Hard Rental: Taking a growing enterprise to new heights with cloud ERP
Explore Hard Rental’s journey with SAP
As a leading IT hardware leasing company, Hard Rental understands how converting hardware investment costs into greater operational efficiency can aid growth. Having decided to apply this principle to its own IT operations with the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition solution, the company has gained the efficiency and agility to expand rapidly across the Latin American region.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Professional services | Bogota, Colombia | 50 employees | CSTI Corp. |
reduction in IT infrastructure and implementation services costs.
weeks to implement cloud ERP.
General Manager, Hard Rental
Migrating to the cloud to support an evolving business
With more than a decade’s experience in the IT hardware leasing market, Peru-based Hard Rental enjoys trusted relationships with around 500 clients in Latin America. In addition to computer equipment rental, its offerings to these customers include equipment sales, operational leasing, technical support, service desks, and software-license marketing.
Hard Rental is at an exciting phase in its development, having taken the first steps to internationalize its business. Already expanding operations to Colombia, the company plans to enter the Ecuadorian market in the near future.
With ambitious plans to rewrite the future of innovation in Latin America, Hard Rental needs an innovative, flexible, and intelligent IT foundation that can help it smoothly replicate business processes in diverse countries while preserving its culture. The company’s desire for growth and innovation meant migrating to the cloud was the next logical step. This would not only reduce the costs of IT licenses, infrastructure, and implementation services but also help Hard Rental take advantage of new business opportunities across the region.
General Manager, Hard Rental
Deploying modular cloud ERP at speed
Hard Rental already used the on-premise SAP ERP application at its Peru headquarters. Having decided to move its ERP systems to the cloud, it knew SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition offered the software-as-a-service model and back-office support it needed to enable best practices and increase ROI.
Working with CSTI Corp. and using the SAP Activate methodology, Hard Rental implemented the solution in Colombia in just five months across finance, sales, procurement, service, manufacturing, supply chain, asset management, and research and development operations.
Hard Rental also deployed SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) to help integrate and extend its software. It uses SAP BTP and the SAP Analytics Cloud solution to localize reporting for the Colombian market, and SAP Analytics Cloud for the design of ad hoc reports.
Moving quickly and efficiently with a centralized infrastructure
Having implemented SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, Hard Rental now benefits from cloud ERP software that can grow with the company. The firm can replicate its corporate business model nimbly in new markets, tailoring it as needed for regulatory and financial purposes. And it can rapidly roll out improved, innovative new processes across the enterprise, enabling synergies and reducing training costs.
Hard Rental’s teams appreciate the intuitive nature of the public edition’s interface and the fact that consistent and accurate information is available at the click of a button. They are also confident that the data fueling their decisions complies with security policies and controls.
On the finance side, quarterly and annual closing periods are shorter, and Hard Rental can present statements in consolidated form or in greater detail for each general ledger account and financial area. Financial traceability is improved, and the sequence of operations supporting reported balances is clearer. Processes from accounts payable and receivable to reporting and regulatory filing are smoother, and tax penalties are lower thanks to better tax management.
Meanwhile, sales teams can follow up on leads more quickly and manage orders, delivery, invoicing, and customer collections more efficiently, increasing customer satisfaction and reducing the cost of sales.
Costs are also lower and contract management is more efficient across procurement operations. The company has enhanced control and approval processes in the acquisition of goods and services and more tightly linked purchasing processes with equipment and supply inventories.
The benefits of cloud ERP extend to supply chain operations, where Hard Rental has reduced both inventory levels and logistics and warehousing costs. What’s more, increased equipment uptime, reduced unplanned downtime, and enhanced overall equipment effectiveness have significantly reduced asset management costs.
Expanding services and market reach
Hard Rental continues to use SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to help it enter new markets quickly and cost efficiently, with the next rollouts planned for Peru and Ecuador.
The solution is also providing the foundation for new services that complement Hard Rental’s equipment leasing offerings, spanning operating leases and support, maintenance, and financing services.
CSTI Corp.
Operating across Latin America and the United States, CSTI Corp. offers IT business solutions including application customization, support, and cloud migration. The company helped Hard Rental from the outset of its implementation project, increasing the IT leasing company’s understanding of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, its scope, and the potential of SAP BTP to integrate and improve business processes.