LD Seating is a Czech manufacturer of task chairs, lounge furniture, and modular seating systems for offices, hotels, and public spaces. The collaboration started with taking over a system built by another vendor, and led to a configurator that eventually became Konfigure.
Someone else's house, no blueprints
LD Seating came to us with a brief that sounded simple. Here's an existing system from our previous vendor, we'd like to extend it.
It was a sprawling custom build: a custom PHP CMS with Vue injected into it, frontend and backend grown into each other. Documentation, none. The code leaned on private repositories and local files we had no access to, so at first the project wouldn't even install. The CMS core also served other projects, which meant it carried things that had nothing to do with LD Seating.
For the first few weeks we didn't ship a single new feature. We worked out what depended on what, and got the system into a state where we could touch it without breaking something.
Replacing it piece by piece
Rewriting everything at once would have cost LD Seating more than it was worth. So we replaced only what needed replacing: a new frontend in Nuxt, and a new API in .NET that sits between the new site and the parts of the original solution that did their job well.
The difference showed quickly. The site gained a better look and a better feel, further development got significantly cheaper, and SEO was fixed. Pages used to be assembled in the visitor's browser, so search engines only ever saw part of them. Today they get the full content straight from the server, and plenty to index.
From catalogue to configurator
Once the system was running the way it should, the next suggestion came from our side. We'd had our eye on 3D models for a while, and LD Seating was the obvious place to try them: complex products, endless options, and customers who struggle to picture their dream combination from photographs. We offered to sketch something out and work out what it would cost.
The configurator was built in their visual identity from the start, not a generic widget bolted onto the page. They liked what they saw, the numbers worked, and we had a deal.
We tried it on a handful of chairs first. That demo grew into a standalone app for Nido, LD Seating's modular seating system. Customers assemble a set in 3D and walk away with production-ready output. Which raised an obvious question: could the same work for the rest of the range?
Breaking a chair down into parts
It could, provided there was data to build on. Until then, chairs existed in the CMS only as complete units. To make them configurable, we had to break them down into individual parts: shell, base, upholstery, armrests, casters. And write a description for each one.
Data preparation is routinely underestimated on configurator projects, and yet it's what the whole thing stands or falls on. We helped the client through it, and wrote a guide about it along the way.
Product selection, once scattered across separate tabs for models, upholstery, and armrests, came together in one place, with descriptions, a 3D preview, and the option to export a configuration and send it on.
Who it turned out to be for
We were aiming, as was LD Seating, at the end customer. At someone who wants to put a chair in their living room or their office and see it before they buy it.
Yet the tool found its way into B2B too. Architects and interior studios can use it to check how a set will fit into a project. Sales reps and dealers put together fully specified orders without having to price the configuration by hand and check it with production.
The seed of Konfigure
As modular products piled up, it became clear that this shouldn't be a bespoke build every single time. It should be a product. That's how Konfigure came about, and LD Seating deserves thanks twice over. For the initial push, and for the nerve to join us on a project that was still taking shape. Theirs was the first catalogue that showed us what a configurator can really do, and we're still working together today.
By the numbers
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- Product lines live
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- Possible configurations
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- Self-service price quotes
Takeaway
What was once an inherited, barely maintainable system is now a site with a 3D configurator that shows LD Seating’s dealers and customers the product before an order is ever placed, and one that gave rise to Konfigure itself.