Case Study: Bernhardt Furniture Company achieves 20% export revenue lift and 196% ROI with IBM Hybrid Cloud

Building a better buying experience with an innovative virtual showroom app

Bernhardt Furniture Company, a long-established family-owned furniture maker, struggled with a paper-based sales process that left reps flipping through dense product guides instead of engaging buyers—an acute problem at events like High Point Market where decisions drive months of production. To modernize its sales experience and handle mass customization, Bernhardt partnered with IBM, leveraging IBM Hybrid Cloud capabilities (including Bluemix and related cloud services).

IBM built and deployed a tablet-based virtual showroom app on Bluemix/IBM Hybrid Cloud with Cloudant and IBM Analytics for Apache Spark, delivering real-time product data, wish-listing and location analytics (via iBeacons) in just 10 weeks. The IBM solution boosted export-division revenues by 20%, delivered a 196% return on investment with full payback in six months, sped time-to-market for new lines and markedly improved sales effectiveness through near-real-time insights.

Bernhardt Furniture Company

Alex Bernhardt

CEO