The Element Designs story
Established in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2003, Element Designs is the leading manufacturer of aluminium frame and glass cabinet doors in North America.
The business, which began as a sales and marketing company, quickly evolved to become an innovative, quality-driven custom manufacturer. Over the last 23 years, Element Designs has steadily expanded its product line, which now also includes custom shelving solutions, drawer fronts, magnetic markerboards and sliding door systems and the company also has an extensive backpainted glass program. It offers a selection of finishes and colours, which are customizable to suit individual requirements.
All products are sustainably made at its state-of-the-art, 60,000sq ft manufacturing facility in Fort Mill, South Carolina. They’re sold through Element Designs’ extensive North American sales network, which prioritizes fast lead times and first-class customer service and support. Growth continues to be strong with Element Designs acquiring approximately 5 new accounts per day, with customers ranging from large furniture manufacturers to small cabinet shops.
Beata Klecha, VP of Marketing at Element Designs, played a key role in helping the company modernize and secure its systems to cater for the evolving needs of the business and its customers.
Outdated systems didn’t provide the required scalability and security
Element Designs was using a custom configurator that it built in-house. It was dated and didn’t provide the scalability that the company required. Security was also a key concern following ransomware attacks that have had catastrophic effects on other companies within the industry.
Design capabilities were limited
The company’s custom products weren’t being professionally presented to customers during the design process. Black and white drawings lacked clarity and without a realistic rendering, customers couldn’t accurately visualise how the finished product would look, which sometimes resulted in customers requiring replacement orders.
Need for change
Element Designs vetted numerous potential partners but wasn’t prepared to settle for a system that didn’t meet all its requirements and was fully prepared to re-build a more secure configurator in-house once again. The company was already utilizing Cyncly’s Design Flex software and was in discussions about extending the partnership through Insight when it was introduced to 3CAD, and instantly recognized its potential.
“Our products are so visual and there are many aspects that visually affect whether a customer is happy with the end product they receive. With our existing system, we had no way of really showing a customer what the door looks like with hinges on it. It was more or less a black and white scale drawing, and they had to use their imagination for everything else.” - Beata Klecha, VP of Marketing
3D product configurator
3CAD CPQ software revolutionizes the design to manufacturing process, providing powerful 3D visualisation. Perfect for custom manufacturers such as Element Designs, 3CAD enables customers to modify designs in real time to explore different styles, colors and finishes. The advanced, lifelike renders quickly provide a true representation of the finished product, elevating the customer experience and speeding up the sales process.
Security and scalability
The software securely supports current and future growth, providing a seamless user experience to Element Designs’ growing customer base.
Streamlined integration with sales and manufacturing software
3CAD pulls data and feeds it directly into Element Designs’ manufacturing equipment.
“3CAD looked very intriguing and I knew it had the capability to do the entire front-end process for our customers from order entry, customization and building. And it gave us a solution that provided a realistic rendering of what the product is going to look like. Using the software, customers can turn the product around and see what it looks like from the front, with hinges or without hinges and that is really significant for us. We hadn’t appreciated that functionality and how much of an improvement it could be to us and for the customer experience until we saw Cyncly’s 3CAD.”
Continuity for staff for a seamless transition
Being able to integrate 3CAD into its existing systems enables Element Designs’ staff to maintain a seamless service.
“Rather than replacing systems our team already knew, we integrated 3CAD into our Salesforce ecosystem. That meant our sales team continued working in a familiar environment while gaining powerful visualization and configuration capabilities.”
100% reduction in replacement orders
Being able to visually configure and price products online ensures customers are confident in their design choices as they know exactly what the finished product will look like. This has resulted in a 100% reduction in replacement orders for customer design and specification issues.
“We have completely eliminated replacement orders due to customer disastisfaction.”
Faster lead times
Initial data shows that orders are increasingly being shipped out early since Element Designs began transitioning over to its new Element Online 2.0 system, powered by 3CAD. So far manufacturing lead times have been reduced by 1-2 days, and the savings are expected to be greater once all customers have migrated to the new system.
“We are shipping orders out early more often, which is really good.”
Increased confidence
Team members have more confidence in the process and the information they are receiving, and customers feel more comfortable to experiment with Element Designs’ product portfolio.
“It is a great way for customers to explore different options and to upsell or try alternative design visions, because when you can see what the product looks like in a pretty accurate way, I think you're more willing to veer from what's familiar or safe.”
Improved fabrication drawings
Fabrication drawings now contain all relevant design details, so every department has all the information they require at their fingertips. This has eliminated questions by Element Designs’ manufacturing team, which can now instantly see where parts need to be installed or positioned on a door.
Improved order process
Configurations are automatically validated to ensure accuracy and feasibility, which has improved the order process for customers and staff.
“It’s just making the entire ordering process more frictionless than it ever has been before. For us, the customer experience doesn't end with a successful order. Every improvement we make to the ordering process reduces uncertainty, increases confidence, and helps our customers deliver a better experience to their own customers.”
Enhanced R&D
Advanced 3D modelling and visualization supports research and development and speeds up the roll-out of new custom components.
“I could see us potentially using 3CAD for R&D.”
