Wynne Systems, Irvine, Calif.-based creator of the Rentalman management system recently expanded its software footprint with rental applications in China and Europe, the company said.

Last month Wynne Systems implemented a software operation for Hertz Equipment Rental Corp., which wanted to be able to display its software with Chinese characters in its new rental operations in China. By incorporating Unicode into its RentalMan software, Wynne has made its software available in any country in the world, the company said.

“Working as a team, HERC and Wynne were able to provide a robust application usable by Chinese- and English-speaking users,” said Michael Stilwagner, vice president of operations for Wynne Systems. “This achievement has opened many doors for both companies. The experience working together in China with HERC helps our companies as we expand our services into Asia. HERC and Wynne have been partners for many successful years and we have every confidence that accomplishments will repeat in China.”

Wynne also announced that Europe’s largest rental company, France-based Loxam has begun a pilot of RentalMan software at its 10 Belgian locations. Its first step is a software pilot, which Stilwagner regards as an absolute must before going live with a system.

“A full-scale pilot will test policy and procedure as much as the applications,” he says. The implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning suite of applications is one of the largest projects a company will undertake. This will force the company to look at itself from top to bottom and challenge the ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it,’ frame of mind. The final test and proof of a successful pilot is that the entire process is looked at closely for its duration. Often there are adjustments to what was thought to be a bullet-proof process.”

The pilot in Loxam’s Belgian locations is scheduled to last two months, after which a companywide rollout will begin, including locations in France, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark.