Ramirent starts pilot study with SmartEquip

Ramirent is to run a pilot trial of SmartEquip’s eCommerce platform at six of its depots in Sweden, with the prospect of a country-wide and company-wide roll-out after that.

It is SmartEquip’s first significant deal in Europe following the recent creation of its international division, led by company founder Alex Schuessler.

SmartEquip’s IT system connects fleet owners and equipment suppliers via an eCommerce platform that helps increase the efficiency of parts ordering, service management and general procurement. It is widely used in North America.

“The [Ramirent contract] is our gateway to Europe, “ said Dr Schuessler, who told IRN that the pilot study – signed in January - will take around three to four months. “Ramirent visited a lot of US based users and spent a lot of in-depth time with them, and with suppliers in the network. Their management have a mindset that is very metrics driven.”

Dr Schuessler said SmartEquip was talking to other large rental players in Europe as well as rental suppliers in the region. He said many of the big European suppliers were already members of the SmartEquip network in North America and that adding their European operations would not be a major task. SmartEquip also aims to sign-up additional small and mid-sized European suppliers.

The US company believes its eCommerce system has the potential to eliminate a major source of complexity in procurement in Europe, where subsidiaries in different European countries source equipment from a variety of dealers or directly from the manufacturer.

Dr Schuessler said its system will be able to incorporate a “suppliers rules table”, thereby “taking away an enormous amount of complication” from procurement.

Ramirent is studying SmartEquip’s full version, covering not just spare parts for its fleet but also its entire procurement operation, including things like stationary and other non-equipment supplies.