Project Summary
Developing business automation software to automate the paperwork of ordering custom furnishings to one of the leading Dutch furniture industries. The platform adds all the necessary information from sofa collections, fabrics, sizes, and frame styles to an all-in-one ordering platform. So the customer will be able to record all the needed information in the admin panel at the same time.
Project Status: In progress Client: UrbanSofa
Start Date: 2020-Present Project Type: Custom web application
Customers can get high-quality, European-made sofas at better prices thanks to UrbanSofa's unique business model. They produce their furniture with care for people and the environment and sell it directly from their factory. In 2011, UrbanSofa stood out in the Netherlands by moving away from the usual furniture industry practices. They avoid added costs like storage and transhipment by skipping importers and wholesalers. This allows them to offer lower prices. Each sofa is custom-made in Europe and delivered to an UrbanSofa sales point for final delivery to the customer's home, making the process simple and cost-effective. All these processes, from ordering to delivery, wouldn’t be possible without UrbanSofa's admin panel.
Goals and Objectives
Consider the real challenge of managing a high volume of orders. Now, imagine that every single one of those orders isn't the same. Each customer wants something a little different, specific materials, a certain model, a particular size, and maybe even a unique colour. The old way of dealing with this complexity was incredibly time-consuming. Someone actually had to take each individual order, read through all the details, and double-check everything by hand, repeatedly. It's easy to see how mistakes could happen and how much time that process would consume. The project followed these main objectives:
- Managing and automating the process of choosing fabrics and materials
- Managing and automating the shapes and forms of the furniture
- Sorting and categorising the price based on the selected items
The above-mentioned objectives are added in pre-defined selections and catalogue items, and the salesperson inputs the order details using those options.
Product and Features
Ordering custom furniture can often be a complex and time-consuming process. Customers may face challenges in clearly communicating their exact requirements, navigating through numerous options, and ensuring compatibility with their existing space. Traditional methods can involve lengthy consultations, potential misinterpretations, and the risk of receiving a final product that doesn't fully meet their expectations. Furniture providers, on the other hand, often struggle with managing diverse and intricate customer requests, leading to production inefficiencies and increased costs.
To solve these problems, we've developed a custom software solution that streamlines the entire process of ordering customised furniture. Our platform allows customers to easily input their specific requirements by selecting from a range of preset data options. This intuitive, user-friendly interface simplifies the customisation journey, ensuring accuracy and clarity in every order. With just a few taps, customers can design their ideal furniture piece, tailored to their precise needs and preferences. This not only improves the customer but also provides furniture providers with a structured and efficient system for processing orders, reducing errors and optimising production.
1. Preset Data Option
Customers ordering custom furniture often face an overwhelming number of choices. They may struggle with:
- Unclear terminology: Not knowing the precise names or specifications for materials, finishes, or dimensions.
- Decision fatigue: Becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of options, leading to anxiety and a longer ordering process.
- Potential for errors: Incorrectly entering measurements or choosing incompatible options, resulting in dissatisfaction and costly returns or remakes.
- Communication challenges: Difficulty articulating their desired specifications to the furniture provider, leading to misinterpretations and discrepancies between the order and the final product.
How Preset Data Options Solve This:
The "Preset Data Options" feature directly addresses these pain points by providing:
- Clarity and Simplicity: A comprehensive library of predefined options with clear, standardised terminology eliminates customer confusion and simplifies the selection process.
- Guided Customisation: By offering a curated set of choices, the feature guides customers through the customisation process, making it less daunting and more user-friendly.
- Accuracy and Compatibility: The system ensures that customers can only select compatible options, preventing errors and guaranteeing that the final product meets the customer’s needs and expectations.
Efficient Communication: Preset options provide a common language for customers and furniture providers, ensuring clear communication and reducing the risk of misinterpretations.
2. Compatibility Check
Customers ordering custom furniture often face an overwhelming number of choices. They may struggle with:
- Unclear terminology: Not knowing the precise names or specifications for materials, finishes, or dimensions.
- Decision fatigue: Becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of options, leading to anxiety and a longer ordering process.
- Potential for errors: Incorrectly entering measurements or choosing incompatible options, resulting in dissatisfaction and costly returns or remakes.
- Communication challenges: Difficulty articulating their desired specifications to the furniture provider, leading to misinterpretations and discrepancies between the order and the final product.
