E Commerce US Rental Experience to Date

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E- Commerce US Rental Experience to Date

• William C. Veneris
• Interactive Management Systems
• Developer of ALERT EasyPro Software
• 555 East Pikes Peak Ave. Ste. 205
• Colorado Springs, CO 80903
• www.alert-ims.com

1-800-530-8050 Ext. 222 California Office
209-848-0999 Australian Office 07 3889
1664 Email CH5420_at_aol.com
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Presentation Outline

• Introduction
• Web Site
• Online Reservation
• Content
• ASP (Application Software Provider)
• Broadband and Inter-store Connectivity
• Questions and Answers

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Recent Internet Articles
Every rental company will have to grapple with
how to grapple with e- commerce. Bill Veneris,
President of ALERT IMS Source Rental
Management February 2001 Can your rental
company afford to ignore all this Internet stuff
thats going on? Jerome Miller, President of
Rentmaker Source Rental Management March
2001 Add clicks to bricks- Web based data is
the wave of the future. Steve Kahn, President
of Millers Rentals and Sales Source Rental
Management August 2001
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The Rental Industry and the Internet
The rental industry may not be radically
reorganized by the Net economy, but the Internet
will contribute substantially to shaping the
future of rental. Every rental business owner
must grapple with the questions of how to
integrate e- commerce technologies Bill
Veneris, President of ALERT IMS Source Rental
Management February 2001
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The Financial Factor
With the dot-com stock crash and the US economic
doldrums, so much in the news, its easy to lose
sight of the explosive growth in Internet usage
and commerce taking place below the surface.
More than 100 million new users come unto the Web
every year, and product purchasing over the Web
is only just getting cranked up. Steve Kohn,
President of Millers Rentals and Sales Source
Rental Management August 2001
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Internet Utility
Predictions

• Thoughts from industry leaders
• Two Year- Overly Optimistic
• Ten Year- Too Conservative
• Potential In Use Today 3
• New Uses Developing Continually

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Recent History of Internet Use

• Four years ago - Web Pages, Advertisement,Email
• Today- Inter-store Connectivity with Broadband,
  Web Pages, Advertisement, Email, Online Banking,
  Ordering Parts, Online Reservations, Faxing,
  Travel Arrangements, Long Distance Telephone, FAQ
  (Frequently Asked Questions)
• Four Years in the Future- ?

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WEB PARTNERSA CHANGING LANDSCAPE
EQUIPMENT RENTALS RentOnTheDot Master
Rental RentMaker Tavant/RentalRiver
EQUIPMENT SALES (New/Used) IronMax Machinery
Trader
CONTENT DIY (Do It Yourself) Equipfinder RenTrain
ASP (Application Software Provider)
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Rental AwarenessWe plan to help people become
aware of the rental option and grow demand for
rental services David Inns, CEO Rental River,
Source Rental Management June 2000

• The Average Homeowner rents every 22 months
• Source ARA

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What happens if a Home Owner rents once a year?
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1997 -1998 ARA Average Income and Expense for
General Rental
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Cash Customer Frequency
If each customer visited once a year
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The 100 customers become 173 If the average
rental is 40 then Sales increase from 4,000 to
6,920. A 70 increase If an 800,000 rental
store is 50 Homeowner and it increases customer
repeat visits to once a year then it becomes a
1.09 million dollar rental store.
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If increase occurs because of increase
utilization, then Revenue 1.092
million Fixed Cost .504 million Variable Cost
.328 million Profit .260 million PROFIT
INCREASES FROM 7 to 24
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Equipment Utilization
USA- 20 Japan- 50
Source RER March 2000
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Web Site

• Home
• Map
• Rental Inventory/ Price
• Sales Items
• Used Equipment
• Contact
• Content
• Employment
• FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
• Photo Gallery

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COST

• Under 2,000 to Set-Up
• Under 100 per month to maintain

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Finding a Web Site

• Search Engine YAHOO
• Rental Categories Approximately 1300 different
  categories
• Web Sites Approximately 11,167 Rental Web Sites

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Results

• General Information
• Pictures for Information
• Few Sales

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Web Site Link Leads to a Happy Customer
While searching the Web for tables for my
daughters wedding reception, I found a link to
the American Rental Association. From your site,
I found Classic Tents of Silver Springs, MD,
close to my home. We were late ordering the
tables because of late change of plans. However,
Classic Tents provided us with exactly what we
needed. They advised us about the size of the
tables, they delivered the tables on time and
they picked them up on time, as well. I would
recommend Classic Tents of Silver Spring, MD, to
anyone who wants to rent equipment from a very
good company.- P.S. Im using your site again to
search for a company that rents tools for home
repair. Cheryl Talley, US Department of Hours
and Urban Development, Washington D.C.
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Online Shopping Motivations and Barriers

