The Great Restack in Action: How Steelcase Modernized Product Data

Like millions worldwide who eagerly anticipate their favorite holidays, we at Akeneo share a similar excitement for our flagship event: Unlock. 

From April 13 – 14, 2026, Akeneo will welcome customers, prospects, and PX experts to the “Windy City”, Chicago. Located at the famous Willis tower, Unlock showcases the latest innovations in PX through dynamic keynote presentations, hands-on technical workshops and expert-led practice sessions, focusing on the theme of the event: The Great Restack: Welcome to the New Age of Commerce.

Amidst this “New Age of Commerce”, many brands over the last couple of years have faced challenges with AI integration, a centralized system for product data, and streamlined communication. All of these issues, if not tackled, can have a hidden cost, affecting your brand further down the line. 

Steelcase, a global leader in office furniture and accessories, knows this challenge well. Before transforming their product data strategy with Akeneo Product Cloud, Steelcase faced many of the same operational hurdles that countless organizations encounter today.

The Challenge: Untangling the Complex Web of Product Data

For more than a century, Steelcase has led the office furniture industry with insight-driven design and a commitment to creating inspiring, people-centered workplaces that boost productivity and engagement.

Today, Steelcase operates at the intersection of architecture, furniture, and workplace technology, positioning itself as a problem-solver for organizations building the offices of the future.

But even the most innovative companies can face operational friction when their product data ecosystem becomes too complex.

Before adopting Akeneo Product Cloud, Steelcase encountered several familiar challenges:

• Manual, spreadsheet-based management of surface material data, which studies suggest wastes up to 12 hours per week hunting down information, leading to as much as 30% of total revenue loss due to inefficiency and misalignment. 
• Inefficiencies in linking digital assets to product finishes. Reflecting how incorrect product information is the reason 40% of shoppers return their items.
• Time-consuming updates across multi-regional finish records. With a PIM, managing product data is up to 6× faster than in a spreadsheet.
• Managing supplier data involved a significantly high manual workload, which in business

These challenges made it clear that Steelcase needed a more scalable and centralized way to manage product information.

The Turning Point: Flexibility & Scalability with Akeneo

By implementing Akeneo Product Cloud, Steelcase transformed fragmented product information into a structured, scalable data ecosystem.

The impact was immediate, and Steelcase has been able to:

1. Create a centralized system for product data

After implementing Akeneo PIM and Akeneo’s Supplier Data Manager (SDM), Steelcase was able to create a streamlined, single source of truth for all of their product data. This allowed Steelcase to achieve a 62% reduction in annual time spent loading supplier data, from 33.36 hours to just 12.14 hours. After years of “entirely dependent on IT”, Steelcase was now able to use the Akeneo system to cleanse and validate data, for the best results possible.

2. Automate asset linking for images, textures, and color representations

While it sounds like a simple issue, linking digital assets to the right products once requires hundreds of manual hours which are spent better in other tasks. But with Akeneo, Steelcase saw a 63.64% decrease in time spent per product family, cutting it from 22 minutes to just 8 minutes. 

3. Optimize time-to-market for product releases

One of the most impactful benefits of Akeneo Product Cloud was the dramatic improvement in product launch speed.

With automated workflows and improved data accuracy, Steelcase achieved:

• 63.61% reduction in product release hours
• Reduced release preparation time from 16.68 hours to just 6.07 hours

This increased agility allows Steelcase to respond faster to market demands, minimize missed sales opportunities, and deliver innovative products to customers sooner.

The result is a mature, scalable product data foundation that enables Steelcase to move faster, collaborate more effectively, and deliver better product experiences to customers.

Steelcase to Share Their Story at Unlock 2026

Steelcase will be sharing their story live at Unlock 2026, offering firsthand insights into:

• What their product data landscape looked like before Akeneo
• How their workflows transformed after implementation
• How they see AI shaping product data and commerce in the years ahead

And Steelcase is just one of many conversations happening in Chicago.

Other sessions at Unlock 2026 will explore:

• Product keynotes on the future of Akeneo Product Cloud and the vision behind The Great Restack
• Hands-on technical workshops covering data modeling, governance, and enrichment workflows
• Expert-led keynote sessions on preparing for the future of agentic commerce

If traveling to Chicago isn’t possible, you can still participate through Unlock Digital, a completely free virtual event that brings the same expert insights and customer stories online taking place live from April 21-22.

You can register now for both Unlock Chicago and Unlock Digital.