Case Study: Steelcase achieves weekly software releases and 50% fewer keystrokes in dealer quoting with VMware Tanzu

How Steelcase adopted cloud native practices and technology to reconceive a core business application

Steelcase, the world’s largest furniture manufacturer, relied on a decades-old monolithic Hedberg application to handle quoting and order management for hundreds of global dealers. The aging system and on‑premise components made development slow and cumbersome—major releases took 9–12 months and the quoting workflow was time‑consuming—so Steelcase sought not just new software but a transformation in how its teams design and deliver products.

In a 15‑week engagement with VMware Pivotal Labs, Steelcase adopted cloud‑native tools (VMware Tanzu on Azure, Spring Boot), pair programming, TDD and user‑centered design to build the new H2 application and reorganize IT into product teams. The result: weekly releases instead of annual ones, a 50% reduction in keystrokes for quotes, elimination of up to 40 dealer work hours per week, and dramatically faster time‑to‑market—moving from months to days for critical updates.

Steelcase

Brian Saum

IT Director, Customer Engagement