Utah draws many film productions to the state with its diverse landscapes. It has seen thousands of productions filmed in the state. Enigma 3, a rental house and film studio, proudly conducts its business in Utah. We sat together with Matthew Long, the Owner & COO of the company, to talk more about what his daily work looks like and how he uses Rentman. Enigma 3 offers various rental equipment, from lights and cameras to vehicles and production equipment.
Furthermore, they have the second-largest film studio in the state inside their building, where commercials and other films are shot.
Scaling up is more challenging than you think
Enigma 3, formed from the merger of two rental houses in 2020, has rapidly expanded its operations. With a team of full-time staff and a handful of freelancers, they now manage over 20 thousand pieces of equipment and rent out hundreds of projects annually. While this growth is exciting, it also presents significant challenges, such as errors in inventory tracking, managing staff availability and handling a higher workload.
As their workload surged, Enigma 3 found that their previous rental software couldn’t handle the increasing complexity and volume of projects.
‘Things got complicated when we merged the two companies. We added a studio, more employees, and more equipment which inevitably led to more incoming projects.’
Matthew has a background in software development and with a small team of developers, created customer software that helped his company build invoices, plan gear and send quotes. After the merge, they started using a new rental software, but quickly realized that it was not capable of handling their size of inventory and projects. 'We outgrew that software, which was very slow and cumbersome', Matthew said.
The search for a better alternative
To address these challenges, Enigma 3 embarked on a search for a new rental software solution. They needed a system that could handle their growing business without sacrificing efficiency or profitability. They wanted an all-in-one rental software.
‘We wanted a software company that has been in the rental industry for a long time, to ensure that they perfectly understood our needs'.
Since Enigma 3 already had its custom website that used API processes built in to facilitate customer inquiries and directly convert them into new projects, Rentman emerged as the ideal solution. Rentman offered the features and flexibility Enigma 3 required. With our API integration capabilities, high customization options, and cloud-based platform, Rentman provided the tools needed to streamline operations and regain control.
'Rentman is well-thought-out. It has lots of views to look at, a lot of ways to get data and customize the way tables look, see information quickly and get quick overviews of the current state of the warehouse.'
Regaining control with Rentman
Today, the team at Enigma 3 has a daily stand-up meeting where everyone comes together to look at the day's orders and see what they need to prep and what they need to check back in.
The website is streamlined for clients to build custom quotes with accurate pricing and once submitted, it automatically generates a project request within Rentman using the API connection.
All the Enigma 3 team has to do is check their request and verify equipment availability before sending a quote. From that point, they can do everything inside Rentman: plan the resources, prevent double bookings and shortages, use the app to track gear, correctly invoice the customers using the Stripe API connection and have a financial overview using Rentman’s statistics. They even use Rentman to handle time cards.
The bottom line
Today, Enigma 3 efficiently manages hundreds of projects per year thanks to Rentman. By streamlining their operations and gaining better visibility into their business, they’ve been able to maintain profitability while continuing to grow.
Enigma 3’s story highlights the importance of choosing the right rental software to support business growth. By investing in a solution that meets their specific needs, they were able to overcome the challenges of rapid expansion and maintain control over their operations.
Thanks, Matthew, for your valuable insights!
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Is rapid growth putting a strain on your rental operations? Rentman can help you maintain control, improve efficiency, and boost profitability. Just like Enigma 3, you can streamline your processes and make informed decisions with a centralized platform.
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