As more businesses realize that owning equipment only to keep it in storage is a waste of revenue and space, the equipment rental sector across industries is booming. CNBC reported that in construction alone, the rental market rakes in around $40 billion per year, while Rental Equipment Register noted that that the Rental Sentiment Index indicated that it's a great environment for growth. The bottom line is that these firms need to support their expansion with new technologies, and in that regard, the equipment rental industry is a perfect candidate for mobile app-enabled productivity.

Mobility and equipment rental just go together. These businesses rely on field workers to track tools and machinery, to perform safety and quality inspections, and to collect financial information. However, with traditional methods for gathering data, employees only bring this information back to headquarters once or twice a day, and this means that administrators lack visibility into events, let alone the ability to collect data in real time. And those are just a few of the hundreds of use cases for mobile app-based workflows, and thanks to new mobile device capabilities such as RFID and NFC scanning and reading, there are hundreds more that could be listed. In fact, mobile capabilities have the power to reduce daily sales outstandings (DSOs), as employees scan RFIDs, collect photographs of signatures, making mobility more than just a productivity play.

Variety and volume of apps
The problem is that there isn't an app for that – or at least a particular one that addresses many different equipment rental needs. There aren't any mobile apps that cater to the industry at all, and that's because one mobile app won't ensure productivity gains across organizations. Instead of buying specific mobile apps, these businesses can embrace enterprise mobility with mobile app development platforms. In that regard, Mobilengine is the absolute best solution for equipment rental companies.

Using paper in the equipment rental sector is an outdated practice, and it needs to end.

Having already demonstrated the value of Mobilengine in other industries – partners and customers include enterprises such as 3M, T-Systems, McGee and many more – businesses in the equipment rental industry know they can depend on Mobilengine's platform and backend-as-a-service solutions for rapid mobile app development and support of those mobile workflow solutions at scale.

Develop at scale, with speed and for any task
Instead of developing dozens of mobile apps for a variety of jobs, equipment rental companies can use the Mobilengine MADP to customize workflows based on business needs, corporate requirements and employee demands. These firms only need to adapt around 10 percent of a workflows code to create a unique and empowering mobile productivity app and to connect that app to existing IT systems. Any task can have a mobile solution, and Mobilengine enables that possibility by providing tools to easily develop and integrate mobile apps. Furthermore, Mobilengine lives in the cloud, allowing equipment rental businesses to scale backend systems without breaking the bank or hiring infrastructure experts.

The key to mobility in the equipment rental industry is to support every in-the-field task with a mobile workflow solution, and other mobile app development tools and platforms just don't provide the easy-to-develop capabilities that Mobilengine offers. Therefore, these businesses have a simple choice to make when looking to empower their employees with native mobile apps: Mobilengine.

Adam Dalnoki, Mobilengine’s CEO, brings IT and telecommunications expertise as an ex BCG consultant. He made a previous exit in a mobile payment start up and has held sales executive positions at Provimi and Kraft Foods.

Enterprise mobility quickly evolved from an optional advantage to an absolute necessity, especially in the logistics sector. While trucking and transport companies weren’t particularly on board with providing drivers, facility managers and service technicians with mobile devices, the results of arming employees with proof of delivery apps, turn-by-turn navigation apps and vehicle inspection apps were overwhelming. All of a sudden, whole logistics organizations became dramatically more productive, safer and valuable on the market.

However, not all businesses in the logistics industry leveraged mobility in the right way. As Apps Tech News reported, organizations that simply port enterprise resource planning software or other solutions to mobile devices aren’t solving problems with mobility – instead they’re just making tasks mobile. According to the source, that is the primary reason why 71 percent of mobile projects only deliver “average or poor” returns on investment.

Rather than using desktop software on a mobile device, logistics firms need to deploy specific apps for workflows, ensuring that drivers and managers can send reports back to headquarters from the road or quickly inspect a vehicle.

What else should trucking, transport and logistics companies look for in enterprise mobility solutions and mobile workflow apps? Here are a few aspects of mobility that these firms should demand from their mobile apps.

Usability
At the end of the day, regardless of anything else, employees need to find mobile apps useful, as well as be able to use them with ease and minimal frustration. This means that the app must solve a specific problem, and it must also introduce a path of least resistance.

Managing logistics with complex, non-native apps creates headaches.

So, rather than developing a mobile app that does everything, logistics firms should choose mobile app development platforms that provide a loose framework on which any workflow can be applied. This ensures that managers have a tool specifically for them, such as a freight task management app. The same goes for drivers who will demand damage report apps that make that process simpler, not introduce a whole different level of accountability.

Integration
If mobile apps live alone in silos, this makes data collection, information sharing and collaboration much more difficult than it should be. Instead of porting an ERP to a mobile device, logistics firms should create proof of delivery apps and others that integrate with corporate platforms and software. This guarantees that mobile apps are put to good use, but it also ensures that administrators back at headquarters get to experience the productivity benefits of mobile solutions – they won’t have to manually file paperwork or enter data ever again.

Features and capabilities
Logistics firms need mobile apps that support the wide range of technologies at their disposal, especially with the Internet of Things on the tech horizon. Simply put, mobile apps should be able to scan and read NFC and RFID chips, as well as allow employees to insert photographs of documents, objects or barcodes. This removes many steps in the data collection process, guaranteeing productivity gains.

Developer Tech highlighted the story of a team on the road which could authenticate account information by scanning a serial number with a smartphone camera. According to the source, that business’s employees became more efficient and productive as a result.

Offline support
It’s rare in the modern era to not have Internet connectivity, but the best logistics firms are always prepared. After all, if a mobile app doesn’t support offline productivity, it’s essentially useless in certain locations.

With offline support, employees can enter data wherever they don’t have Internet access, and that information will upload automatically. This ensures that employees are always working and are always able to complete their job.

Logistics firms will have a hard time finding mobile apps that support all these capabilities, which is why development platforms have become the coin of the mobility realm in recent years. Solutions such as Mobilengine meet these demands and more, making it the MADP of choice for logistics companies.

Adam Dalnoki, Mobilengine’s CEO, brings IT and telecommunications expertise as an ex BCG consultant. He made a previous exit in a mobile payment start up and has held sales executive positions at Provimi and Kraft Foods.

The trucking and logistics industry has a revenue problem, and mobile workflow apps can solve it.

Hi, and welcome to the Mobilengine video blog!

When logistics companies think about mobility and providing their drivers with smartphones, productivity is often the first thing that comes to mind. However, the benefits of mobile workflow apps go far beyond efficiency improvements.

In fact, smartphones paired with proof of delivery apps can help logistics companies collect payments faster after successful delivery. Truck drivers just need to photograph any required documents, gather signatures via the touch-screen interface and send them immediately back to headquarters.

In an industry where companies usually wait between six and eight weeks to collect payments on deliveries, same-day invoicing and proof of delivery is revolutionary.

It all starts with a reliable mobile workflow app solution, and if same-day invoicing sounds intriguing to you, stick with Mobilengine for more mobility news, tips and facts!

Adam Dalnoki, Mobilengine’s CEO, brings IT and telecommunications expertise as an ex BCG consultant. He made a previous exit in a mobile payment start up and has held sales executive positions at Provimi and Kraft Foods.