Electronic Document Management in the Rental/Hire business;

Now where did I put that proof of delivery…?

Nick Thomson from MCS Global, highlights the ways that an electronic document management solution can help rental and hire businesses tackle the escalating paperwork mountain and save time and money while improving customer service.

On my travels, I have been impressed with the weird and wonderful ways that hire businesses attempt to keep their contract paperwork straight. Organised chaos often reigns, with haphazard mountains of documents eventually being deposited into large filing cabinets when the pile becomes a health and safety risk!

Rental contracts can encompass many types of document, which all need to be issued and filed with the right contract. These documents include:

damage evidence notes
servicing receipts
specific operating equipment instructions
proof of delivery
specification sheets
training terms
insurance documents
workshop schedules

This vast amount of paperwork, ironically, has an adverse effect on good customer service and efficiency. Think of the depot time wasted and the customer frustration if staff cannot quickly get their hands on a queried proof of delivery (PoD), for instance. This is where adding an electronic document management solution to your rental management software would help…

The last year has seen a significant rise in the adoption of electronic document management solutions in the rental industry. In a nutshell, the software helps you scan, share and store documents electronically relevant to the hire contract.

With the MCS-rm rental management solution, batch scanning lets you quickly, easily and automatically upload your rental documents to the MCS-rm database, so that you can store, share and manage the data contained within documents much more effectively.

Many hire businesses are now reaping the rewards of storing their documents centrally on-line. If you’re currently pondering the ROI of implementing an electronic document management solution, consider how the following benefits would translate into time and cost savings for your business:

Being able to easily – but securely – share documents across multiple depot locations

Having ready access to documents. For example, in answering a customer’s phone query the time taken to file and retrieve documents is typically halved

Signed documents, such as PoD notes, can be sent instantly to a customer, accelerating payment of invoices and leading to better cash flow

Dramatically reduced overheads around buying and storing paper

Expensive storage space, such as filing cabinets and stationery cupboards, freed for other purposes

Electronic document management in itself leads to a better customer experience and is a more environmentally sound way of working. When combined with our Customer Web Portal, it gives customers direct, secure access to all their relevant documents stored online and frees up further time and resources within the hire business.

All things considered, it’s hard to think of a better way to streamline your hire business than implementing electronic document management.