There is a battle looming. The global car rental industry is undergoing a radical transformation and the companies which know their customers are going to win. These companies will deliver the service customers want - and that little bit more.

Can you imagine enjoying the experience of renting a car or truck? One day soon the person behind the counter will know your needs, as if intuitively. And you will get Starbucks coffee while you wait. Or the chance to buy the toothbrush you forgot from the 7-Eleven counter next to the desk.

Until recently the $16 billion rental market was owned by car manufacturers. Now it is savvy entrepreneurs who hold the cards (except for Hertz, still 80% owned by Ford). Henry Silverman controls Cendant which owns Avis, Wayne Huizenga controls Republic Industries which owns National, Alamo and CarTemps, Sandy Miller owns Budget, Ryder, and various other transport companies.

What are the changes? Increasingly, vertical integration around how a customer vehicles. The new players sell new and used cars as well as renting them, managing a car through its whole life cycle. This means they can develop a view of how individuals buy, use and dispose of cars. (At the same time these companies capture all the margins through the life cycle of an auto). A hypothesis: say you discover from your data that people over 50, living in Utah have a thing about buying Ford Explorers. You would send your Ford salesmen in, pronto.

Rental companies face a challenge today: they need to discover what their customers like (by looking at how they behave), and then match that as best they can. This means customer service attendants will need to work from a menu of options to build something like a customized service.

The new "superowners" (i.e., Republic Industries and Budget Rental Group) are developing portfolios of rental companies across the segments – corporate, leisure, replacement, and truck rental. This expanded portfolio allows them to share fleet, integrate systems, smooth out the cyclicality of their businesses and offer a wider range of services.

Integrated, customer-focused, enterprise-wide, global, information technology systems are a sine qua non of this business. How else can you be efficient? How else can you build a profile of, and understand, your customers and suppliers?

Customers are already reaping the benefits of these new enterprise-wide systems. We are seeing new products and services coming on line. Today we can rent a sport utility vehicle or a sports car (even a Ferrari) without difficulty. The new systems allow for sophisticated loyalty programs such as linkage with airline miles.

Integrated systems also allow players to manage their enterprise as a whole, to act as cohesive company, while bringing together a variety of rental car and non-rental car businesses.

We have come a long way from the 1980’s when car manufacturers used their car rental firms to dump slow-moving inventory, stabilize production schedules and build up their investment tax credit.