Configura, maker of CET Designer space-planning software, has formed a collaboration agreement with Open Systems Technologies (OST) that will increase opportunities for more CET Designer Extensions around the globe.

OST, is a technology firm with more than 225 employees worldwide headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, signed a collaboration agreement with Configura in 2016, becoming a formal implementation partner with the Sweden-based company. OST Configura Services, now with six employees and two contractors working full time, offers design, development and support for companies using Configura's software.

"This is a practice around designing, developing and supporting CET Designer Extensions," says Michael Lomonaco, OST marketing and communications director. "OST's close partnership with Configura, combined with a close proximity to Configura's U.S. office located in Grand Rapids, uniquely positions us to be a strong, value-added partner to both Configura and the entire ecosystem that the company serves."

Used by thousands of people globally, CET Designer helps manufacturers and their dealers by providing a single software solution for space planning and product ordering. The solution is used in a number of industries that manufacture and market configurable products including office furniture, kitchen and bath, material handling, industrial machinery and laboratory/health care.

CET Designer is Configura's "core" Parametric Graphical Configuration (PGC)-based software platform. An extension is an addition to the program with functionality that incorporates all of the rules, parts and pricing of a given manufacturer's products.

The OST partnership will help Configura expand into new industries. Although its CET Designer software is widely known in the global office furniture industry, Configura is active in other industries in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, is expanding in Asia, and is increasing its footprint in industries beyond office furniture in North America.

Manufacturers partner with Configura — and with Configura partners like OST — for CET Designer Extensions to make selling their products fast, easy and accurate. The highly visual software enables 2-D and 3-D design, photorealistic renderings, fly-thru videos, instant bills of materials and installation documents, and now, virtual reality experiences.

"With current customers wanting even more from CET Designer, and with many new manufacturers adopting our solution, we need implementation partners like OST to help us serve our rapidly expanding base of customers," Configura Vice President Peter Brandinger says. "With our OST collaboration, we can develop and offer more extensions, products and functionality to our manufacturer customers and end users. Any manufacturer and dealer that makes and sells configurable products can benefit from our solution."

OST has offices in Grand Rapids, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. The partnership with OST increases Configura's network of highly skilled developers around the globe who offer new ideas and solutions.

Herman Miller — one of the world's largest office furniture manufacturers — signed with Configura for a CET Designer Extension in 2015 and is among the customers collaborating with OST for further development of its CET Designer Extension, expected to launch in 2017.

"What started out as an ideation session at Herman Miller quickly evolved into a full service, custom configuration offering from the OST and Configura teams. In today's digital world, it is partnerships like these that help us succeed; ones in which we not only ideate together, but drive to solutions that are mutually beneficial and create value for all parties," says Jeff Kurburski, Herman Miller chief information officer.

2016 was Configura's best year to date for new customers and sales, and the company continues to add more employees in its locations around the globe. Configura was founded in 1990 and today has two locations in Sweden; an office in the United States (Grand Rapids, Michigan); an office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and has plans to open an office in China in 2017.

"We can't hire fast enough," Brandinger says. "We saw this growth trajectory on the horizon years ago and developed CET Developer and our Partner Program to help us manage growth and serve the needs of current and future customers."

Configura's CET Developer is a programming environment used to create extensions for CET Designer. With CET Developer, anyone can program and be a part of CET (Configura Extension Technology) development projects. Developers don't need to be a Configura Partner to try or use the CET Developer; however, they need to be a Configura Partner to publish their own official extensions and to receive royalties.