HireHop

I run a film and TV rental company with OB trucks, packages of kit as well as hiring individual items. I have tried and struggled with other rental software, including PC and cloud based ones and just found them limiting.

A large company that I sometimes sub-hire from, I noticed that their quotes were far better presented and arriving far quicker than they used to, I got intrigued and they highly recommended HireHop to me. They had just switched from another really well known PC based system.

Dubious at first, I was pretty impressed and then after calling support with a question, they talked me through loads more features that absolutely blew me away.

Some great features are:
* How I just scan a barcode on a box and it scans out everything inside it automatically as the software knows what's in a box.
* It automatically adds necessary equipment to a stock item and suggests others items in the correct proportions, even after changing quantities.
* Sending beautifully formatted emails with the ability to add quotes into the email or as a PDF attachment, as well as add attachments.
* The emails I send from the software are addressed from my email address and get stored in my email program's sent folder, as well as on the job they relate to, so that I can view all job emails within HireHop.
* Saving quotes and the amazing copy and pasting in the quote, between saved quotes and even between jobs.
* I can create simple quote lists or organise them into an organised "File and Folder" like structure
* The schedule and diary for each job
* The stock checking and asset management features are amazing and simple.
* The system syncs with accounts packages as well as calendars like on my iPhone, so I can see in my iPhone or Google calendar when I have a job
* The document editor is so simple even I can use it. It even has loads of templates for you to use.
* The barcode features are in a different league to all other software I tried.
* My equipment doesn't need to have barcodes, infact mine is a mixture.
* The PAT testing reports are a life saver, so many times I get to site and they want a PAT test report of all the equipment on-site, now it is just a click of a button to email a certificate over to them
* Very easy to use

There's loads more and I keep stumbling across some new feature or new ways of doing things all the time.

We manage several thousand assets that are seasonally rented to around 40 productions. They all leave the warehouse within the space of 30 days and return within an equally tight time frame. Therefore we were looking for a computerisation system that would aid the control and checking of our workflow, whilst being easy to implement, easy to learn, could work with multiple concurrent users and would allow seasonal workers to be added with a minimum of cost and hardware.

Before selecting HireHop we ran demos of several of the market leading inventory management and rental software solutions. There are several packages to choose from, including several that have been tailored to the entertainment industry. HireHop quickly stood above the rest as it has been specifically developed by people who have worked in the hire/rental side of the entertainment industry. Therefore some of the processes have been designed to match the workflow, rather than having to change the workflow to match the processes and caveats of a computerised system.

More and more software is becoming subscription based (as opposed to outright purchase of a licence). As part of looking at various software packages we calculated the initial setup costs as well as the ongoing running costs. Had we purchased licenses for an alternative piece of software outright, we would have also needed to purchase a server and when the support period ended we would have needed to purchase additional support. The outright purchase of a licence also tends to have a limit in terms of how long you can get free updates before you need to purchase new licenses for the next version of the software. HireHop is web based on a monthly subscription, therefore we had no server purchase costs, it can be accessed from a low spec device with internet access and a web browser, we have ongoing support, ongoing updates and we can add additional users at any time for a short period (e.g. a busy month).

HireHop manages to pack a lot of functionality into a clean and easy to use interface, the support team have been fantastic at talking us through any queries and every time we talk to them we find out about another piece of functionality and way of doing things. In addition they will take requests for additional functionality with a view to implementation in order to better the service.

If you have come across HireHop, I suggest that you take advantage of the free trial to see what it can do for you!

I had previously used 2 other popular products, in a nutshell, this made them look like toys. It does stuff none of the rest do, like email storage on jobs, pre-prep, amazing auto pull features and the synchronized scanning between computers just amazed me and my partner (there's loads more stuff as well). It basically does everything the rest do, but better, plus a load more.

The email integration is incredible and something I have never seen before. I can send emails with attachments or with merged documents in the email message or as attached PDF's and they all come from my email address. Not only that, but they also appear in my email "Sent" folder. I can store, view and reply to emails from within the software. All you do is just drag and drop the email from your email program onto the job, and that's it. I forgot to mention, your sent emails are also saved on jobs (and projects) as well. Its like having an email program for each job.

The synchronized scanning (or checking in or out as they call it) is just mind bending. Me and my partner check items out for a job together, but don't want to share a computer, I use my iPad and he uses a PC. When I scan or check something out, instantly (and I mean instantly), it decreases the necessary quantities on my iPad and his PC at the same time without him having to reload the page or anything, it all happens live, apparently we can use any amount of devices. Not only that, we can also print PAL labels for boxes that shows what's inside each box.

The product is cheaper than others and far better (I can't stress how much better it is).

My only sort of negative comment is that I had to get used to it, but it is far easier to use than my old software that took me 4 months to get the hang of.

It also has features I didn't even realise where there, but when you speak to the support (which is free by the way), they usually tell you about them. However it sort of adds to my day when I find another cool feature, like today I discovered that by simply dragging and dropping an email attachment onto my desktop or into a folder, actually downloads it to there. Yesterday I found out about barcode commands, being things you can tell the software to do just by scanning a barcode.

This system seriously sets a new standard and I can't praise it enough.

One word of advice, trying it is free, but call them after like I did as when they demo it, you see so much more and solutions to problems you had.

I've been told I over do things, so when it took me 2 months to methodically go through all the software available to manage equipment hire for rental companies, people that know me were not surprised (probably why my boss gave me the task). I have to say that HireHop is hands down the best and was the clear winner for us, it even has features that I never knew we needed that no other software has (email storage and viewing on jobs for example).

I work for an AV company with 12 employees, with one main warehouse and 4 other locations (in venue), each manned by one man. We class each of these "venue's" as a depot location and it works perfectly for this, especially as it is cloud based.

I was dubious about the cloud at first, but when I discovered how secure, scalable and robust it is, I was turned, considering Microsoft, Adobe, etc. are all moving their products to the cloud and all huge businesses are following; and as they know better than me, they can't be wrong. Our last system was on our own server and started to cost us a small fortune to run, adopting HireHop has drastically lowered our IT costs and made our whole operation far more efficient, it even drove new business our way with its online equipment directory that's free for all users.

I went through it myself and then got a demo that showed me advanced scanning features, like how you only need to scan a box as the system knows what is in them, the subcontractors and purchase order system, the unbeatable email integration, projects, billing, hire and sales stock management, etc. I must also mention that the form designer is like nothing we have ever seen before, it is so easy to use and we have been able to make amazing forms that I found no other cloud system was capable of doing due to the layout, their limitations and their complexity.

Adopting the HireHop software to manage our AV Hire Company has been one of the best choices we have made.