Modular display system manufacturer Abstracta creates exhibition, retail, office, and home furniture based on a unique design that has enjoyed unrivaled popularity since the 1960s. Retail Interiors, exhibition stands and showrooms are the main market, with bespoke point of sale being on the increase and office and home ranges also available.

As a small company originally started in 1962, Abstracta has grown significantly over the years and is now proud to be a major European supplier in the competitive modular display system field. Managing Director Walker Brierley put their success and growth down to their customer-centric approach and their drive to find new and innovative ways of working.

As Abstracta continued to expand and diversify their product offerings and go-to-market strategy, it began looking for a tool with which it could effectively document and control the design of their growing modular display system.

However, it soon became apparent that the right solution could do considerably more than just design — it could also support sales. The Abstract sales team needed to find a CAD system that would allow them to quickly an efficiently create furniture designs for customers from their library of modular display system parts.

Finding the Right CAD Platform for Sales Team Support

Previously sales inquiries came in over phone and sales staff then sketched out drawings of the proposed shelving, calculated and quoted a price and then faxed to customer. This system was slow, as they manually calculated all the required parts and was ultimately prone to error because of the amount of manual work. More worrying was the impression given when going out to prospective customers with poor quality drawings and unclear pricing.

Abstracta evaluated a number of CAD solutions and selected IronCAD for its ease of use, user friendly look and feel and, most importantly, its Smart Assembly functionality and TriBall-based tools. The company was also impressed by IronCAD’s local support, provided by their reseller Response Associates, and the direct access to the US-based IronCAD development team for special requests.

Creating a Modular Display System Sales Catalog

Using IronCADs’ unique Smart Assembly system and the powerful drag and drop functionality, Abstracta was able to completely revolutionize the way in which it interacted with their customers and prospects.

Having employed services of Response Associates to create a comprehensive product catalog containing a range of smart assembly parts, they were able to effectively implement IronCAD as a sales consultancy tool.

Today, the sales process within Abstracta has been totally automated. As inquiries come in over the phone, sales staff can quickly and easily build virtual shelves within IronCAD using the catalog of standard parts for Abstracta’s modular display system, create photorealistic renderings, generate detailed site installation drawings, calculate shipping weights, and produce accurate bill of materials data, costing information, and picking lists — all in a matter of minutes.

Modular Display System Success

In a short period of time, significant changes have been noted, with sales increasing by up to 20 percent, and noticeable reduction in errors and the associated costs. Quotation time has reduced from hours to minutes. Add to this the improved quality of information provided to the customer, which has undoubtedly resulted in improved consumer confidence.

“The automated solution has now increased the scope, and simplified the process, for appointing more overseas distributors as they will now be able to quote accurately and demo product solutions without holding stock,” said Managing Director Brierley. “And the accurate picklist and automated BOM data now means that they can look at outsourcing their warehousing to a lower-cost location.”

Overall, the future is definitely looking up in the modular structure industry, and for Abstracta, with an automated sales process powered by IronCAD.