McGrath RentCorp Improves Business Reporting and Analytics Capabilities with Cloud-based Business Intelligence Solution
 
 

McGrath RentCorp Improves Business Reporting and Analytics Capabilities with Cloud-based Business Intelligence Solution

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McGrath RentCorp is a diversified business-to-business rental company. It rents and sells mobile modular buildings, electronic test equipment, and liquid and solid containment tanks and boxes, primarily in the United States and Canada. Through its business units: Mobile Modular, TRS-RenTelco, Adler Tanks, and Enviroplex, the company serves a broad spectrum of industries, including the telecommunications, construction, education, petrochemical, and environmental sectors.

To support future growth and facilitate Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, McGrath RentCorp selected Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1, delivered through Oracle Managed Cloud Services as the company’s first integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment. As part of that initiative, the company also wanted to expand and modernize its business intelligence (BI) capabilities, and it worked to create a new BI and data warehouse roadmap. McGrath RentCorp selected Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition On Demand and Oracle Business Intelligence Applications On Demand as the anchor, replacing a number of stand-alone and spreadsheet-based reporting systems.

The company worked with Jade Global, an Oracle Platinum Partner, to scope, design, and execute the deployment, using its Oracle Accelerate for Midsize Companies solution to jumpstart the process and accelerate the time to value. It chose Oracle Managed Cloud Services to ensure high availability, predictable IT costs, and expert support from the company that develops the applications and the technology infrastructure―while freeing internal IT resources to focus on future strategic initiatives.

Going live on Oracle Business Intelligence in mid-2012, McGrath RentCorp is already experiencing important benefits. For example, it is gaining new insight into revenue and gross profit on rental sales and services, as well as each division’s spend. The company plans to continue rolling out its expanded BI capabilities across its various operating companies.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from McGrath RentCorp

  • "With Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition On Demand and Oracle Business Intelligence Applications On Demand, we have created the foundation for a one-stop-shop for all business intelligence and reporting―paving the way for greater insight into operations and profitability that will drive future growth." – Tiffany Smith, Applications Manager, McGrath RentCorp

  • Gain expanded insight into key performance indicators (KPIs) across the company’s diverse operating units, which range from groups that provide electronic testing equipment to those providing modular classroom and containment tank rentals and related services
  • Give line-of-business managers and sales personnel on-demand access to information about equipment and building rental sales, procurement spend, and other business metrics, without IT team support to drive rapid and informed decisions
  • Create a highly flexible and scalable BI environment that can evolve with the organization and its requirements
  • Roll out the BI environment rapidly to accelerate return on investment

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Selected Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition On Demand and Oracle Business Intelligence Applications On Demand as the foundation for a robust, user-friendly, and highly flexible, BI environment that, even in early deployment, is delivering expanded insight into finance, sales, procurement, and other KPIs
  • Enabled line-of-business managers, from finance, sales, and other areas, to track and analyze critical KPIs, such as building and equipment rental sales, services sales, gross profit, first month rental revenue, average contract term, and average actual term to enable more informed decisions
  • Increased visibility into each division’s spend as well as factors that drive revenue and costs, and equipped the company to ultimately gain visibility into the complete procure-to-pay process, enterprisewide
  • Enabled sales team members to access and drill down into customer aging and sales data from their mobile devices, keeping them informed, driving more productive customer meetings, and facilitating rental and service fee collection
  • Chose Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 delivered via Oracle Managed Cloud Services as the company’s first integrated ERP environment
  • Benefitted from prebuilt integration with the company’s Oracle E-Business Suite environment and the ability to easily leverage data from third-party applications to accelerate time to value
  • Integrated data from legacy systems to provide a comprehensive, companywide invoice-aging view
  • Provided a flexible, easy-to-use system that enables business users to create and produce reports without IT team support, putting important business information into their hands faster
  • Created a foundation for a one-stop reporting environment that spans each of the company’s diverse operating divisions
  • Hosted the ERP and BI environments with Oracle Managed Cloud Services, ensuring high availability, predictable IT costs, expert support from the company that develops the application and technology infrastructure, proactive 24/7 monitoring, and expert change/release management―while freeing internal IT resources to focus on future strategic initiatives

Why Oracle

The selection of Oracle Business Intelligence On Demand and Oracle Business Intelligence Applications On Demand followed closely on the heels of the company’s Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 On Demand selection. 

“We wanted a tier-one ERP vendor and considered a few options. The tipping point for Oracle E-Business Suite was Oracle E-Business Suite Lease and Finance Management, which was a perfect fit for our business. We then selected Oracle Business Intelligence for its robust capabilities, flexibility, user-friendliness, native integration to Oracle E-Business Suite, as well as its ability to easily integrate data from third-party vendors,” said Tiffany Smith, applications manager, McGrath RentCorp.

Partner

McGrath RentCorp worked closely with Jade Global throughout its BI implementation. The Oracle partner provided strong program management and facilitated coordination between the McGrath RentCorp and Oracle teams. Jade Global was also instrumental in helping McGrath RentCorp to define its objectives, conduct gap analysis, and identify the data feeds that it would need to pull into the system. It then executed on those requirements.

Jade Global used its Oracle Accelerate for Midsize Companies solution to jumpstart the implementation and reduce risk, leveraging methodologies and templates that accelerated the deployment and set up the company for early success. Jade Global also provided training and extensive knowledge transfer to the McGrath RentCorp team.

“A BI project can be a complex undertaking, and Oracle Business Intelligence is a robust solution. Jade Global did a fantastic job of helping us to get up to speed quickly, secure quick wins, and position us to take full advantage of this powerful business tool, using its Oracle Accelerate implementation methodology,” Smith said.