The lifecycle of a company
Every unit of rental equipment comes with its own lifecycle economics. To optimize profitability, each asset requires precise management and smart, informed decision-making to reduce operating costs, increase financial utilization, and thus overall profitability.
When SmartEquip was launched in 2000, the US rental industry was embarking on an accelerated industry roll-up, with greater competition forcing ever improving operating efficiencies across the equipment lifecycle. This placed tremendous requirements on rental companies, and also on their suppliers in needing to provide equipment, parts, and service support – all to improve uptime and lower the cost of labor and materials. As we celebrate 25 years of innovation and strategic vision, we’re so very proud of the success stories our customers have relayed to us and the lasting impact they believe SmartEquip has had in addressing multiple industry needs.
“A quarter-century later, SmartEquip is everywhere,” notes Doug Dougherty, CEO, Cooper Equipment. “It’s become a vital part of the supply chain, delivering tremendous value. That success is a testament to belief, perseverance, and a deep commitment to customers.”
A landscape ripe for change
SmartEquip’s founding team consisted of industry insiders including Alex Schuessler and John Caskey, both of whom recognized that the ever-greater sophistication of rental operators alongside their ever-greater demands for transactional and operating efficiencies could not be met by the state of technology at the time. Moreover, the profile of a solution had to be radically different, in that it needed to not merely reside within the rental company alone, but in fact connect each company dynamically with the hundreds of suppliers providing equipment, parts, and service support. The need for connecting suppliers and fleet owners together on an intelligent industry-spanning, multi-enterprise digital platform would strip away tremendous transaction- and support-related costs for all participants. And that is just what Alex and John aimed to do.
Doug Dougherty recalls some of those early conversations about SmartEquip and the reactions. “My experience with SmartEquip dates back more than 25 years to the earliest meetings with OEMs,” he said. “At the time, I was VP of Fleet for United Rentals, and while we quickly saw the merits of the platform, it was a harder sell to the OEMs. Each had their own systems and a fair amount of skepticism.”
Equipment manufacturers and dealers found themselves in uncharted waters, with some dealers initially fearing that the rise of such a digital platform represented a first step toward their own disintermediation. Other suppliers, however, immediately recognized the competitive opportunities, both of improving the quality of parts of service support while reducing associated costs, as well as being able to deliver higher profitability to their customers.
To Alex Schuessler the opportunity seemed enormous, though the dual challenges of technological creation and creating a new industry standard from scratch were extremely daunting.
Building a foundation for the future
As a Harvard-trained data scientist and while assistant professor at NYU and alongside John, Alex had previously partnered in the founding of Script International, a company tasked with taking Caterpillar into the equipment rental industry across Central and South America. This initial exposure to the rental industry was the beginning of his obsession with the economics of the equipment lifecycle.
Ron Slee, an established thought leader and educator in the industry, and longtime friend of Alex’s, recounts the first time they met during his first visit to SmartEquip and with nothing more than a whiteboard and a few chairs, Alex simply walked Ron through his ideas and quickly made him a believer:
“I felt in our discussions, and I think Alex felt the same way, that we were kindred spirits. We both looked at the world from a unique perspective. I thought what he was doing with SmartEquip was rather amazing. I’ve never been one to protect the status quo. I’ve always been looking over the horizon as to what’s the next step, where we’re going, and what is possible.”
One of Ron’s initial questions was why Alex was restricting himself to the rental industry, stressing there was an entire world of machine owners out there who need parts. Ron’s prescient estimation was that it was time to say goodbye to the old business model of relying on the OEM alone to design the most efficient platform for parts transactions. Very much in line with Ron’s instincts, Alex felt that to ensure optimal efficiency in parts procurement required an information flow between supplier and buyer which was dynamically wrapped in real time, around the make, model, and serial number of each individual asset. No OEM could provide this single-handedly, but an industry-spanning information platform surely could.
“My first meeting with Alex changed my perspective,” said K. Wade Jones, JLG’s Senior Director Aftermarket. “At the time, most OEMs required their distribution to communicate via closed systems. Alex was describing a ‘middleware’ concept connecting various ERP systems. I could see the customer value of such a system, but the complexity of the technical requirements along with selling senior leaders from a multitude of organizations on the process efficiencies seemed overwhelming.”