• Motivations
• Cost Savings
• Greater Variety
• Convenience

• Barriers
• Fear of sending personal information over the
  Internet
• Difficulty navigating web sites

Outdoor Goods Retailer REI reports 35 of orders
are placed between 10 PM and 7AM
Source The Second Annual Ernst Young Internet
Shopping Study 1999
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Retailers and Internet Shoppers
Online Revenue Projection as Percentage of total
revenue through 2001
Source The Second Annual Ernst Young Internet
Shopping Study 1999
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Rental Industry Projection between B2B (Business
to Business)
Source Internet Business 2000
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Construction Related Business Online
1999 6.3 billion 2004 141.0 billion Forecast
research reported in RER April 2000

• Associated General Contractors (AGC) Survey
• Percentage of members connected to web 96
• Percentage of members searching for information
  on
• equipment online 60
• Source Rental Management May 2000

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Equipment Reservations

• On-Line
• E-mail
• Issues Price and Availability

Real-time, Internet-linked software systems
are the industries current buzz words...
Michael Roth Source RER May 2000
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Equipment Reservations
Many of these same companies are developing
Web-based applications that will run your data.
Imagine the possibilities- your customers will be
able to view, modify and track their orders
online from anywhere via the Internet. This is
the beauty of Web-based applications! Once your
data resides on a secure server, customers can
automatically know the availability of
equipment. Steve Kohn, President of Rentals and
Sales Source Rental Management August 2001
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Equipment Reservations
RentOnTheDot
Tavant/ Rental River
RentMaker
Masterental

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Equipment Sales(New and Used)
Machinery Trader
The biggest challenge facing Ritchie, IronMax or
other equipment web sites is that no digital
image or detailed description on an aerial lift
or excavator can assure a purchaser quite like a
hands on look under the hood and the old kick of
the tire. Source RER May 2000
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Content
DIY (Do It Yourself)

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ASP(Application Software Products)

• Industry-focused ASP possesses experience at IT
  information technology solutions specific to
  the vertical market in which they specialize.
  More than web based services, these providers
  typically offer enterprise software solutions
• Compound annual growth rate of 92 from 296
  million in 1999 to 8 billion by 2004.
• Source RER May 2000

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Survey of E- Commerce Choices
Source Rental Management February 2001
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Broadband Multi-store Operations
Challenge how to connect multiple stores to
share information efficiently?

• Traditional Approach
• Toll-free dial-up services for remote stores in
  the same local calling area
• Telephony and dedicated phone services (frame
  relay and digital leased lines) for more remote
  stores
• And lastly, if real-time connectivity options are
  too expensive, separate computer networks
  installed at each location and information is
  shared in batch (either electronically or in
  paper format).

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A Better Approach Broadband

• What is broadband?
• High speed Internet services such as T1 Lines,
  DSL, and ISDN
• How can it be used to connect multiple stores?
• Web-based networks use broadband to connect
  stores over the Internet instead of specialized
  phone services.
• With a PC or Windows terminal and a fast
  connection to the web, remote locations can
  access the network anytime, anywhere.

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Who should consider broadband?

• Multistore operations who cannot use local
  dial-up lines
• Even with local dial-up lines, stores that use
  graphic-intensive software
• Smaller chains who cannot afford specialized
  phone services

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Broadband is 10-50X faster than 56Kbps dial-up
Speed depends on quality of phone line, distance
to central office (DSL), network latency, general
Internet traffic.
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Choosing the Right Broadband

• Satellite and wireless services
• Pundits prediction as ubiquitous as electricity
  in the future
• Current slow upstream speeds limit use
• Cable access
• Bandwidth limitations have slowed connections
• DSL
• Limited availability

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Case Study

• Objectives of Switching to Broadband
• Jettison outdated remote store hardware
• Avoid the expense of implementing PCs at every
  workstation
• Reduce telephony charges incurred to connect
  remote locations to the corporate office.
• Technology Selected
• T1 line for the corporate headquarters
• DSL lines for some remote locations
• ISDN lines for locations for which DSL was not
  available.
• Testing a Sprint Broadband wireless connection at
  another remote location.

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Case Study Results

• Thousands of dollars saved in implementation
  costs by using web-based network hardware and
  Internet-based connections rather than older
  dedicated telephony equipment and phone lines
• On-going savings in monthly connectivity fees are
  also substantial

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Case Study Results

• Windows terminals saved the company thousands of
  dollars of initial hardware expense and will save
  the company thousands of dollars every year in
  maintenance and upgrade costs
• Significant performance gains in connection speed
  over older technologies

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Locate this presentation and other management
articles from ALERT Computers
WWW.alert-ims.com Click on News Click on
Management Articles Contact the Oakdale CA
office Phone [phone] Fax
209-848-4979 Email Lisabay_at_aol.com
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Questions and Answers?