Equipment Rental: Solution to reduce acquisition investment

With over 54 years of experience in advising customers on their best acquisition approach, by providing rent, purchase, and leasing options that best fit their needs. In India, the firm is operating for a decade from its offices in Gurgaon-NCR and Bangalore. With the merger of Microlease and Electro Rent’s business operations, Electro Rent is a world leader in smart solutions for test equipment.

David Whitfield, CEO Asia, Electro Rent India, speaks to CiOL about the changing landscape.

How does Electro Rent operate?

The renting model works as per the requirement of our customer and the availability of the equipments as well. People take it for 6 months or for 12 months etc. Occasionally somebody wants it for a week because the equipments are expensive. We got a major inventory basis from US, UK, Malaysia, China, India etc. and we ship the equipment all over the world.

How do you ensure the equipment’s quality and performance?

We have our internal labs in a different possible world for our use. The labs are being used for calibrating the equipments or to repair the equipments. We perform over 90% of our equipment’s calibration/repair in-house (76,000 square feet and $10 million invested in laboratory standards) and assure quality through our ISO9000 and ANSI accredited laboratory.

How you stand out from the competition?

It’s been 10 years in India now.  The first thing which we try to do is to customers to maximize their project. They are spending a plethora of money on very complex equipments and the utilization is very low. Also, the customers are getting increasingly conscious while spending the money for a short duration so to save money renting is the best option for them.  Inventory worth $1.1 billion, instant shipping facility to over 115 countries, and a world-class accredited calibration with repair lab further adds to the business value of Electro Rent.

Customer can upscale or downscale the requirement/models/seasonal production line assessments/change the asset to the new model(s)

What are the kind of customers that you are targeting?

Our customers vary from really big bodies. We are renting to various sectors, such as Aerospace/Defense, Mobile/Computing including 5G, LTE, LTE-Advanced, Semiconductor Based Companies, Power & Industrial, Automotive Electronics, Medical Electronics, Education and Research, New Space, Data Products, IOT Companies and Sub Contractors.

How you reach to your targeted customers?

There are a lot of companies who know us as we are into this business. Apart from that, we have our sales team who is building the relationship. Also, there are other marketing channels such as Google ad words, Websites, Direct mailers, Conferences, Events etc.

We have seen a growth in a number of satisfied customer’s year on year not only in Indian but across the world.

What are the challenges you have faced so far?

There are always challenges without a doubt. I think, finding out a good talent is the first and foremost challenge in our sector. We are finding those multitalented people who can help our customers to make the right decision. Another complex is import, Export, Bureaucracy, regulations, customs and India has made a lot of good progress it in recent years to reduce all of that and we are hoping that the progress continues.