The largest hurdle SmartEquip needed to overcome was still the OEMs, with each relying on what in their estimation were a new breed of web-based systems, having just moved from print and microfiche. But as buy-in grew among rental companies, OEMs started coming around, too.
As one of the first OEM partners to support the SmartEquip initiative, Michael Hanken – who is currently SVP of IT at Multiquip – recalled their journey to e-Commerce with the help of SmartEquip.
“Multiquip and SmartEquip go back to Day One,” Michael said. “Parts books and operational manuals were printed little jewels, closely guarded by the technical publication department. And along comes Alex Schuessler, proposing to put all that on the web, with the ability to point and click on a spare part from a drawing, adding it to a shopping cart, and fully integrating the process into our SAP system.”
It’s difficult these days amid today’s tech-heavy landscape – which touches virtually every part of our lives from the personal to the professional – to convey just how audacious SmartEquip’s concept was at the time. This was a period when Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was the primary method of handling electronic transactions, compact discs began replacing cassettes and microfiche, and people purchased their first cell phones, long before the dawn of smartphones.
“When considering the times along with the challenges,” K. Wade Jones added, “it is truly a testament to what Alex and the SmartEquip team have accomplished. Few people can look back at their careers and see directly how their ideas and efforts have substantially impacted an entire industry.”
The “growth gate” dilemma
Growth gates are commonly accepted when launching a new business venture or technology, providing a clear roadmap for growing and evolving a new business through distinct, sectioned periods with clear goals in mind. SmartEquip was no different in those first few years than any other entrepreneurial effort, facing a series of pivotal moments and challenges. With the help of various early stakeholders and industry veterans, Alex began building and cultivating deep relationships in the rental industry and understanding how to feed growth initiatives at the appropriate times.
“I remember being approached about discussing a new software system for parts,” said Tim Morris, Chief Commercial Officer, Americas, JLG. “I had been informed that I would probably find this gentleman very interesting as an ‘out-of-the-box’ thinker. Then came the day I met Alex Schuessler, and we had an instant connection. I loved his imagination and thinking process on how to streamline a transaction flow for rental companies that had more supply partners than we ever imagined. The industry was changing rapidly. We were in the middle of a metamorphic transformation.”
With all financial KPIs eventually in the green and operations running smoothly, the SmartEquip management team knew they had something special but faced another growth gate with the need to expand their reach to different industries and expand service offerings. Alex’s team wanted the perfect global partner with existing touchpoints across multiple industries and high-volume transactions.
“I started working with SmartEquip in 2004, back when it was more of a concept than an actual application,” said Brad Coverdale, VP of Fleet Procurement, North America, Sunbelt. “SmartEquip really brings the benefit of being able to control the supply chain of our over 1,300 locations, and how to make sure they’re getting the components they need to maintain their fleets.”
“The biggest benefit we get from SmartEquip,“ Brad added, “is the integration in our platforms as well as our supplier platforms. It really gives us a greater uptime with our fleets because the product support materials and access to parts we need are readily available.”.
A vision for the future of SmartEquip
Over its 25 years, SmartEquip has had to scale many times over, to meet the demands of its rapidly growing industry footprint. Like many other SaaS companies, there were growing pains along the way, but thankfully also attracted the passion and executive leadership by industry luminaries such as Bryan Rich, who joined to lead the company for more than a decade, and operational drive and leadership of Fernando Pinera. Alex continued to lead SmartEquip’s international growth, and together this cohesive team took SmartEquip to new heights – the solution is now the standard not only in North America, but also across Europe and Japan, supporting the world’s five largest rental companies across these three continents.
To achieve yet higher scalability, SmartEquip’s perfect partner came along when the company was acquired in 2021 by Ritchie Bros., the world’s largest and trusted auctioneer. What early on seemed like an audacious concept which SmartEquip’s early founding team dreamed up 25 years ago now sits under the RB Global umbrella as one of the entities providing insights, services and transaction solutions for commercial assets and vehicles.
“Today, SmartEquip is a globally recognized brand and a staple in many major organizations,” Tim Morris said. “Although it makes very complex processes look relatively seamless, there is a ton of activity behind the scenes that most will never see. The industry is very thankful for all the individuals that started with an idea and grew it into a global brand.”
“Many will get to enjoy SmartEquip for years to come,” he added.
And that’s the plan: another 25 years of exciting innovation and tireless growth. With immense gratitude for all who have helped along the way, we’re excited to get started on the next 25.
Thank you!
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