Rental use for new Lawson software

Lawson Software has released its Equipment Service Management & Rental package, a version from its M3 ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite. The new software targets equipment dealers to help them improve customer service and profitability throughout the entire life of every rental item, said the US-based company.

The new package "...helps dealers improve the efficiency of after-sales service...by helping ensure the right parts, tools, and service engineers are available when and where needed," said Lawson. It integrates back across supply chains to manufacturers, as well as improves integration across dealer sales, finance, service, warranty and rental functions.

The software allows more effective management of equipment availability, allocation, delivery, and returns to better schedule maintenance and increase utilization. It also measures profitability throughout item lifetimes by automatically capturing usage rates and downtime effects.

Julian Archer, global industry marketing director for Lawson, told IRN that the software tracks every cost charged against an equipment item and can aggregate costs by equipment type and model and by time period. The result: owners can easily and accurately see performance of their assets.

"The drag and drop features of the interface make it much easier and faster to use," said Mr Archer. "It also has a new customer service desk interface feature that displays on one screen related information from several modules."

Caterpillar dealer Finning International is a pilot customer for the new system. Jeff Leigh, vice president of business processes and systems said, "Equipment dealers operate so differently from almost any other business, so for Lawson to design a package just for our industry provides a great opportunity to increase profitability and deliver outstanding customer service more efficiently.

"It's all about visibility, from understanding total cost per hour per machine, to developing the right preventive maintenance schedule for each piece of equipment, to being able to quickly get the right warranty information. It simply helps us be more proactive in managing our business."