiring of long term rental or hire items, even allows for adjustment of payments for stand down days.

Manage and Allocate Resources

There are primarily two resources you need to manage, your inventory and your staff/ contractors. With HireEzy you can effectively manage both of these key assets.

The inbuilt inventory management tools enable you to manage your inventory purchasing, receipt, maintenance and dispatch to a job. Accurately providing you with real time information on your stock on hand. If you have depots, no problems, HireEzy can manage your inventory at each site.

Your staff and contractors are essential to your service delivery. HireEzy provides the tools to improve your management of your most valuable asset – people.

Like an item, the availability of staff and contractors is managed in HireEzy. Both can advise of leave periods, other jobs etc and these can be added to the system to provide accurate forecasts of availability. Got a new job and want to confirm a contractor availability then just click SMS, and an SMS is sent straight to the contractor with the job details and dates.

Delivery, Assemble, Inspect, Dis-Assemble and Collect

HireEzy comes with the inbuilt transport planning tools to enable you to schedule deliveries and collections, including assigning tasks to drivers and co-drivers such as:

• Assembly/ disassembly tasks,
• Payment collection,
• On-site period inspections, and
• Collections.

It even includes full integration with Google Street maps to provide directions. On site conditions, limitations including access times etc are also included.

Accounting

Most accounting packages rely on data being transferred from business operations. HireEzy accounting package is driven by your hire transactions, saving enormously on double handling of data and the associated risk of errors. For example, creating an invoice in HireEzy immediately creates an Account Receivable record. If you still have other accounting packages then we could provide data export to those systems. HireEzy accounting module has a full range of financial reports needed to run your business. HireEzy accounting module is included with your purchase.

Manage Your Clients

The old adage is that it is 15 times harder to win a new client than to retain an existing client. HireEzy’s inbuilt management tools, such as contact management, newsletter productions and customer discounts etc, ensure that you have the tools at hand to support your on-going client retention.

HireEzy is the ideal solution for temporary roofing, scaffolding and fencing hire/ rental companies who want to grow their business whether in the USA, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom or New Zealand.
If you are interested in more information or an online demonstration then please contact us or book a demo on line at www.makinglifeezy.com.au

About Us

Making Life Ezy developers of HireEzy and AgencyEzy.

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration.

How to Use Social Media Tools

Marketing Problem

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Creating a Digital Marketing Platform

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Marketing via Twitter

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Marketing via Facebook

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Marketing via YouTube

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Marketing via WordPress

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Such associations can often provide useful business advise to Rental and  Hire businesses, especially in times like these.

Amercian Rental Association

Canadian Rental Association

New Zealand Hire and Rental Association

Australia Hire and Rental Association

United Kingdom Construction Rental

European Rental Association

South Africa Contractor & Plant Hire Association

If you know of any more please let us know and we will add them to the list

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

USA Manufacturers Looking to Bring Manufacturing Back from China?
A report published in the Industry News Weekly cites research by Archstone Consulting that over 90% of USA manufacturing companies surveyed are considering bringing back manufacturing from China. The full report, found by clicking either Industry News Weekly or Archstone above is worth reading.

The study revealed that in the last three years, manufacturers have seen a significant increase in costs related to off-shoring manufacturing for export purposes rather than in country demand, which include:

Ocean freight costs have increased 135%,

Chinese manufacturing wages have risen by 44%.

Assuming this trend also applies to Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and United Kingdom manufacturing companies, then it would be reasonable to assume that all countries could benefit from a slight rise in construction activity. Construction activity would be driven by the need to build new factories, adjust or modify existing ones. This is turn will aid the construction hire and rental sectors.

Change in Construction Union Industry Sector Co-operation
Another article recently caught our attention, and it relates in part to the previous section. The USA Iron workers have created a new model called IMPACT. Amongst the many aspects of the model, is the apparent fundamental shift in attitude, that Unions and their members should be the best pushing the bar for increased ironworker performance, productivity, quality and safety.

This change is important not just in the context of the prospects of increased construction activity due to manufacturing returning but also the construction work pipeline arising from the construction sector stimuli packages in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and USA. A more co-operative construction sector benefits everyone, companies, contractors and unions alike.

Any lift in the construction sector will benefit the construction hire and construction rental industry – our clients. News such as both of those cited above are welcomed and are hopefully indicators of a brighter future for all. HireEzy the construction rental and construction hire software of choice.

Margins in the Fencing  rental – Fencing hire sector have been under pressure as sales have declined in recent months with the downturn.

But there are positive prospects on the horizon with construction projects being the major intent of stimulus packages in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

The key question for many is how to reduce operating costs

One area often neglected is to look at doing things more efficiently.  That is cutting out waste from the business operation.  Consider your business, reflect on each area starting with marketing.

How much time do you spend on marketing?

• Things such as preparing brochures,
• Paying for the outside printing costs,
• Updating the web site,
• Paying for the web site to be updated etc.
• Even how much your adwords costs

How long does it take your sales staff to gather the information to prepare a client quote?

• Checking product or solution set availabilities?
• Gathering product information?
• Preparing quotes?
• Enhancing quote appearance?
• Managing sales lead information?
• Converting quotes to sales?
• Providing sales reports on the pipeline and opportunities?

