NETA’s Corporate Alliance Partners (CAPs) are industry-leading companies that have joined forces with NETA to work together toward a common aim: improving quality, safety, and electrical system reliability.
This ongoing NETA World series focuses on the thought leadership behind these successful companies. For this issue’s CAP Spotlight, we talked to Paul Seppanen, who founded A-Rent Test Equipment in 2019 to offer a new option for electrical test equipment rental, calibration, and asset management services. Seppanen previously led businesses providing field services in the pipeline, wind energy, and semiconductor manufacturing sectors. He holds BS and MS degrees in engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Stanford University, respectively.
SERVICES
Whether you need rental test equipment, calibration services, or asset management services, A-Rent can meet your needs. With locations in Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix, A-Rent goes beyond just offering rental equipment. They also provide comprehensive asset management solutions that provide firms with optimized performance and value for their equipment, plus calibration services to ensure the accuracy and reliability of existing equipment. Leveraging a cloud-based system, we ensure asset visibility and utilization while serving as a partner in your project planning.
Renting the best electrical test equipment from the top OEMs is A-Rent’s primary business. The company offers flexible daily, monthly, and long-term rentals as well as lease and rent-to-own options and they have the logistical solutions for fast and reliable nationwide deliveries. Customers also have the option to buy equipment out of their rental contracts.
A-Rent calibrates all of its equipment with the correct standards to ensure proper functionality and precise measurements. Its calibration services are NIST-traceable with a three-day turnaround.
A-Rent also helps customers get the most out of the test equipment they already own. Their asset management services include nationwide logistics to support field service teams. Between uses, they look after kit completeness, cleaning, repairs, and calibration.
“We strive for excellence in everything we do,” says Seppanen, “and we ensure that our customers receive the highest quality service and equipment.”
CULTURE
Seppanen says A-Rent’s culture reflects its mission, vision, and values. Guided by a mission to “build a better future together,” they are dedicated to becoming the premier test equipment partner for maintaining safe and reliable electrical infrastructure. “Our vision drives us to continually strive for excellence in everything we do, ensuring that our customers receive the highest quality service and equipment,” Seppanen explains.
“We are also committed to fostering growth through our people, empowering them to reach their full potential and contribute to our collective success. With a customer-driven approach, we prioritize understanding and exceeding the needs of our clients while building lasting partnerships,” he adds. “Together, we seek excellence in all aspects of our work, driven by a shared commitment to delivering exceptional value to our customers and making a positive impact.”
NW: What is the biggest challenge facing your company (e.g., hiring talent, supply chain, recession, safety, etc.)?
Seppanen: Our biggest challenge is sustaining our organizational culture and exceptionally high service standards as we scale up. We now have 50 people and three locations, with a fourth location to be added this fall. So we’ve been investing in systems and people development to allow the much larger and more dispersed team to execute with the same passion we’ve had since we launched with three people in 2019.
NW: What are the biggest challenges facing your customers?
Seppanen: While the industry remains busy, our customers will continue to face challenges maintaining sufficient field technicians and engineering staff to meet the workload. These are deeply technical roles that also require arduous hours, physical demands, and travel, which only a narrow subset of people can sustain.
NW: Which industry trends are you keeping an eye on?
Seppanen: We actively track project activities in the grid, data center, and solar spaces, with a special eye on the companies with sufficient personnel to execute the testing and commissioning scopes.
Many newcomers beyond the traditional NETA and OEM firms are now providing these services, including electrical contractors, EPCs, and other specialists. We will continue to tailor our rental, asset management, and technical support offerings to align with the needs of these diverse service providers.
NW: What new technologies are changing the way you work?
Seppanen: We seek to deploy AI in every useful application within our business. That does not mean — and will never mean — that we ask clients to organize a rental with a chatbot, but we are actively working on about eight significant use cases across our business that will streamline and improve our execution and analysis.
One tangible example is an AI logistics agent that helps automate the work our inside sales team does for every rental: evaluating and costing the various delivery methods to get test equipment wherever it is needed on schedule.
NW: What do you predict will impact your business in the near future?
Seppanen: I’m concerned about the new round of inflation we’re experiencing and the possibility of an economic recession
NW: Is this a good time to be in the electrical power testing business — why or why not?
Seppanen: Absolutely! There isn’t another sector I would consider shifting focus to. As an industry, we provide a critical enabling service for safe and reliable infrastructure that enhances everyone’s quality of life.
NW: If you could change one thing about how your business operates, what would it be?
Seppanen: It’s unrealistic, but I wish FedEx and UPS service levels were higher. We start every day by tracking outbound packages before we help mitigate potential impact to customers. We only consider an order fulfilled when a customer has a complete kit in hand and is ready to test, so shipping problems are ours to solve.
NW: What advice do you have for young people entering the field?
Seppanen: Pick a highly professional organization that is committed to your development. Then, try to be the most reliable and hungry young employee you can be. Pay your dues by energetically doing the work assigned, while following role models who have ascended the right way. Stay curious about your company, your client’s business, and evolving technology — eventually, these will all fit together into a comprehensive understanding of our sector.
NW: How important is mentoring in the electrical testing field, and why? What is your personal experience with mentoring?
Seppanen: Mentoring is vital, and the NETA community has a deep tradition of it. I’ve personally benefited from it, as Finley Ledbetter of CBS took me under his wing when I first got involved in the industry. He guided me on switchgear fundamentals, the right rental equipment priorities, and introduced me to many people who have become customers and suppliers.
I seek to continue this tradition by helping others with their businesses, way beyond test equipment needs. I’m also very proud that almost everyone at A-Rent came from outside our sector, and we’ve been able to develop them into contributing members.
NW: What are your personal strategies to keep growing and learning as a professional?
Seppanen: I’m interested in the ‘why’ of the people, projects, and clients we support. I love hearing people’s career stories and what brought them to our niche sector. As a company, we also try to understand the projects where our equipment is used, from a new data center in Louisiana, located for power availability, to a remote mine in the mountains yielding new rare earth supplies.