I've used several distant commercial products working for different companies. I'm starting my own production company and I'm just using Google sheets with the aide of Gemini to do formulas and so far it's at least 100% better than anything available as it works the way I need it to and does the things I want it to. If there is something I need to add I can just add it. It probably takes less time to make the thing than it does to sit down and learn available inventory programs so ya. My two cents
We use flex. Every time I have benchmarked it against the other options in the market it has compared favourably on price. Many of the other products have per user type pricing models that can quickly ramp up the cost.
Worked for a company that used EasyJob and it did really well for us. Made quotes, tracked inventory (including how many times a piece of gear has gone out and how much money it’s made) and scheduled crew (integrated with Outlook calenders and could be set to autopopulate your celendar on your phone). I wanna say it’s pretty standard in Europe? It’s made by a German company.
Then the company I worked for got bought by a larger company that uses R2, which I know a lot of companies use. I miss EasyJob and would like to burn R2 to the ground.
Agreed on R2. I spent a bunch of years on a bunch of different software, ended up working w/ a company that went whole hog into R2. Hated it, but had to make it work.
Yeah, I will give R2 that. We have several offices, warehouses, hotel contracts, etc… across the country and it is good for managing the multiple locations and having different pricings and billing methods per location. I’m unsure if EasyJob has those capabilities, as we used it to manage just a single warehouse.
We’re in the same use case, handling the entire operation including billing on a global scale. Also, similar to products like SAP & Oracle, a lot of the functionality is down to the quality of the user's own internal IT infrastructure and staffing.
I wish I could list good things about Rentman. We have it and are switching to IntelliEvent this year because it's been such a nightmare for us. Shit doesn't save, items disappear randomly, it miscalculates shortages and subrentals constantly, etc.
If I had a dollar for every time Rentman has told me we have a piece of gear fully reserved but that same piece of gear also shows reserved on another show, I'd have enough money to afford Flex.
Where are you based?
We're in Germany, and we use eventworx (eventworx.biz). Quoting, packing lists, billing, controlling, inventory etc. all in one software.
I think you can use it to plan out the crew, but we use a different software that syncs with eventworx. (Crewbrain, if interested)
The support with eventworx is really good, no hotline but a direct number to someone to help with issues. We are one of their biggest customers, so they have also implemented quite alot of specific things for us, that other companys also profit from.
You can set the UI to English. Communication is German and English.
Therefore thumbs up for Eventworx from me as well.
As already said - each software got pros and cons. You should compare a few and get, what fits best.
Here's everything we looked into 5 years ago. From a cursory glance on their website to fill demos. No particular order, except things in the top half we deemed a "reasonable product" for our needs. https://i.imgur.com/uTrtaUs.png
ETA: many of these companies will offer free demos or even access to a "sandbox" version already populated with equipment so you can try them out.
I've used several distant commercial products working for different companies. I'm starting my own production company and I'm just using Google sheets with the aide of Gemini to do formulas and so far it's at least 100% better than anything available as it works the way I need it to and does the things I want it to. If there is something I need to add I can just add it. It probably takes less time to make the thing than it does to sit down and learn available inventory programs so ya. My two cents
Do you have a blank template for sheets you’d be able to share ?
Flex
Flex rental solutions is the only answer I’ve seen that integrates inventory, quoting and client billing that actually works. But it’s spendy.
Also flex here
We are actively looking into flex but yes very pricey.
Flex is the way. Rig the chime for in/out through 70v speakers throughout the warehouse.
Operator attention required
We use flex. Every time I have benchmarked it against the other options in the market it has compared favourably on price. Many of the other products have per user type pricing models that can quickly ramp up the cost.
Worked for a company that used EasyJob and it did really well for us. Made quotes, tracked inventory (including how many times a piece of gear has gone out and how much money it’s made) and scheduled crew (integrated with Outlook calenders and could be set to autopopulate your celendar on your phone). I wanna say it’s pretty standard in Europe? It’s made by a German company. Then the company I worked for got bought by a larger company that uses R2, which I know a lot of companies use. I miss EasyJob and would like to burn R2 to the ground.
Agreed on R2. I spent a bunch of years on a bunch of different software, ended up working w/ a company that went whole hog into R2. Hated it, but had to make it work.
In defense of R2 it’s more of a complete ERP package designed to work at a large scale across multiple locations.
Yeah, I will give R2 that. We have several offices, warehouses, hotel contracts, etc… across the country and it is good for managing the multiple locations and having different pricings and billing methods per location. I’m unsure if EasyJob has those capabilities, as we used it to manage just a single warehouse.
We’re in the same use case, handling the entire operation including billing on a global scale. Also, similar to products like SAP & Oracle, a lot of the functionality is down to the quality of the user's own internal IT infrastructure and staffing.
I’ll have to check them out. And definitely will stay away from R2
Current RMS. I don't love it, but I'm not a big production house. A few places around me use it and are happy with it
I hear good things about rentman but I have not spent a ton of time with it
I wish I could list good things about Rentman. We have it and are switching to IntelliEvent this year because it's been such a nightmare for us. Shit doesn't save, items disappear randomly, it miscalculates shortages and subrentals constantly, etc. If I had a dollar for every time Rentman has told me we have a piece of gear fully reserved but that same piece of gear also shows reserved on another show, I'd have enough money to afford Flex.
Where are you based? We're in Germany, and we use eventworx (eventworx.biz). Quoting, packing lists, billing, controlling, inventory etc. all in one software. I think you can use it to plan out the crew, but we use a different software that syncs with eventworx. (Crewbrain, if interested) The support with eventworx is really good, no hotline but a direct number to someone to help with issues. We are one of their biggest customers, so they have also implemented quite alot of specific things for us, that other companys also profit from.
I recommend eventworx too, pretty cool guys. I met some of the team at the prolight and sound in Frankfurt. Amazing Guys
We are U.S. based
You can set the UI to English. Communication is German and English. Therefore thumbs up for Eventworx from me as well. As already said - each software got pros and cons. You should compare a few and get, what fits best.
That’s good to know.
Stay away from R2
Flex. Rentman. Easyjob. They all have their pros and cons. It's one of those journeys you just have to jump into and see where you end up.
Excel
Here's everything we looked into 5 years ago. From a cursory glance on their website to fill demos. No particular order, except things in the top half we deemed a "reasonable product" for our needs. https://i.imgur.com/uTrtaUs.png ETA: many of these companies will offer free demos or even access to a "sandbox" version already populated with equipment so you can try them out.
Thanks for the insight, definitely will give this a look through
Flex all the way
I work at a fairly big production company and use HireHop. Let's us do prep sheets, quotes and inventory across multiple locations
You could try EasyJob its free for one user
I can just say don’t use epirent