Bright Event Rentals Case Study

If there is one thing we know about the event industry, it is that parties can be bright. Take a company like Bright Event Rentals, and you have a great example of what this looks like. No matter if an event is big or small, people love to get together to celebrate almost any kind of occasion.  

Michael Prichett, Partner –  Marketing and Sales, shared the story of how Bright Event Rentals became a leader in party and event rentals. 

Following its 2013 acquisition of Wine Country Party & Events, the company was expanding and needed a new, geographically neutral brand. In 2015 they  became Bright Event Rentals and opened in San Francisco. With an emphasis on bright colors, bright people, and bright events, the company was bound for success. They created a variety of events from small family gatherings to giant music festivals with thousands of attendees. Bright knew they needed a good software system to be able to keep up with the equipment and other rental demands.   

“The name always puts a bright smile on my face. Having the mission to provide that brightness in people’s lives is a very big responsibility,” said Michael.  

However, the spirit of Bright is only half of the story. To truly understand what drives the brand forward, we need to look into how their partnership with Alert Rental came about and how that relationship has grown over time.   

The initial company in Sonoma used a very different ERP system that was eventually replaced by Alert and set the business up for growth. Alert’s ability to easily scale from one location to multiple proved to be beneficial for their “bright” future. A high priority was placed on standardization and ease of use in order to maximize the level of customer support across the multiple locations. Being able to guarantee the same back-of-house protocols and customer experiences can be a huge ask for any business. Fortunately, the resources provided by Alert Rental with regards to inventory management helped make all that happen and more. 

This focus on functionality actually proved to be an invaluable asset as Bright Event Rentals continued to expand further with Alert Rental into their other California and Arizona locations. Naturally, there will always be growing pains as partnerships are cultivated and grow in complexity. As tools and techniques are updated with newer, dynamic solutions, there will unsurprisingly be unexpected issues that need to be addressed. Even as the event rental industry was hit by the pandemic, strong relationships and good communication became excellent remedies for dealing with the economically uncertain times. 

As Michael shared, “It’s a matter of communicating to make sure all the information fields line up and we work with clean data. We definitely dumped some garbage into Alert Rental, but they helped us clean it up.” 

And that’s where things get serious. In today’s age, strong communication has never been more essential for businesses to succeed. Running a tight ship with multiple locations becomes nearly impossible without a robust network of standardized processes, constant contact, and reliable automation. Leveraging the technologies at their disposal through Alert has allowed Bright to step into the shoes of a fully realized e-commerce platform and provide their clientele with flexibility that just wasn’t possible before.  

So where does Bright Event Rentals go from here?

As with anything else in this age of technology, those who fall behind are left behind. Innovation isn’t just a token buzz word for marketing; the spirit of what it means to innovate is actually the fundamental cornerstone for any business trying to succeed and flourish. Every advance in technology has the potential to either send a business’ growth skyrocketing or topple it into the dustbin of steady decline depending on how well the people at the helm can come to grips with updates in their industry and harness that advancement to reinvent their own operation accordingly.  

Things like cutting edge GPS systems and client applications are an excellent example of what this innovation and progress looks like. Even 20 years ago, it would have been absolutely unheard of for a business to track its fleet of vehicles in real time, much less provide that same ability to customers who want to see where the equipment they ordered is located. Yet, through services like those provided by Alert Rental, that kind of “technological magic” is just part of the package. 

Bright’s number one goal was to improve our processes and make it easier for both our clients and our team members to do the work that they needed to do. According to Michael, “that still remains a key goal – to always improve that user interaction, regardless of where it is. And quite honestly, Alert Rental is a huge piece of being able to do that, both in its abilities and its limitations so we can come up with all these great ideas.” 

As long as companies like Bright Event Rentals can continue to progress forward through partnerships like the one they’ve cultivated with Alert Rental, the many challenges standing in front of them seem a little less daunting.