Automation
Rental Management can automatically create service tasks to indicate that work needs to be performed. The following basic rental processes can be supported:
Using Mobility in Equipment Rental
09 Sep, 2019
Robust Mobile Accessibility is Critical to Ensure an Optimized Rental Process
Equipment rental companies play an important role in nearly all supply chains as they promptly and flexibly respond to customer needs, providing temporary solutions that contribute to the success of their clients. Most successful rental companies have a strong focus on operational excellence through optimization of their rental processes where robust mobile accessibility becomes more and more critical in ensuring an optimized rental process. Profitability can be achieved by improving revenue but also by decreasing operational costs.
When working with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management and Rental Management with Service Management and Mobile Field Service, your rental staff is able to perform tasks on mobile devices and be more efficient. This functionality enables you to further leverage mobile functionality and optimize your rental processes.
Purchase order
A service task is created after posting the product receipt to assure an optimum availability of rental items
Pre-Rental
A service task is created after updating a picking list or posting a packing slip to ensure rental equipment meets the requirements of the customer
Post-Rental
A service task is created after performing a check-in note to gather all the needed information like meter values, damage reports, or a need to take pictures.
Stock to Rental Asset
A service task is created when a stock to rental asset journal is posted assuring an optimum quality of the rental fleet
Flexible setups
Setup determines the kind of service tasks that are created. An example would be the combination of a call type and event code, giving the possibility to determine the estimated duration of a service task and if any items need to be consumed during the performing of this task. With rental parameters, one can easily activate or deactivate the automatic task creation and applicable work order type that is selected.
To ensure an efficient way of creating service tasks, it is possible to determine per object type if tasks need to be created automatically. Per service object type, a link can be made between the object and the event code. When, for example, the event code pre-rental is selected on the object type, and that object is rented to a customer, Rental Management will automatically create a service task to perform this activity. When a back-office user performs one of the pre-defined processes, Rental Management will automatically notify that a service task is created to the user. All service tasks are visible in the ‘All service tasks’ overview and a service task can be assigned to an individual user or a group of users.
Mobile availability
Mobile Field Service enables rental information to be made available on any mobile device. The solution is responsive, automatically resizing to fit the screen of the device used, and allows the user to use any device like tablets, smartphones, or laptops of platforms like Android, iOS or Windows. After completing the planning process in the back office and allocating the right resource to the job in Rental management, the service tasks are sent to the mobile device of the service engineer and will appear in a to-do list.
Mobile Field Service is also equipped with on and offline capabilities. Once a rental employee logs on to his mobile device, an overview is shown of the activities that need to be performed while all entered information on the mobile device is stored in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain management. Hours and items are visible on the service task line and pictures, signatures or relevant documents are stored as attachments to the service task. If the service engineer is online, real-time updates are sent to the back office, keeping the service planner up to date.
Capabilities that are included with Field Service
- Combining back-office status and mobile field service status to determine whether a service engineer is still traveling or has arrived on-site
- Registering hours and items on mobile devices and synchronizing them to your ERP, in real-time or when reconnecting to a network
- Questionnaires such as checklists or inspection lists that can be set mandatory to complete
- Collecting digital signatures that are saved as an attachment of the service task
With Rental Management, we offer enhanced capabilities to meet rental industry requirements. Combined with key-rental functionality in Mobile Field Service, available on or offline, engineers can view service tasks, navigate to a customer location, or add materials and return hours using any mobile device. Service engineers have direct access to all the relevant information they need, directly available within Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, to perform their job well.
