In today’s business environment, customer love has emerged as a sustainable moat for creating a brand. Interior design tech venture Flipspaces has successfully leveraged technology to manage customer expectations while continuing to scale its operations profitably. The brand has demonstrated an impressive 70% CAGR across the last three years with minimal capital infusion and is touching a Rs 300 crore revenue run rate now.
The Flipspaces leadership says one of the keys to the company’s success has been integrating cutting-edge tech modules into the workflow. By doing so, it has transformed the way commercial spaces are designed and built, setting new standards for operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The role of technology in design and build
India and the United States are the two largest MSME ecosystems globally, with close to 91 million small and mid-sized businesses operating across these two nations. These businesses have become more and more aspirational, which is reflected in the way they build out their spaces (offices, cafes, restaurants, educational and healthcare institutes, warehouses etc).
However, the interior design and build journey of these SMEs has traditionally been plagued by inefficiencies, miscommunications, and extended timelines.
Flipspaces recognised these challenges and sought to address them head-on by developing a suite of proprietary tech tools that streamline the entire process, from conceptualisation to execution. This integration of technology not only enhances the accuracy and speed of project delivery but also ensures that the final output aligns perfectly with the client’s vision.
VIZWORLD: A game changer
At the core of all offerings is Flipspaces’s proprietary tech-suite, VIZWORLD, which stitches the currently disjointed steps of interior design, supply chain integration, and project management into one workflow.
The first step in this process is the Design Management Module (VIZDESIGN) facilitating all layouts and visualisations to be tracked, reviewed, and archived for future reference over one common dashboard.
“The Design Management Module is our one-stop destination for reviewing and sharing layouts, visualisations, and mood boards. It also allows us to share this with the client at a click of a button. We do not have to sift through multiple mail threads and WhatsApp groups any longer to look for previously created designs.
“An amazing recent addition is that we can auto-generate presentations for design progress for our clients in a couple of seconds from the Design Management Application. This saves hours of making and decorating presentations which we were doing earlier,” says Neha Malhotra, Head of Design for the US business.
VIZWALK: A Revolution in Visualisation
Flipspaces also has a unique VR-enabled walkthrough that allows a client to visualise a space immersively through a digital walkthrough just like in a photorealistic point-of-view game. Products and finishes are changeable real time and integrated with market available products.
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VIZWALK is a pioneering product that democratises designing and has helped Flipspaces win clients across India and the US.
“VIZWALK, our proprietary visualisation tool, has also helped us win large mandates like BFIL (a subsidiary of Indusind bank), which are over 1 lakh sq ft in size. The client delight and clarity of promised design through this walkthrough tool is unprecedented,” says Vikash Anand, Co-founder, Flipspaces.
VIZCART: One-stop supply chain repository for commercial Interiors
At the core of the Flipspaces offering is its supply chain ecosystem, which has the largest commercial interior design-focused bouquet of curated products and service contractors.
“The VIZCART ecosystem of products and services is mission critical to delivering quality within timelines along with protecting margins since each of these products and services are price and quality discovered by centralised supply chain teams. All designers choose products internally to ensure that delivery follows a pre-decided template, ensuring efficiency,” Malhotra says.
VIZCLIENT: Category-first end-to end application for client management
Commercial interior design and build is a massive $200 billion+ category across India and the US. However, it still does not have a one-stop application for clients to seamlessly cue into their project through its lifecycle.
Flipspaces has developed a first-in-category client application, VIZCLIENT, which has a range of features that benefit the client with real-time updates and remote site viewing amongst other features.
“Traditionally, reviewing and approving 3D visualisations involved numerous meetings, emails, and texts between client and interior design teams, leading to delays and misunderstandings. VIZCLIENT addresses this through a Design Explorer tool by providing a seamless, interactive platform where every 2D-layout is divided into zones represented by pins on the approved layout. The ability to share designs effortlessly anytime, anywhere further enhances the client experience, making the design journey more collaborative and efficient,” Anand says.
THE VIZCLIENT module also has a Document Locker, an all-in-one repository for every essential document related to the project, be it during the course of your project or after the site handover.
“Documents like layouts, technical drawings, and warranty certificates are difficult to find years after the project is completed. The VIZCLIENT module allows all these documents to be stored and retrieved years after project closure, acting as a lifetime project handover folder for the client. This is especially helpful when clients are trying to do maintenance of services and need the exact drawings for things like electrical and HVAC,” says a member of Flipspaces’s project management team.
The VIZCLIENT application also hosts a cutting-edge Project Management Module that provides real-time updates on the project’s progress for internal tracking and client review. This module allows clients to easily view actual site progress anytime anywhere and compare progress with the final visualised promise.
“At Flipspaces we believe in being at the forefront of revolutionising the design and build category through innovative use of technology. By integrating tools at every step of the workflow, we have not only enhanced the efficiency of executing mandates but are also relentlessly focused on enhancing customer experience. As we continue to push the boundaries of interior design and build, we are hoping to set new standards for this massive but complex and unorganised category,” says Kunal Sharma, Founder and CEO of Flipspaces.
