Lauren Dorman Celebrates 25 Years With RMI

May 9, 2013 by Leave a comment

Lauren Dorman RMI's VP-Product DevelopmentIt’s a widely recognized statistic that modern young professionals will hold a minimum of 7 careers in their lifetime.  As we see the 2013 college grads accepting their diplomas and searching for their ‘starter jobs’, it’s refreshing to recognize an RMI team member who’s love for the work she does has enabled her to celebrate her 25th Anniversary at RMI.

The entire RMI team is proud to honor Lauren Dorman, RMI’s VP of Product Development, on her 25th Anniversary with RMI Corporation.  Throughout her years with RMI, Lauren has held nearly every role.  Marketing, Sales, Support, Consultant, Project Manager, Director, and on to VP of Product Development Lauren has helped carry RMI through the evolution of both business management software/hardware and the equipment rental industry.  Her ongoing work at RMI plays a vital role in many facets of the company; most significantly, she helps to ensure that the RMI ADVANTAGE solution continues to exceed the ever-changing expectations of equipment rental, sales, and services industries.

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RMI Announces May Webinar Schedule

April 26, 2013 by Leave a comment

RMI’s Techniques for Business Success Webinar Series will feature 2 exciting business improvement topics during May:

Customer Portal – Learn how adding a dynamic customer portal to your website can drive new business and ensure customer satisfaction. May 29, 2013 @ 1pm ET

Mobile Ready – Explore the industry shift toward real time system updates from mobile phones and tablets. See how making your business mobile can drive productivity. May 15, 2013 @ 1pm ET

Not available for these sessions? Download the 5 Steps to Improve Cash Flow eBook or contact sales@rmiusa.com to schedule a personalized session.

 

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Microsoft Awards RMI a Top Performer Award

April 5, 2013 by Leave a comment

Microsoft Awards RMI a Top Performer Award

This honor signifies that RMI, as a business management solution provider, was chosen by more businesses than any other Dynamics NAV Partner during the 2013 fiscal year.

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In the spirit of the season.

December 5, 2012 by Leave a comment

The 2012 Toy Drive begins

2012 RMI Toy Collection begins

As the Holidays draw near, I find myself in a reflective mood and am thankful for the opportunity to work within an industry that continually demonstrates their commitment to providing high quality equipment and services to their customers.  For our part, the team at RMI appreciates and is honored by the trust and faith that all of our customers place in us.

This year, the team requested that RMI again sponsor a toy drive for a local charity. Each morning as I walk into the office, I walk by the growing toy collection and am proud of the generosity and thoughtfulness of those with whom I work each and every day.

From the team at RMI, I wish you a very happy and prosperous close to 2012 and best wishes for continued success in the New Year.

Filed under General, RMI History

The most wonderful time of the year…

November 27, 2012 by Leave a comment

In this case, I’m not thinking about the upcoming Holidays (or that fantastic Staples commercial celebrating the start of another school year). Rather – it’s time to plan your 2013 business strategy and forecast the new year.   Whether you’re in the middle of the project, or just getting started, analyzing the performance and profitability of each business line is a great place to focus.    What was your mix of Rental, Sales, Parts and Service?  Where was the growth and profitability year over year?

During a recent conversation with a customer, we talked about how their business has evolved. Five year ago, their business mix weighed heavily towards Service and Parts sales.  Today’s business mix includes a larger percentage of rentals than in years past, and they’ve experienced a growth in overall business and profitability as a result.   It’s safe to say that their experience is not unique.Rentals increases your bottom line

As a fan of Rental Equipment Register magazine, I read it cover to cover each month.  It just so happens that the October edition included a great article by Larry Kaye titled Rental is the Cornerstone.  His experience is much like many of our customers.  Rentals shouldn’t be an afterthought; this line of business is an important pillar in a healthy mix to allow the business to thrive in all economic conditions.

Think about the evolution of your customers and your marketplace. Are Rentals no longer the “exception” to fill a short-term need? More companies are making equipment rental a natural part of their business because, in the long run, it makes a lot of sense economically. The “renter” doesn’t incur a large capital expense (possibly taking on new debt) and avoids paying for repairs and long-term equipment maintenance. The flip side of the cost savings are also in favor of the renter. They gain the use of equipment when they need it, they have access to the latest and greatest model that is more efficient that an older unit and they experience increased up-time since the rental company must keep their equipment well maintained otherwise they don’t make any money. These benefits all translate to a job well done, meaning the ‘renter” has happier customers too.

