To move from a multi-channel to a true omni-channel customer experience, the different sales channels need to be integrated. In the area of interior products - be it furniture, kitchens or building materials - this means that, besides having the same tools available across the different channels, the design and purchase process participants need to also be able to collaborate efficiently; While important in the residential furniture retail, in the commercial furniture and home improvement categories the collaboration is often vital.

When Allsteel decided to implement a new design and visualisation tool they had two objectives in mind. Firstly, the new tool needed to enable the sales and designs teams to create the customer designs visually, automatically create information on required items and fixings, as well as to be able to integrate to the business systems for automatic order processing. Secondly, the solution had to enable Allsteel's large sales team to share their work, knowledge, and best practices anywhere and at any time, through a cloud-based sales tool. And this is exactly what the VividPlatform was designed for. Besides enabling the fully visual and automatic 'Design-to-Purchase' process, the platform collaboration features allow, for example

•  Allsteel personnel to quickly create designs for the customer space and easily share the designs with the rest of the design team using the design application itself, enabling a true collaboration on the design throughout the project.
• Design teams to re-use designs from the previous customer cases, either as they are or modifying them quickly for the needs of the new customer.
• Collaboration on multiple levels: The solutions provides generic galleries for anyone's use (e.g. commercial interior designers, customers, public) and limited-access collaboration spaces available only for the Allsteel teams' business use.
• Allsteel product management and design departments to prepare ready-made design templates, improving the sales teams efficiency and helping them to demonstrate the features and possibilities of new product families.
• Easy sharing of the design and keeping the customer informed throughout the design and deployment process.