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Call center furniture manufacturer Interior Concepts has won a Progressive Manufacturer of the Year award from Managing Automation magazine, published by Thomas Publishing Company.

Interior Concepts won the award in the small business category for its implementation of IceEdge Solutions' ICE software and ICEvision, which it uses to quote and design  its call center furniture.

The Java-based design software is ideal for Interior Concepts because it allowed them to create an interactive quoting and design program capable of presenting custom furniture products in an understandable way to clients.

In a video posted to YouTube (News - Alert), Russ Nagel, EVP for Interior Concepts, said by implementing IceEdge's solutions, Interior Concepts has been able to seamlessly combine quoting, manufacturing and installation into a single program. He added that the software - which graphically renders furniture design and layout in a call center facility and also facilitates animation - is great for marketing because it helps sales with presentation.

He added that Interior Concepts can already attribute more than $500,000 in sales from presentations and the abilities of the new system since the software was implemented last year.

'It's really a great achievement for us,' Nagel said of the award in the video. 'It's an affirmation for our entire team that we're on the right track.'

With this customized software in place, Interior Concepts can revise quotes 75 percent faster. What's more it has reduced engineering time by more than 500 percent and machine programming time for manufacturing by 200 percent.

The ICE software automatically engineers the product, determines material needs, and generates paperwork and computer code to facilitate the manufacturing process.

With this software, Interior Concepts can show clients what the furniture will look like in the call center before it is manufactured. In addition it allows the company to post animated 'virtual tours' of call center facilities which it has designed on its website.

'Standard products are fast becoming a commodity with price being the only differentiation,' Nagel said in a statement. 'With the ability to customize our furniture products in a timely and economical fashion, we provide a product that will work better and be competitive for years to come. Our customers know that they do not have to settle on standard, when they have the ability to get exactly what they need to enhance their business.'

Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard