DesignSuite Moves Projects to Order
Kimball International set out to clear the distance between a design idea and a placed order by helping A&D firms and dealer partners eliminate handoffs, delays, and guesswork. These three obstacles are addressed by DesignSuite, Kimball International's end-to-end program that addresses each through services pitched at separate points along that span: Project Design for schemes still forming, Quick Quote for pricing that has to land overnight, and Audit for specifications already drawn and awaiting purchase.
“DesignSuite brings strategic design support and rapid quoting together into one intuitive experience, meeting teams wherever they are,” says Jill Frazier, Director of Design Solutions and Digital Tools at Kimball International. “It reflects how work progresses today, with faster timelines, higher expectations, and the need for clarity at every stage. It helps teams move from early ideas to order-ready solutions with confidence and speed.”
The three services share a posture toward the partners they serve, functioning as an extension of the design team, flexing engagement to the demands of the job, and holding one delivery model steady across projects of every size and complexity. Timing, ownership, and next steps stay in plain view throughout.
Everyday Pace
The everyday flow of business is what Quick Quote answers, the straightforward and repeatable needs that call for fast, accurate pricing without a longer design engagement. Intake asks only for the essentials, product type, quantities, finishes, and any notes on the space or the client’s requirements, and the Quick Quote team returns precise, competitive pricing built around products suited to the project and its budget. Turnaround typically lands inside 24 hours, enough to move from concept to proposal in a single cycle.
Requests that outgrow the format move up a tier. The Quick Quote team hands them off for deeper design and specification support, and the job continues under Project Design from where it stopped.
Early Alignment
Kimball International’s Design Strategist team leads the concierge-level tier of the program, sizing its involvement to the complexity and timing of each job. Project Design was created to address a variety of situations from projects where several stakeholders have to arrive at the same conclusion to making choices up front that will govern later phases. Strategic space planning and thoughtful product alignment settle questions of layout and application near the outset, sparing teams the silos and prolonged back-and-forth the service was built to replace.
Elevate Live Design supplies the collaborative core, in real-time sessions where teams explore layouts, test ideas, and refine solutions together. Industry-standard software, CET and Revit among it, lets options be weighed and implications understood while decisions are taking shape. Deliverables answer to the phase a project has reached, from an early read on layout, application, and product intent to the presentation materials that carry design storytelling through approvals, and concepts that come out of the process hand off to an order-ready package with fewer revisions behind them.
Final Pass
Accuracy governs the last stretch, once a project is fully drawn and close to purchase, which is where Audit takes over. Developed layouts, product selections, and specifications go under a focused review for errors, gaps, coordination issues, and risks, with every product verified as viable and correctly applied.
The feedback that comes back is clear and actionable, meant to limit rework and head off corrections downstream. A scheme that comes through arrives at order placement with its inconsistencies already resolved.