How Compatibility Checks Solves This: The "Compatibility Checks" feature directly addresses these pain points by:
- Real-time Validation: Automatically verifying the compatibility of selected options as the customer makes them, preventing the accumulation of incompatible choices.
- Error Prevention: Guiding the customer towards a viable design by flagging incompatible selections and suggesting alternatives.
- Streamlined Production: Ensuring that orders are sent to production with all specifications being viable, eliminating the need for manual checks and design adjustments.
Reduced Costs and Increased Satisfaction: Preventing returns, remakes, and delays, leading to cost savings for the provider and a better experience for the customer.
3. Streamlined production Data
Furniture providers often receive order information in various formats (handwritten notes, verbal instructions, etc.), which can lead to errors, misinterpretations, and time-consuming manual data entry into production systems. This results in production delays, increased costs, and potential quality issues.
How Streamlined Production Data Solves This: The "Streamlined Production Data" feature directly addresses these pain points by:
- Automated Data Transfer: Automatically translating customer-selected options into a standardized, machine-readable format for direct input into production systems.
- Error Reduction: Eliminating the need for manual data entry, thereby minimizing the risk of transcription errors and misinterpretations.
- Accelerated Production: Enabling a faster transition from order placement to production, reducing lead times and improving efficiency.
Improved Accuracy and Cost Savings: Ensuring production is based on precise order specifications, minimising waste, rework, and ultimately lowering production costs.
4. Efficient Order Management
Furniture providers often struggle with managing the complexities of custom orders, which can involve numerous variations, unique requirements, and dependencies. This can lead to:
- Disorganised workflows: Difficulty in tracking the status of each order, leading to confusion and delays.
- Inefficient scheduling: Suboptimal production schedules, resulting in bottlenecks, longer lead times, and missed deadlines.
- Increased overhead: The need for additional staff or resources to manage the complexities of custom orders.
How Efficient Order Management Solves This
The "Efficient Order Management" feature directly addresses these pain points by:
- Centralised Order Tracking: Providing a single platform to manage and monitor all custom orders, from placement to delivery, improving visibility and organisation.
- Production Optimisation: Enabling the creation of optimised production schedules, taking into account order priorities, resource availability, and dependencies, thus minimising bottlenecks and maximising efficiency.
- Reduced Lead Times: Streamlining the order improves the process, allowing furniture providers to deliver custom orders to customers more quickly.
Scalability and Cost Reduction: Providing the tools to handle a higher volume of custom orders without a proportional increase in administrative overhead and reducing the costs associated with delays and errors.
5: Integration Capabilities
Furniture providers often use disparate software systems (e.g., CRM, ERP) that don't communicate with each other. This results in:
- Data Silos: Information is scattered across different systems, making it difficult to get a holistic view of the business and customer.
- Manual Data Entry: Staff must manually transfer data between systems, which is time-consuming, error-prone, and inefficient.
- Workflow Inefficiencies: Lack of integration hinders automation, leading to fragmented and cumbersome workflows.
How Integration Capabilities Solve This: The "Integration Capabilities" feature directly addresses these pain points by:
- Seamless Data Flow: Enabling smooth and automated data exchange between the custom furniture software and other business systems (e.g., CRM, ERP).
- Holistic View of Information: Providing a centralised hub for all relevant data, giving a comprehensive view of the customer, order, and production processes.
- Workflow Automation: Automating tasks and processes that previously required manual intervention, such as order status updates, inventory management, and shipping notifications.
Improved Efficiency and Accuracy: Reducing manual labor, minimising errors, improving data accuracy, and streamlining operations across the business.
6. Automated Financial Recording
Furniture providers often face challenges with manual financial record-keeping, which can lead to:
- Time-consuming data entry: Manually recording order details and generating invoices.
- Risk of errors: Mistakes in calculations, data entry, and invoice creation.
- Data inconsistency: Discrepancies between order data, sales records, and accounting systems.
- Delayed insights: Difficulty in getting a real-time view of sales performance and financial status.
Automated financial recording directly addresses these pain points by:
- Automatic Record Keeping: Instantly recording order data and generating necessary financial information for the accounting system.
- Error Reduction: Eliminating manual copying and pasting of invoice data, reducing the chance of errors.
- Real-time Data Updates: Ensuring sales data is automatically updated, providing an immediate and accurate view of business performance.
Improved Accuracy and Efficiency: Maintaining correct financial records, saving time, and lowering the probability of mistakes.