Designed to connect rental houses and production teams, Nexus Marketplace combines AI-powered search, real-time inventory visibility and end-to-end logistics to provide live availability and pricing so that users can build orders through multiple companies, as TPi discovers.
“It’s a bit nerve-wracking to completely overhaul our business model to run Nexus Marketplace, but we hope that this new system will ensure that there are options for those productions that need specific products,” said Tom Agar, Managing Director at Nexus, reflecting on the company’s recent strategic shift. “We have very much built this platform to support the smaller to medium-sized companies that have the extra equipment but are without the routes to the market.”
Agar and Niall Rodgers, Head of Rental at Nexus, disclosed that in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, the landscape for the dry-hire completely changed, and for Nexus, it was important for productions to be able to use UK-based companies to reduce their carbon impact. “To make using multiple companies a viable option, we had to make sure that it was both cost and environmentally effective, which is what Marketplace does,” Agar explained. “A supplier might have to source a specific product from multiple smaller dry hire companies like us, and when that happens, Nexus Marketplace configures the best options for convenience, carbon emissions and cost. The user can then decide which option works best for a specific production.”
With Nexus Marketplace aimed at streamlining the sub-hiring process, the developers want users to rely on it for transport coordination and customer support, with the platform taking care of any admin. “We’re trying to make the process as simple as possible; Nexus Marketplace does all of the linking together between the systems, as we thought it would be the best thing to use existing software the companies are already using,” Agar said. “That way, when an order enters into the system it exists just as any other order, and the user doesn’t have to continuously check Marketplace and that it’s all automated.”
Nexus then assigns barcodes to each piece of kit, so it gets returned correctly but most importantly, if something goes wrong, Nexus can know exactly where it has come from and act accordingly. “We will know about any lost or damaged items before they return to their original home, this means we can take care of it with the production or even vice versa, if an item arrives damaged, we can solve it as quickly as possible,” Agar said.
To keep emissions down, Nexus is committed to reducing the number of empty truck journeys – with teams on the way to collect or distribute equipment, utilising Haulage Exchange to fill the trucks with any load from the 20,000 loads posted every day on the site.
“It can be anything from flowers to cereal, but it means that we’re making a difference environmentally by never travelling empty,” Agar commented. “We also feel like we’re serving a purpose by providing an additional service to those not in our industry, but it means that customers are paying the absolute minimum possible for transport as we’re not charging for empty miles.”
For Agar, the point is to bring convenience to the industry; early adopters of the software include IPS (Impact Production Services). Karl Saunders, Managing Director at IPS, commented: “As one of the first vendors on Nexus Marketplace, we’ve seen first-hand how this platform can streamline sub hire for our customers. Nexus Marketplace is an interesting development with a high opportunity to enhance our equipment utilisation. Marketplace starts the path of an innovative step forward for the rental industry.”
Read the full story below…
Words: Alicia Pollitt
Photo: TPi
