Patrice Boivin, CEO, Orion Software talks with RER about business intelligence, shopping carts, user interfaces and more.
RER: What have been the most important new developments in your software in recent times?
Boivin: We launched a complete business intelligence that includes multiple performance indicators to manage your rental operations, and an amazing Utilization White Board to increase equipment usage. The White Board highlights the potential improvements that can be done, like finding equipment that is available or getting equipment on a contract faster. Salesmen can also use it to build a quote with simple clicks and the dispatch manager can assign a unit to a reservation in seconds. It’s a real new approach to improve utilization.
What are likely to be the most important new developments in your software in the foreseeable future?
We are working on two fronts: First, the same portal that customers are using is also used by the salesmen with more user rights. The user interface is extremely intuitive and visual. They can send a quote to their customers in a few seconds. Second, salesmen will have access to the next generation of Rental CRM, with a complete set of features centered around construction sites and the recurring nature of the rental business.
The past couple of years we heard a lot about rental companies adopting e-commerce as a far more important part of their business and software manufacturers are offering more capabilities. Enhanced customer portals have been a big part of it as well. Now that people are returning back to more “normal” lifestyles and work methods, are e-commerce and enhanced customer portals continuing to be just as popular?
At Orion Software, we offer a shopping cart that can be set up in less than two hours, it uses the latest technology that allows to fully integrate it to our core software. It’s actually the same system on a web page and a mobile app. It is also very easy to integrate into an existing web site, while keeping the search optimization. For rental companies looking to have a presence online, it’s also a very powerful transactional portal that matches any of the best portals offered by the largest rental companies. Today’s younger generation entrepreneurs want to use the power of their mobile device to manage rental operations in a paperless environment. The key trend is having access to information at any given time.
Rental companies are now receiving a lot of data through telematics communications. How is your software helping rental companies to process and most effectively utilize this information?
Sirius e integrates with three different GPS systems to track the units and the equipment events and meters. We use it to update the meters in our application to invoice customers extra charges, to report maintenance due, and to locate the equipment on the map within Sirius e and on the Web portal. So, customers can themselves locate their equipment on their construction sites. All events are captured and made available to the users, to analyze the usage of the equipment when a problem occurs. Our Shopping Cart even uses the GPS location to locate the closest unit on the map, like a taxi mobile app. The system locates your position and offers you to reserve the closest one. We use that function in construction companies offering pick-up truck rental to their employees.
How does your software help sales staff and service personnel on the road?
The delivery staff and the service technicians are using the mobile app to get their agenda, pickup equipment, get the route plan, take pictures, confirm inspections and get customer signature. Sirius e gets the real time GPS position on the map for the dispatch manager to quickly assign new tasks during the day, based on their position. We also send notifications and an App to follow the truck in real time on the road to the end customers. The goal is to improve the quality of delivery and keep the customers constantly up to date.
What are some of your long-range thoughts about where software is going a few years down the road?
Software will be more mobile and working on any devices. The technology to offer good user experience on a web-based system is getting better every year. At Orion Software, we are transitioning users to a web-based interface with the same functions that they have in the core Sirius e. That’s the advantage of a modern well-designed platform. There is no need to develop a new application. It’s simply a new user interface!