Contractor and Service Staff managing their availabilties, jobs and tasking

• How much clerical and management time is spent managing service staff and contractors?
• How many errors are made when contractors do not confirm jobs?
• How much time is spent contacting contractors about jobs and their availability?

How much time is spent by Accounts double entering Sales Orders, Returns etc

• If your scaffolding hire and rental operations system is not linked to your accounts how much time do you spend double entering data?
• How much time does the finance department spend trying to get sales forecasts as a guide to cashflow?

If answering these questions has provoked your thoughts, then consider this.  HireEzy has been shown to eliminate about 30 % of these costs.  Whilst giving you significant marketing advantages as well.

Want proof or more information, then arrange for an online demonstration of HireEzy, it could save you from making the harder choice of regarding redundancies.  Book a demo on line at www.makinglifeezy.com.au

It could be the best decision you make!

Successful Hire and Rental companies also recognize the importance of other vital relationships such as critical suppliers.

So what is a critical supplier?

A critical supplier is one whose loss to your business or change in business arrangements would have a significant detrimental impact on your service delivery or profitability!

Critical Suppliers can be contractors, service providers, equipment providers or even finance providers.

———————————————-

Managing Critical Suppliers

If you have such critical suppliers, then the next question is how do you manage these relationships now?  And more importantly how do you manage the Supplier Performance?

Like any great relationship communication is the key – but good communication it must be founded in facts (accurate information)

Information

To effectively manage any business relationship and its related performance, you need information.  What information do you need.  Well imagine you were sitting opposite a major critical supplier trying to save the relationship or negotiate a new deal.

You would want to have at your finger tips:

Basic Contact Information: Including the names and roles, contact details for all relevant people within that supplier?  That is you would want to know who you are dealing with in the company.

Previous Communication: You would want to be able to have reviewed all previous communication between your company and the supplier.  Why, because you want to avoid the “you said” ” he said” discussions.  Being able to show actual records of conversations/ meetings, email exchanges even SMS between your staff and theirs, puts you in control of the discussions.

Relationship Value: Finally you would want to have proof of all financial transactions between the company by period.  Even down to which bookings, when and too whom the supplier services were used, including any feedback from customers. Demonstrating actual performance to any contractual performance agreements is essential in ensuring that the discussions remain objective and hence fruitful.

If you agree that this is the esential information you need, then the next question is – do you have ready access to such information now?  Or do you need to go and find all contracts, ask staff for any emails or notes they have on converstaions with the supplier etc.

If your answers to the above questions gave you cause for concern, then consider installing HireEzy.

HireEzy comes with an inbuilt Supplier Relationship Management system, that:

• Captures all related bookings and financial transactions for that Supplier (Automatically);
• Automatically records all emails or SMS  sent to the supplier from your staff;
• Allows notes from meetings, conversations etc to be entered and date time stamped;
• Enables all contracts and agreements to be store, Agreed discount terms;
• Even only allows you to capture all contact information, inc multiple contacts; and
• Even referrals made by Partners, then result in leads are captured.

HireEzy provides you with one place to capture, store, analyze and review all information you need to manage your supplier relationships.

So if you have critical supplier relationships and you dont have a rental software or hire software solution that assists you, then it may be time to consider HireEzy.  The world’s most innovative rental and hire management solution.

To find out more or too book a demo, go to www.makinglifeezy.com.au

HireEzy is available in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Many projects announced in the Stimulus packages had lead times for tendering, design and planning stages, especially the larger projects.

The Hire and Rental industry is critical to the efficient delivery of these projects, as explained in previous post.

In essence the industry is critical because it can efficiently deliver equipment, resources and solutions to the companies delivering the projects with out the need for such delivery companies to use critical cash reserves to purchase equipment.

Stimulus Packages Size and Investment

During the earlier part of 2009, Governments in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada  announced significant local stimulus packages.   A major portion of this investment has been directed towards Infra-Structure projects designed to kick start the construction sector.

The numbers are staggering!!!

Specific details on the USA package

Whilst some major projects in each country will have lag times as the tendering, design and planning stages are processed.   However many of the government initiatives have been directed towards accelerating numerous small projects.

These projects will be small, numerous and dispersed creating a demand on tools and equipment. Construction, Tool, Scaffolding and Temporary Fencing Rental and Hire companies may well be able to benefit from this demand. In order to meet the requirements of numerous competing projects, many construction companies may not be able to efficiently allocate and re-locate in-house tools and equipment.

Hence increasing demand for more construction hire equipment.

A second related issue is that in some countries, banks are forcing property developers to expedite projects or lose their line of credit.  This has had a flow on effect to Town Planning departments, where many are under heavy workloads to meet expedite approvals.

Small Projects Flow On

Some Western Governments have handed our tax incentives or cash hand outs to stimulate demand.  This could contribute to a growth in the home repair and maintenance market. Three factors may potentially contribute to the growth in this segment:

1. Reduced equity in the home due to the fall in house prices will mitigate against many people borrowing against their house value to undertake major projects.
2. Increased disposable cash from tax cuts and interest rate cuts may assist in home owners undertaking minor projects and repairs.
3. The prospect of a greater focus on activities with friends and families, which includes home repair activities, again discussed in the previous post.

If you are considering improving your marketing to these segments Construction, Tool and Temporary Fencing then using HireEzy’s ( hire software, hire management software) inbuilt marketing tools will aid you substantially. For more information go to www.makinglifeezy.com.au