Who doesn’t know him? Sjef Goesten, General Manager and owner of Party Rental 't Arendje from the Netherlands. Together with Manager/owner Bram Cobben he is responsible for one of the largest party rental companies in the Netherlands and together they have decided to put their automation into the hands of OakSoft. “After several Audio and Video Rental companies has chosen for OakTree Rent we started looking for a Party Rental company. The discipline and methods of Party Rental companies are different from those of AV-rental companies. Some examples of this are route lists, cleaning lists, deficiency reports and dry hire. We are very proud that one of the most important party rental companies has chosen to put their knowledge into OakTree Rent”, says Geert van Erven, General Manager of OakSoft.

OakSoft and 't Arendje didn’t just start cooperating. After several demonstrations at the location in Drunen several possibilities were discussed. To Bram Cobben the link with the already existing webshop was especially important. “Even before the Festivak the company was looking for a new ERP solution for the rental company. So they started to research which software packages could best be implemented within the organization. After I met Sjef Goesten at the Festivak he advised me to contact his business partner Bram Cobben. After the first couple of demonstrations more and more questions arose and a plan concerning how the software could be prepared best for the catering rental industry was made. That ‘t Arendje also had input in the form of her knowledge helped creating a lot of trust between both companies”, says Geert van Erven.

COLLEAGUES OF THE RENTAL BUSINESS
Obviously, the first thing you do as a company is look at software packages that the colleague companies use. “You just talk about it and ask them whether they are satisfied with their software solution. Not a single colleague could convince us so we went with our own research.”, says Bram Cobben. “Decisive for our eventual decision was the conversation with Geert and our system managers. We quickly noticed that we were not only dealing with someone who knew what is going on within our industry, his technical background made it clear to us that with OakSoft we found a partner who know what they talk about.”, says Bram Cobben.

 

RFID-SOLUTION
‘t Arendje is also interested in our RFID-developments. “In the party rental industry some aspects are different from the AV rental industry. One of those is that it is not practical to fit every cup and saucer with a chip. Also, the chips need to withstand water and heat. So it comes down to place tags on chairs, tables, kitchen equipment and possibly full crates with crockery and cutlery. Then you would still miss the deficiencies, so you can’t skip the counting or weighing. Still we keep researching the possibilities withing the catering industry.”, says Henk Eikelboom, technical manager of OakSoft.

KNOW-HOW
That OakSoft is happy about the choice made by ‘t Arendje is clear. “When ‘t Arendje is very satisfied about our solution we know we can handle the full catering rental market. To fit not only the big catering rental companies, but also the little ones with the right software we soon expect to announce that a more local rental company has chosen for our software-solution. We hope to ratify the cooperation this week, making us a serious software supplier in the catering rental industry.”, says Geert van Erven.

OakTree Rent is the fastest growing software package for the rental industry. In only two months up to six rental companies chose OakSoft. “Besides that there are up to four rental companies talking with us right now to start working with our software soon. We didn’t indicate without a reason that we wanted to become one of the most important players within the rental industry. That is a big challenge and we will have to prove ourselves, but we have learned that if you deal with your customers in a nice way that you will not only profit from them as a reference, but that you get so much in return that you can forget about advertising. Because in this industry too everybody knows each other and a good reputation is faster broken than built. So we have to work on this every day. Which is something we stand for 24 hours a day.”, says OakSoft Manager Henk Eikelboom.

Picture: The striking LED-bar of ‘t Arendje with Sjef Goesten and Bram Cobben