The most complicated and time consuming task within industries such as office furniture, kitchens, material handling and construction, has been to calculate the material required. A common problem for companies within these industries is the fact that their products are continuously combined in new configurations. New drawings have to be made nearly every time something is sold.

In the middle of 1980's, CAD systems were released on the market. Could they be used as tools for planning and calculation? A number of additional modules to CAD systems were developed, but they soon showed themselves to be useless as calculation tools - mainly because they could only sum up the number of symbols that were placed in the drawing area. Moreover, these applications were too complicated to use for sales representatives.

Sune Rydqvist had been facing calculation problems during his whole career within the interior fittings and construction industry. Johan Lyreborn and Göran Rydqvist had graduated with Master of Engineering degrees in Computer Technology from the Linköping Institute of Technology. During their postgraduate studies their research had developed new possibilities to enable the creation of advanced software applications. Together, the three of them agreed to develop and market a new software application to become the perfect planning tool for component based products.

Intensive development followed. The software was developed on SUN computers and UNIX Systems since this was the only platform at that time that was considered to have enough capacity for the demanding tasks the software would perform. Soon a first version could be delivered to the first customer (S-Line Office AB).

In May 1991, the first contract with an external customer was signed - Lundqvist Inredningar AB. It was an established and wellknown company that manufactured the famous Lundqvisthyllan - a product that is either sold or licensed in numerous countries. Lundqvist Inredningar is still one of our satisfied customers.

In February 1994 a contract was signed with Martela OY- a leading Finnish furniture manufacturer with sales offices in a number of countries. Today Martela has more than 600 Configura® users. This order made it possible to develop and run the software on a Windows 95 platform. The development of computers and operating systems had now made this possible.

Since then, many clients have joined: DeLaval, Flexlink, Spacesaver, Electrolux Wascator and Kinnarps among others.

Today Configura have customers in United States of America, Germany, France, Austria, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and users worldwide.

Sune Rydqvist is the Chairman of the Board, Johan Lyreborn the Managing Director and Göran Rydqvist continues to manage the development of our products. Johan Bengtsson and Niels Madsen strengthened the company and the board. Johan Bengtsson, responsible for marketing and sales, graduated from the Chalmers University of Technology and has previous experience from working with simulation technology. Niels Madsen, responsible for Finances, is a graduate from the Stockholm School of Economics and has worked in a leading position at Stora Enso Finance for several years.

Our product Configura® is the market leader within its field. Configura® is software with multifunctional features and therefore has an uncommonly favourable competitive position in the emerging configuration market. The company Configura has a strong track record of satisfied costumers and of meeting project deadlines and budgets - unusual in the software industry. Read more under Solutions.

In January 2006, we released a product based on a new technology called Configura Extension Technology, CET. It is a concept primarily designed to establish a new, industry-leading sales tool for commercial furniture and kitchens. Visit CET Extension Center for more information.