From your perspective, a rental line of business also reflects positively on your other business lines.  Good quality used equipment is always in demand and turning over your rental fleet leads to increased Parts and Service business.  Everyone wins.

If you haven’t already, check out Mr. Kaye’s article; especially the charts outlining how a rental strategy contributes to the bottom line of the business.

What’s your business mix?  Is your experience similar?  I’d love to hear from you on this topic.


http://rermag.com/business_technology/business_info_analysis/rental-is-cornerstone-20120901/index1.html

Filed under General, Rentals, Sales, Service, Tips For Business

RMI is Recognized at the NPSA Conference

November 16, 2012 by Leave a comment

Lauren Dorman RMI’s VP-Product Development holds the certificates in RMI's booth just after they were awarded.

RMI is Recognized at the National Portable Storage Association conference, October 2012, for being a charter member of the organization and for exhibiting at the show all 10 years.

Lauren Dorman, VP-Product Development accepts certificates of appreciation from the National Portable Storage Association (NPSA) in Kansas City October 2012.

Certificates include Appreciation for participation in all NPSA Conference and Tradeshows and Appreciation for being a charter member of the association.

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RMI Corporation Celebrates 29 Years Serving the Equipment Rental, Sales, and Service Industry

October 30, 2012 by Leave a comment

June 28, 2012 – Avon, Connecticut – Last week RMI Corporation celebrated its 29th year serving the equipment rental, sales, and service industry.

Started as a computer rental business in 1983, RMI Corporation developed their business management solution, ADVANTAGE, to manage the rental, sales, service, inventory, and financials of their own business. Years later, a friend of RMI president Paul R. Chapdelaine C.P.A. noticed similarities between his trailer rental and sales business and Chapdelaine’s computer rental business. It quickly became clear that ADVANTAGE was capable of managing businesses that rent, sell, and service a wide variety of equipment types. The trailer rental business licensed ADVANTAGE in 1990 and they continue to be a customer today.

“Despite the obvious difference between computers and trailers, the business practices are strongly similar.” Said Chapdelaine “We monitored equipment utilization and rental rates; they monitored equipment utilization and rental rates. We rented by the day, week, or month and so did they. Businesses that rent equipment all manage by the same basic principles with minor differences. ADVANTAGE is a fully integrated, full featured business management solution equipped to handle it all. ”

“This milestone is an exciting precursor to the big three-oh.” Said Lauren Dorman, Vice President of Product Development (with RMI 24 years). “Our business, product and service offerings have evolved greatly over the years to take advantage of technology advances that best serve the needs of the equipment rental, sales, and service industry.”

While serving the equipment rental businesses for nearly 3 decades, RMI experienced the birth of the computer mouse, the World Wide Web, mobilization, the Cloud and more.

“The last five years have been especially exciting. RMI has always been recognized for delivering excellent service to our customers. With the move to the Cloud, we’re delivering implementation, help desk support, and quarterly updates to clients even faster.” Said David G. Richards, Vice President of Client Services. “Today, we’re finding that we are able to help more business users who need access to the system via our mobile user offering, full Microsoft Office support, and accessibility anytime from anywhere. The average time from purchase to go live is running at about 1 month and that includes access for more areas of the business than ever before.”

Leading the way in technology for the equipment rental, sales, and service industry, RMI brings the latest in business management software, technology and services to the equipment rental industry.

For more information on RMI Corporation visit http://www.rmiusa.com/AboutRMI or see the album from the 29th anniversary celebration at http://www.facebook.com/RMICorp.ADVANTAGE.

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RMI Exhibits at the 10th Anniversary National Portable Storage Association (NPSA) Conference & Tradeshow

October 30, 2012 by Leave a comment

September 26, 2012 – Avon, CT – RMI is proud to announce their plans to exhibit at the NPSA’s 10th Annual Conference & Tradeshow. A proud NPSA member since the association’s inception, this year also marks RMI’s 10th year participating in the NPSA. Belonging to the NPSA for the last decade, RMI is especially looking forward to this year’s conference, and going back to where it all began, Kansas City, MO.

This year’s conference will be at the Sheraton Crown Center in Kansas City, October 14, 2012 to October 16, 2012.

