Jenn Romanowski, right, uses an iPad equipped with Bluebird's RentWorks Mobile program to complete typical rental operation tasks, such as check out vehicles and send receipts to print.
Romanowski takes a similar approach to data security and her mobile devices. She uses the Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop application on her Apple iPhone to run Bluebird's RentWorks Mobile program. Her daughter, Jenn, is also in the family business and uses the Bluebird program on an Apple iPad.
"She can do absolutely everything on the iPad ... She can have it in her hand and check out a car, send it to print and tell the customer
to pick up [his] contract when [he walks] in the door," Romanowski says.
She adds that the iPad, which retails from $499 to $829, was an affordable alternative to traditional handheld check-in devices, which can be more expensive.
Romanowski says both mobile devices are password protected and do not have any customer information stored on them. "All the information is at Bluebird. All of our computers, even the smart phones, are dummy terminals. If somebody stole a phone, they'd really have to know what they were doing," she says.
Transforming the Traditional Operation
The security, flexibility, mobility and convenience of Web-based software is changing the way operators do business. Rental operations are becoming more efficient and providing better customer service.
"The whole idea with the mobile devices is ... get the customer on their way as quickly as possible so they're not encumbered by having to go into the rental counter," Margolit says.
Operators no longer have to be in the office, but that doesn't mean they don't show up for work. Web-based software simply keeps them better connected to their operations and their rental customers.
"I am at the office nearly every day and that is only because I am a pretty hands-on guy with everything that we do," Thomson says.