Business Information Systems
EquipHire is a family owned business dealing in commercial and domestic equipment hire across metropolitan Sydney, Newcastle, and Wollongong. The company’s company main source of sales is in renting machinery, equipment, and tools to the construction sector i.e. construction, engineering, and building trades. EquipHire hires a range of construction and engineering tools such as concrete cutters, nail guns, chainsaws, dumpy levels, and welding gear. It also offers plant equipment such as compressors, generators, mobile platforms, small excavators, and trenchers; as well as such other equipments as glassware for party hire, high capacity heaters, tables and chairs, and marquee tents. All the equipment are rented to construction contractors, industry and individual customers for a limited period of time. At present, the DIY is the fastest growing segment of the business. The main operations of EquipHire company are influenced by the economic factors, distribution and supply chain factors, pricing issues, seasonality of product demand, business management issues, and the business’ information systems. EquipHire has one of the most diverse range of equipment in the industry, which is constantly expanding to meet the growing customer base in building maintenance, construction, compaction, excavation, industrial products, access equipment, and DIY.
Making of crucial decisions at EquipHire is a responsibility of the company’s board of directors. Such crucial decisions pertaining to EquipHire’s rental business include employee compensation, bonuses, health and other benefits; purchasing, renting, and eventual sale of equipment; purchase of signage; authorizing of ordering of office supplies and payment of utilities; planning and purchasing of advertising space or airtime. In addition, the board of directors at EquipHire takes decisions regarding payment and insurance of the company’s sales trucks, trailers, as well as delivery vehicles. The board also ensures acquisition of other inventory and maintenance supplies e.g. oil, gasoline and transmission fluid.
Overall, EquipHire’s board of directors is highly experienced in the business which has enabled the company to have the right equipment, service as well as support. The board has been keen on ensuring that every fleets comprises of the latest equipment in line with the needs of customers. In addition, the board has ensured that used equipment is sold off at a good price. The board’s expertise has also ensure that Equiphire seeks and maintains reputable and reliable supplier as well as advisers on matters relating machinery selection and marketing.
For EquipHire to be successful, its business information systems need solid internal and external business information resources. This will provide the necessary background for evaluating the company’s current performance as well as enable planning for future progress. Internal information is readily available to the business i.e. information pertaining to its employees, turnover rates, sales data, as well as customer purchase behaviors and trends. The business information system of EquipHire contains systems and processes for collecting the right internal information that can help the board of directors in tracking, trending, analyzing and acting upon business, giving them significant insight into such crucial issues as product demand by customers, and areas of customer/employee satisfaction. This information needs to carefully and catalogued and utilized by EquipHire’s board in making both tactical and strategic business decisions pertaining to future actions.
Success of EquipHire would also depend on their access and use of industry information. The industry has association linked with it that serves as rich source for business information. EquipHire can get access to reliable industry information as relates to trends, resources and best practices by conducting research and becoming member to relevant trade and professional associations. Significant industry information for the company also include growth forecasts in the domestic and global equipment and plant hire industries.
EquipHire is also in need of accurate competitive information. With the growth of the internet, the company can readily access information about competitors and design its competitive strategy accordingly. More competitive information can be gathered through participation in such social media platforms as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (Harris, 2012). This way EquipHire can be able to stay up to date with the activities and new strategies of rivals. All these business information requires that EquipHire maintains a computerized database that records, locates and manages all its equipment , plan and DIY hire so that to generate valuable weekly site inventory reports as well as perform monthly invoice runs.
Information pertaining to EquipHire’s financial affairs is highly significant for the company’s overall success. Success depends on having sound and transparent credit and invoicing information. This is because it helps the company to undertake comprehensive tracking of all its financial activities, have instant credit control together with seamless integration of the accounting programming. Accurate financial information therefore promises EquipHire success as it influences the way it produces contracts, invoices and order purchasing, account management, repairs, transport scheduling as well as customer relationship management. The industry in which EquipHire does business is a capital-orientated one, which requires of the business to be aware of the location of its asset and how much revenue it is has generated following renting out (Harris, 2012).
Harris, F., McCaffer, R., & Edum-Fotwe, F. (2012). Modern construction management. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Blackwell.
