Spotlight on SmartEquip at bauma 2025

One of the innovative technology services that Ritchie Bros. will be demonstrating at Stand B5.402 during bauma 2025 is SmartEquip – a solution that simplifies parts commerce and enhances technician service efficiency for our partners and their customers while improving customer experience with their procurement and e-commerce platforms.

What is SmartEquip?

SmartEquip is celebrating its 25^th year of improving equipment uptime, while streamlining workflows to reduce costs for servicing diverse fleets. To understand the genesis of SmartEquip, you need to understand the challenges facing the global equipment industry back in the 1990s. After assisting Caterpillar, Inc. in building a world-class, dealer-based rental operation across South America, founder and president of international group, Alexander Schuessler, quickly grasped that the complexity surround parts and service operations in rental companies was draining profitability. SmartEquip has come a long way since those halcyon days of the new millennium in establishing a global industry standard.

Today, SmartEquip supports the world’s 5 largest rental companies, including United Rentals, Sunbelt Rentals, Aktio, Loxam, and Herc, alongside more than 100 rental fleets across North America, Europe, and Japan. Over 90,000 technicians across more than 70,000 locations around the globe are connecting to their supplier network, receiving fleet-customized support for close to 800 different equipment brands. With almost $2 billion in annual transactions, SmartEquip’s team is comprised of experts in construction, technology, and the data sciences.

As the global leader in equipment lifecycle management, service, and procurement support for the global construction industry, SmartEquip was acquired by Ritchie Bros. in 2021 to become part of their suite of ancillary services and now exists within the RB Global, Inc. portfolio of brands.

What does equipment lifecycle management mean?

The equipment lifecycle spans from an asset’s first acquisition to its eventual disposition, and every stage in between, and its economics are driven by equipment uptime, and its service, repair, and maintenance costs. Efficiently managing the lifecycle helps owners get the highest yield out of their machines, thereby maximizing return on investment (ROI).

“For me lifecycle economics are very simple,” says Schuessler. “There’s an initial acquisition cost and an eventual, end-of-ownership disposition return. And while I own the equipment, I pay for parts and service, trying to minimize these costs, while at the same time maximizing uptime and thus my financial returns. Get all of these right and you are optimising your equipment lifecycle!”

The intersection of ownership costs – between acquisition and resale, is where parts, service, and uptime – and therefore SmartEquip – come in. The SmartEquip solution integrates seamlessly with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems – handling everything from inventory, parts procurement, work orders, and more – and is uniquely positioned for continued growth in support of an evolving and dynamic industry.

How can SmartEquip make your business more efficient?

Improving equipment uptime creates greater revenue, while optimizing parts and service decreases costs. Taken together, they improve earnings and profitability.  SmartEquip’s solution helps you do it all. Connecting directly to your ERP system, it will generate work orders and purchase orders, creating accurate parts orders at lightning speed, improving accuracy, and saving tremendous service technician time, and improving equipment uptime. No other technical solution will have such a strong impact on your bottom line.

SmartEquip’s single sign-on login and exceptionally easy and intuitive user interface providing self-updating parts catalogues provide your employees instant access to a robust network of global suppliers. SmartEquip’s procurement and e-commerce platforms keep your fleet business agile and ready to meet any market demands.

Why do construction companies join the SmartEquip Network?

The SmartEquip Equipment Owner Network reach deep into your organisation, providing efficiency not just across parts and service, but also to accounts payabale and master data management. For over 25 years, SmartEquip has been building a global network of suppliers to support its equipment owner customer network. Hire companies, contractors and dealers use SmartEquip Procurement to:

• Reduce ordering and administrative costs.  
• Centralise parts procurement  
• Improve equipment uptime 
• Protect themselves from parts supersession 
• Gain access to over 700 brands in one interface  

Better yet, the SmartEquip e-Commerce Store platform can further digitise your business by giving you a white-label branded, multi-manufacturer parts webshop so you can extend your supplier connections directly to your customers.

SmartEquip’s founder and president of international group, Alexander Schuessler will be in attendance at Ritchie Bros. Stand B5.402. Please visit us for a chat and to test drive SmartEquip products. 

Want to make an appointment with us at bauma 2025? Follow the below link.

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