RMI would like to invite all members and non-members attending the NPSA conference to stop by and visit RMI in booth #400. At the show, RMI will display their ADVANTAGE Solution, the comprehensive business management solution for the Trailer and Container industry. Be sure to stop by their booth, where a NEW Apple iPad® will be raffled off.

“RMI is proud of our long standing relationship with the NPSA and even longer relationship with the portable storage industry as a whole,” said Adam Seigle, Product Specialist at RMI Corporation. “The software industry is evolving at an amazing pace and we’re excited to be on the forefront of this evolution. We look forward to seeing everyone at the show!”

For more details on RMI’s exhibit at the NPSA Conference & Tradeshow, please visit http://www.rmiusa.com/NPSA.

Update: That was a great show! We look forward to next year. Congratulations to Geoff Fargo from Container Alliance on Winning the new iPad!

About RMI Corporation

Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Avon, CT; RMI Corporation is the leader in Enterprise Rental, Sales, or Service Solutions for mid-market companies. RMI is fully dedicated to the portable storage rental, sales, or service industry and offers an industry standard solution including software, implementation, training, consultation, and support to help their clients maximize efficiencies and reach their full business potential. RMI currently has thousands of users working with their ADVANTAGE Solution, representing various segments of the industry. For more information on the ADVANTAGE Solution and RMI Corporation, please visit their website at http://www.rmiusa.com.

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When is the right time for you to move your Business Systems to the Cloud?

September 11, 2012 by Leave a comment

Important definitions:

Cloud Computing – a software licensing model that grants access to software over the internet. Licensing fees generally based upon number of users and is billed under a monthly subscription.

On-Premise licensing – a software licensing model that requires an “upfront” licensing fee plus annual maintenance fees. In return, licensees receive a “copy” of the software that is then installed on the licensee’s computers within their own building (thus, the term “on-premise”). The term also applies to licensees that opt to use one of the many hosting services rather than provision their own hardware.

Up until a few years, ago all software was delivered via the “On-Premise” licensing model. Today we have an option when it comes to software licensing.

Today’s question is – When is the right time to consider a move to the Cloud?

Note: We will discuss the question “why move to the Cloud?” in a separate discussion.

There are several points in time when it makes most sense for you to consider a move to the Cloud. Any single one of these situations is a good reason to consider a move to the Cloud. If you are facing 2 or more reasons the decision becomes even easier.

Here are the most common reasons for moving to the Cloud:

Software currently in use is several release levels behind:

You’ve been running the same release level of your software for several years now and you believe that it is time to upgrade/replace your current software to gain the benefits of all the improvements that have become available since you implemented your system.

Before making another significant investment, in new software, implementation services and training only to find that you are once again not gaining the benefit of advancements made in the software beginning immediately after you complete your upgrade, you may want to at least consider moving to the Cloud.

Here’s why:

The Cloud based licensing model delivers the following benefits to you:

  1. Eliminates the significant “up-front” investment needed to upgrade/replace under the “on-premise” model.
  2. Cloud based systems are updated/upgraded by the software producer on a regularly scheduled basis (as often as quarterly). This means that you will never fall behind again and will never be faced with an upgrade/replacement cost again.
  3. Because the updates/upgrades happen often, they are much easier to absorb and, gain benefit from, than what is normally the case when your software is only updated every several years.

Significant Hardware upgrade/replacement is looming:

You’re a few years removed from your last significant hardware upgrade. You’re noticing that your systems are beginning to slow down just a tad and you had a lot of trouble installing/configuring some new software that you recently purchased. In addition, the cost of maintaining/servicing your computer infrastructure is becoming more and more significant.

Before making another significant investment in Computer Hardware you should consider a move to the Cloud.

Here’s why:

Hardware must be properly provisioned in order to achieve maximum performance from your software. The Cloud based licensing model delivers the following benefits to you:

  1. File Servers in use by Cloud Service Providers are at the very high end of the hardware spectrum.
  2. Cloud Service Providers update computer hardware routinely and consistently.
  3. Hardware redundancy is in place so that downtime is practically non-existent.
  4. Data Security (including data backups) are managed professionally.
  5. In addition to the hardware itself, all operating system and other infrastructure related software licensing is kept up to date so that the latest versions of your system can be implemented without delay.

