Start Asking More of Your Rental Business Data with Alert DataLink

Your rental software holds years of valuable information: customers, reservations, equipment, deliveries, payments, and more. Every day, your team adds to that history.

But how easily can you put that information to work?

Reports are a familiar starting point. Sometimes, though, a question leads to another question—and answering it means gathering information from several places.

Alert DataLink opens up more ways to work with your Alert data, from refreshable Excel tables to custom dashboards and experiments with AI.

One Question Can Lead to Better Questions

Recently, Alert Customer Success Manager Abe Clinger connected our demo system to ChatGPT using DataLink. After providing the DataLink documentation and explaining how the information fit together, he started asking questions inspired by a real customer.

He began with something straightforward:

“What’s coming back on October 31?”

That question produced more than a list of expected returns. As Abe explored the information, the analysis flagged:

• A possible three-hour turnaround on a piece of equipment.

• A potential shortage of cocktail tables.

• Seven cash customers with reservations that had no recorded prepayments.

Each finding suggested something worth checking. Would the equipment be ready for its next rental? Did the possible shortage need attention? Were payments missing, or was there another explanation?

Then came the follow-up questions: Could he identify other tight turnarounds? Find possible overbookings? Group deliveries and pickups into proposed routes for two trucks and display them on a map?

Working with the demo data, he explored all of those possibilities.

A Useful Head Start for Your Team

These experiments used Alert demo data, and the results were not finished operational tools.

Some proposed routes needed better addresses. Availability, payment status, turnaround timing, and truck capacity all needed verification before anyone could act on the results.

That distinction matters. A proposed route still needs an operational review. A potential shortage needs confirmation. A reservation without a recorded prepayment needs someone to check the details.

What made the experiment useful was how quickly a question could become a list, spreadsheet, chart, or proposed route worth investigating. It gave the team a starting point for deciding where to look next.

What Is Alert DataLink?

DataLink provides access to your Alert data. What you do with that information depends on the tools and workflows you choose.

ChatGPT is not part of DataLink. Neither are Excel, Power BI, Claude, or other outside applications. Those are separate tools that can work with the information DataLink makes available.

And you don’t need AI to get value from it.

Abe also connected Excel directly to DataLink using Power Query, pulling Alert information into tables that could be refreshed when needed. For a team already comfortable working in Excel, that offers a familiar way to explore information and build recurring analyses.

Other possibilities include custom dashboards, CRM connections, specialized reports, or applications that combine Alert information with other business data.

DataLink offers a variety of structured extracts. If a project needs information beyond what is already available, we can discuss additional extracts or endpoints.

External connections require appropriate security and technical setup. DataLink also isn’t designed to write changes back into Alert. Projects that need to send information into Alert require a separate discussion about Web Services, E-Commerce, or another supported integration.

Start with the Question You Want to Answer

You don’t need to begin with a dashboard design or a technical specification. Start with something your team spends time gathering, checking, or wondering about.

For example:

• Which customers haven’t rented from us lately?

• What products are our best customers renting?

• Which upcoming rentals might involve tight equipment turnarounds?

• What information do we regularly combine from several reports?

• What would help our staff prepare for a busy delivery day?

The right starting point is a question that matters to your business. From there, you can explore what information is available and how best to use it.

What Would You Like to Ask Your Alert Data?

Your team already puts valuable information into Alert every day. DataLink offers more ways to bring that information into the tools you use to understand and run your business.

Have an idea you’ve been putting off because you weren’t sure how to get the information? Abe would love to hear it.

Email Abe to discuss your ideas and explore whether DataLink makes sense for your rental business.

Sometimes, “I wish Alert could…” is all it takes to get started.