SignConfig CPQ Tool
Overview
The client is a sign manufacturing operation serving commercial and institutional markets — hospitals, corporate campuses, universities, and government buildings. Their product line centers on ADA-compliant room signs, wayfinding directories, and architectural signage. Each sign involves precise material layering, raised tactile lettering, Grade 1 braille, specific color contrast requirements, and pictogram placement — all governed by ADA/ABA accessibility standards. They needed a quoting system that could encode that expertise without requiring it of every salesperson.
The Problem
Sign quoting was entirely manual. A customer would describe what they wanted, a sales rep would sketch it in a general-purpose CAD tool or spreadsheet, calculate material costs by hand, check ADA compliance from memory or a reference sheet, and email a quote back — often days later. Errors were common: wrong material thicknesses, non-compliant color contrast, braille positioned outside the sign face, pricing that didn't account for raised element material waste. Every sign family required a different workflow. There was no single source of truth for templates, materials, or pricing.
The Solution
We built a web-based sign quoting and configuration platform from scratch — custom, not adapted from a general-purpose tool. Sign designers define templates once. Every dimension, position, color, and price calculates automatically based on the parameters set — sign width, material, color scheme, room name. A single template produces thousands of sign variations without any manual work per job. As parameters change, a live 3D rendering updates in real time. Customers see exactly what their sign will look like — raised tactile letters, braille, pictograms — before placing an order. ADA compliance is enforced automatically: color contrast restrictions, braille placement, and raised letter specifications are built into the system, not checked manually after the fact. Pricing calculates live as the sign is configured. Material costs, per-layer pricing, markup, and waste are all factored in automatically. The estimating expertise that once lived in one person's head is encoded in the system. When an order is ready, the platform generates production-ready spec sheets with dimensions, material callouts, and color specifications. Each sign family — room signs, directories, monument signs — can be managed by anyone without sign manufacturing experience. The platform is also built for dealer distribution. Multiple dealers can each have their own branded storefront, backed by the same engine, without seeing each other's customers or pricing.
The Outcome
A sign that took 30–60 minutes to manually spec and quote now configures in under 2 minutes — with a live 3D preview, automatic ADA compliance, and an instant price. The expertise that once lived in one estimator's head is now in the system. Anyone can use it. The platform handles multiple sign product lines and is structured to support multiple dealers under one roof, making it viable infrastructure for distributor networks, not just a single shop.
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