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Megan Ferro is a Creative Design Lead at CreativeOfficeResources, a MillerKnoll Dealer.
After attending Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Megan fell in love with the city, decided to stay and took on her first professional role in space planning. In time, Megan felt called to work with furniture as a designer and joined CreativeOfficeResources in 2015.
a purpose and passion
Design is a passion for Megan. She believes it is about being creative and not letting yourself be held back.
“I feel like designing lets my brain work freely, and I work much better like that,” said Megan. “I love blending products and selecting finishes to make a space look beautiful and complete. And, I think I love the furniture side because furniture really adds the final touches and has such a big impact on spaces and people—the overall feel of a space."
Megan started using CET in 2019 as part of the Knoll dealer pilot program. At the time, Knoll was working with Configura to create a CET Extension. Megan instantly saw big potential in CET and took it upon herself to dive deep into the program and gain as much self-training experience as possible.
Over the last three years, she has used her CET knowledge to host weekly training sessions for others at CreativeOfficeResources. Now, the team of 15+ people use CET for most design work—from sketching initial concepts to creating overall 3D plans and pulling full specs.
Megan spends her workday being creative, conceptualizing and creating unique out of the box design solutions for her clients. For Megan, the VR and rendering capabilities are a key element of CET.
“Our previous rendering software was not very good, and it always bothered me. Even before we adopted CET, I was looking at using a different software for rendering purposes,” said Megan. “I love the output provided by CET because you can really create photorealistic renderings. Plus, the ability for live design is a great feature. I have been using that a lot and it has not only changed how we do business but has also improved our workflows.”
positive change and professional growth
Working with CET has brought along many positive changes for Megan as she continues to grow and thrive within the space planning and design field.
Prior to using CET, Megan was required to adjust visuals in Photoshop or export from AutoCAD into a separate rendering software. Today, CET has reduced the need for those extra steps.
“It has made me more efficient in terms of what I am able to put together using one software versus having to use multiple."
The CreativeOfficesResources team has moved away from the traditional back and forth exchanging of PDFs, emails and calls with clients because CET allows for live design meetings where a client can view everything firsthand and with photo-realistic quality.
“I can create material swatches, immediately export things as a PDF or create an amazing rendering right in CET. The software helps us speed up our processes and projects."
Design productivity and output is up throughout the team at CreativeOfficesResources. Fast adoption and easy access to training allow users to get up to speed quickly and with a strong knowledgebase to get to work within the software program.
“The fact that we were able to adopt and start working with CET so fast has been huge. New people are always surprised by how quickly the training process is. And, honestly, we probably aren’t even using it to its fullest potential. There are so many features that I know we will learn about down the road that will help us even more, and that is exciting."
Major time savings with big design potential
The design industry is competitive and fast-moving. Time is the ultimate scarce resource. Prior to implementing CET, CreativeOfficeResources was using several in-house software solutions but outsourcing visual renderings and VR needs. This disconnected process resulted in long wait times for deliveries and added an extra level of stress to already tight timelines.
“That way of doing work was not working for us,” said Megan. “After the basic CET training, I saw the full potential and took it upon myself to really learn all the ins and outs of some of the more advanced features so that we could do more of the visual work ourselves.”
With CET, users can design full scale projects and create photo-realistic renderings and VR materials using Movie Studio. CreativeOfficeResources is now proficient in creating design deliverables that help them stand out from the competition.
“Often our clients do not request VR experiences, but when you show them a rendering that moves, they are super impressed. That gives us an edge and has helped us win a lot of projects in recent years.”
A perspective on the future of cet
“Configura is always thinking ahead about what they can do next and who they can work with to add features that make their software the best it can be,” said Megan.
Megan sees a bright future for CET and CET users. Support is a vital part of the CET Community with active forums and chat options meant to help guide and connect users to get the most out of the software.
“Configura listens to the users, and I love seeing feature requests come to fruition and being included in software updates. For designers like me, CET has really changed the way we sell, design, visualize projects with clients and get new people trained.”
In 2019, Megan attended the CET Experience, and after leaving with notebooks full of ideas, tips and insights, she felt invigorated because the conference provided the opportunity to meet other CET users and learn from their experiences.
“The CET Experience conference is so helpful,” said Megan. “I love that so many users present at the conference because then I can really see how things are done in the dealership world.”
Do you also want to create beautiful renderings and get automatic bill of materials? Download a trial today to see the power of CET for yourself.