Opening a new location:

You’ve decided to open a new location and now need to have access to your business systems from more than one place.

Multi-location computing represents a significant challenge to most small to mid-sized businesses. Businesses that are currently operating from multiple locations know exactly what I am talking about and have been some of the early adopters of the Cloud for this reason.

Before opening a new business location you should at least consider the Cloud.

Here’s why:

  1. Cloud computing is not constrained by physical location. In fact, all you need is access to the internet (which is quickly becoming almost any place in the world) and you are good to go.
  2. Managing Printers within a multi-location business operation has been historically challenging. Cloud based systems manage printers automatically!
  3. Adding a new location takes on a wider meaning within the Cloud. A new location may now be a Field Service Tech or Field Sales Person that needs instant access to your data along with the need to make updates and deliver information to your customers while they are standing in front of them. Mobility is a natural process when operating in the Cloud.

Staffing levels changing (increasing/decreasing):

Your staffing levels fluctuate up and down between seasons. You hate having to license enough users to meet peak demand periods. Before you add one more user to your “On-Premise” system you should consider moving to the Cloud.

Here’s why:

  1. Cloud based systems are specifically modeled to fluctuate up and down as your needs dictate. When you enter into a slow season you can simply eliminate unneeded users from your subscription and, add them back when things pickup.

# # #

There are many other times when a move to the Cloud might be advantageous.

Feel free to share your thoughts on LinkedIn
.

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Why SaaS Is Not Like Renting

August 16, 2012 by Leave a comment

This post is the first in a series of blogs communicating some of the benefits that a SaaS-based business solution, such as RMI ADVANTAGE, can provide your company.

How many times have you heard the comparison? When talking about business solutions, it is generally thought of that SaaS is similar to renting an apartment, while investing in an on-premise system is more comparable with buying a house. It is a common misinterpretation that by choosing a SaaS solution, you are simply “renting your software”. While there is a grain of truth in this, a far better analogy can be made.

Every January 1st, millions of people around the country make the resolution to “get fit”. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say that there are two ways of doing this; buying equipment for your home or joining a gym. Buying your own equipment is the hypothetical equivalent of investing in on-premise software, while signing up for a gym membership represents selecting a SaaS-based business solution.

If you were to buy your gym equipment, you would need multiple machines: ones made for training your arms, your chest, your back, your legs, etc. This induces the burden of high initial costs, and locks you in for a long term investment. Since you are locked in for the long term, if the company that sold you your chest machine comes out with a new model designed to make your workout twice as efficient as the old model, you will not be able to reap the benefits of the new machine without purchasing it, which adds another high cost.

Choosing a SaaS-based solution may be the first step to getting your business in shape!

In order to prevent your expensive equipment from corroding and carrying diseases, you are responsible for cleaning it and performing routine maintenance work. If you don’t have the time or motivation to do this, you are stuck with either paying someone else to do it for you, buying insurance (which we all know isn’t cheap), or assuming responsibility for more costs if something goes wrong.

Now let’s say that you didn’t know the first thing about these weight machines, but you really wanted to get the ball rolling on your resolution. You would probably have to hire someone to assemble all of these machines for you, and then hire a personal trainer to teach you correct technique. As you can tell, these costs quickly add up.

If you took the other option and enrolled in your local gym, which we’ll call RMI in this example, much of this will be taken care of for you. Your only up-front expenses would be the initiation fee and first month’s payment. This is not a long term investment, because RMI allows you to terminate your membership at any time without penalty. If the same equipment company previously mentioned comes out with a new machine, RMI will purchase this machine and you will not pay an additional penny for it.

RMI has a janitorial staff and a crew technicians who regularly perform all of the safety checks needed to make sure the equipment can operate safely. If, despite the routine maintenance, a machine fails, RMI gym is fully insured and will handle all costs. RMI also provides unlimited access to personal trainers and 24/7 accessibility to any RMI gym in the world (which just so happen to be on every street corner across the globe), all included in the basic monthly fee.

As you may have pieced together while reading this example, there are many advantages to joining the gym, which represents the choice to go with a SaaS based solution. If there is any obscurity about this example, or you simply what to learn more about what benefits RMI’s ADVANTAGE Solution can deliver your company, watch the video below or simply visit our informational page. 

Filed under About ADVANTAGE, General, Rentals, Sales, Service, Tips For Business Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

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