5 Reasons Why Manufacturers Love CET Designer

Over the last couple of years, we've watched the success of CET Designer in the contract furniture industry, and we've been very impressed.

As you know, CET Designer is a powerful design software that dealer designers use to create spaces and specify products.

More and more manufacturers have created their extensions for CET Designer, so designers can specify and use their products in their designs.

What is an extension?  An extension is a way for you to express your products within CET Designer.

You as the manufacturer create an extension with the name of your company. Dealers download the extension, and then they can access your products to place in their designs.

So why do so many manufacturers love CET Designer? Here are 5 reasons why:

1. CET Designer helps manufacturers connect with dealers 

CET Designer is a marketing and sales channel for manufacturers.

The design software is easy to use and provides a way that designers can interact with manufacturer products in a simple and powerful way. This means that dealers love it and are thankful for manufacturers who offer them products to use in CET Designer.

Configura also offers loads of marketing opportunities for manufacturers who build extensions for CET Designer.

These opportunities include press releases about the launch of your extension, e-blasts to users,  and announcements at Configura’s conferences.

It makes sense that manufacturers are excited about this new way to reach their target audience.  

2. CET Designer reduces mistakes

Designers love CET Designer because product rules are baked into most extensions.  CET Designer only lets designers configure your products based on your rules.

This means that manufacturers help designers reduce mistakes and help their own operations by ensuring orders they receive are possible and accurate.

This shortens the sales cycle for the dealer and speeds up fulfillment on the manufacturer’s end.

3.  CET Designer helps manufacturers internally

A CET Designer render

The fun isn't only for dealers.  Manufacturers use CET Designer for their internal specification and design teams.

The interface is drag and drop, easy-to-use, and rich with the product data that manufacturer internal teams need to sell their products.

CET Designer even has connectivity with ERP systems, so the information that your internal team works with will be compatible with your company-wide data system.

4. All of the major contract furniture dealer channels are on board with CET Designer

Configura’s influence has grown exponentially the last couple of years.  Now all of the major dealer channels (Steelcase, Haworth, Herman Miller, Allsteel, Knoll, Teknion) are either already offering their extensions in CET Designer or planning to do so in the coming year.

This is important for open brands, as open brands want to improve their sales in primary dealer channels.  CET Designer extensions are the perfect way for mid-sized manufacturers to stand out in the crowd.

5. Manufacturers are partners when they develop for CET Designer

Configura is the company behind CET Designer, and they are one of the most open companies I've ever seen.  Configura is extremely friendly with new manufacturers who develop for their CET Designer platform.

They are so friendly, they even call manufacturers and supporting vendors “partners.”

Configura is also great about inviting partners to become part of the development process for the CET Designer platform.  They respond to suggestions on ways to improve the software for their customers.

This also carries over to their user base of over 5,000 designers who they often ask for product feedback.

These are the reasons manufacturers love CET Designer and why you should too.