There are now two rental management packages available from Navigator Systems, RentalDesk and Hiretrack Eclipse. To help you decide which one is right for you and your organisation, here's a brief outline of each.
RentalDesk has been designed for the type of organisation where everybody does every job. Typically this will be a small company with no middle management, and no more than five people will ever need access to the program simultaneously. While your business is growing, the time scale for expansion above this critical mass is sometime in the future.
HireTrack Eclipse has been designed for the more structured company where the employees each have a defined role, with different departments performing different functions. With multi-user and multi-site options, this is the product for the medium to large business that needs the flexibility and ability to expand the system with ease.
“I now understand the major difference between the two products available but I'm still not sure which system to go with. I think I should go for RentalDesk because its cheaper, but we could grow out of it in a year or so. Eclipse could be used now and expanded in the future, but it's more expensive. How do I decide?”
Many companies sit in this grey area, and have had difficulty deciding which package to go for now.
If you are a small business, then choose RentalDesk. It has all the features that you will need to make your operations easier & more efficient.
However, if you are a small company with plans for expansion on the horizon then choosing HireTrack Eclipse will have an immediate and positive effect on your business, and might even bring that horizon closer, earlier. It is more expensive initially, but it will expand with you as quickly as required, and you have to take into account what upgrading from RentalDesk in the future will involve. Not only is there the “actual cost” to change systems, there are all the “associated costs” of cross-data entry, re-training staff, and the disruption of changing procedures etc. When you weigh up all this, the saving made by choosing RentalDesk for the time being, may be a false economy.
The table below will help you to compare both products' features.
If you aren't sure which program you need, please ask our advice.
Our primary concern is for you to get the program that best suits your company.
| Feature | RentalDesk | Eclipse |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment | ||
| Equipment Scheduling | Yes | Yes |
| Calculate Equipment Availability | Yes | Yes |
| Standard Equipment Packages | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced Equipment Packages | Yes | |
| Calculate Package Availability | Yes | |
| Multiple Price Schemes | 2 | Unlimited |
| Line Pricing & Discounts | Yes | Yes |
| Automatically Calculates Discounts | Yes | Yes |
| Address | ||
| Address Book | Yes | Yes |
| Address Filters | 3 | Unlimited |
| Advanced Venue Information | Yes | |
| Supports Multiple Currency | 2 | 4 |
| Crew | ||
| Crew Scheduling | Yes | |
| Transport | ||
| Transport Scheduling | Yes | |
| Planning | ||
| Rental Manager Information | Yes | Yes |
| Daily Diary | Yes | |
| Monthly Planner | Yes | Yes |
| Financial | ||
| Scheduled Invoices | Yes | |
| Exports to common Accounts Packages | Yes | Yes |
| Accounts export customisable to any accounts package | Yes | |
| Quotes & Reports | ||
| External Word Processor Interface | Yes | Yes |
| Inbuilt Word Processor | Yes | |
| External File Attachment | Yes | |
| Printout's can be user customised | Yes | Yes |
| Reports may be cross-referenced with other database programs | Yes | |
| Integrates with Seagate Crystal Reports | Yes | |
| Other | ||
| Maximum Number of simultaneous users | 5 | Unlimited |
| User Access Control | Pre-defined | User Defined |
| Can be Translated into non-English languages by the user | Yes | Yes |
| User Interface | Single Window | Multiple Windows |
| Technical Support – Web and Email | 90 days from purchase Inc. | 1 year Inc. |
| Technical Support – Telephone | Addn Charge | 1 year Inc. |