Sonata Software, a leading IT consulting and software services provider, launched "MilEdge," a car rental management system at the Car Rental Show in Las Vegas.

Designed for large and medium car rental organisations and auto-leasing companies, MilEdge is a PCI DSS compliant comprehensive web based solution developed to support all stages of car rental operations, from front counter control to back office management, thereby creating a cohesive and efficient business environment. MilEdge helps car rental companies optimize their IT investments and achieve a faster ROI.

"MilEdge has been designed to provide quick and easy solution to the car rental businesses helping them to streamline their operations, respond quickly to the market fluctuations and grow their business faster," said Mr. Mahesh Shastry, Head - Travel, Transportation & Logistics Business, Sonata Software Ltd.

Sonata is implementing MilEdge at Arenco Group, the largest car rental company and owner of the Dollar and Thrifty brand in United Arab Emirates with a fleet size of over 16000 vehicles. Mr. Rahul Singh, GM, Thrifty UAE said, "We were looking at a comprehensive Car Rental Management System that will integrate our end to end rental processes and enable us to minimize our operational costs and improve efficiency. We have partnered with Sonata as MilEdge mapped well with our requirements. Sonata has taken the complete ownership of the implementation, ongoing maintenance and support of the system."

"The future of the car rental industry looks positive as business and leisure car rental is expected to grow mainly due to rise in travellers globally. The competitive nature of the car rental industry makes it challenging for organizations in this domain to attract and retain customers. Technology therefore plays a crucial role in enabling them to maintain their competitive edge through superior customer service, optimized fleet cost, improved operational efficiency and rapid growth in newer geographies and segments. Sonata is currently working on providing MilEdge on a SaaS based model so as to reach out to those car rental customers who are willing to opt for a pay-as-you-go model," Mr. Shastry further added.

MilEdge comprises of modules from Customer Enquiry to Vehicle Purchase, Fleet Management, Bookings, Rental Agreements, Transfers, Replacements, Rate Management, Payment Management, Fleet Movement Tracking, Incident Management, Vehicle Service, Loyalty Management and finally sale and disposal of the vehicles. The solution also supports handheld devices viz. PDAs for counter and operations users to track vehicle movements and fuel dispensing from in-house fuel stations. The web based application is an easily customizable solution supporting multi-organizational capabilities. It ensures complete data integrity and enables organizations to change with the growing market demands.