After learning the art and business of cheese making at creameries in California, England, and elsewhere, Sarah Marcus opened Briar Rose Creamery with her husband in 2010. From the start, they planned for sustainable growth, and recently they realized that their aging PCs were not keeping up with the demands of their business.

ChallengeLike many small business owners, Marcus didn’t create a business to spend time troubleshooting technology or working on administrative tasks. She started Briar Rose Creamery to pursue her passion for making handcrafted goats-milk cheeses and sharing them with appreciative customers. Recently, however, she found that the five-year-old laptop she relied on for business tasks was slowing her down and taking time away from actual cheese making.

What her Dundee, Oregon-based business needed were reliable and easy-to-use devices that could streamline her bookkeeping, communication, and management tasks and free her to spend more time producing award-winning chevre, feta, and madrona cheese.

Solution Briar Rose Creamery’s technology upgrade included a new All-in-One PC with 6th Gen Intel® Core™ processor and a new 2 in 1 device with 6th Gen Intel® Core™ M processor. With new PCs—and the move to Windows* 10—Marcus and her staff have seen their productivity, mobility, and efficiency increase dramatically.

Greater productivityFor the business’s main computer, Marcus and her three-person staff now rely on a new Lenovo ThinkCentre* All-in-One PC. The device’s sleek, space-saving design is ideal for bringing business-class performance and features to the creamery’s small front office, which also multitasks as a public tasting room on weekends.

“Pretty much everything that I need to do from the computer, I do it from here,” explained Marcus. “I do my bookkeeping and my accounting on here. I have all my files that I use regularly. I have spreadsheets on here for inventory. I do all my emailing from here for the most part, seeking orders for the week. I have a document that I send out every week of what’s available.”

Small Business6th Generation Intel® Core™ processor-based devices

Artisanal cheese maker Briar Rose Creamery upgraded to new devices powered by Intel® Core™ processors to bring higher levels of productivity, security, and mobility to their business.

Boosting Small Business Productivity with New Intel®-Powered Devices

“Battery life on the new 2 in 1 is awesome. I love how long it can stay on.”

Case study

The ThinkCentre All-in-One’s compact design brought a lot of new computing performance and capabilities to the office while freeing up desk space that would normally be taken up by a separate monitor and multiple cables. And with a 6th Gen Intel Core processor inside, it delivers up to 2.5x better productivity than a five-year-old PC.1,2

Marcus loves the increased performance the All-in-One provides. “Across the board, using all my different apps, I can see a difference in the processor speed. I don’t have to sit here and wait,” she noted. Plus, the device’s large touch screen gives her extra room to work. “Often I’ll have two different things open side by side. I’ll have a Word* document or Excel* and QuickBooks*. I can multitask between the two. And it’s big enough so that I can read everything easily.”

Smarter collaborationBriar Rose Creamery’s part-time bookkeeper is also enjoying the benefits of this technology upgrade. Now, instead of driving out to the creamery, she and Marcus can work together online on accounting tasks.

“She can connect online, and we can both work on QuickBooks at the same time,” said Marcus. “I had an issue where something was missing on an invoice, and she was able to open it on her end and show me how to change it in a few seconds.”

Going mobileThe craft cheese business requires Marcus to spend a lot of time at farmers’ markets and meeting with chefs and specialty retailers. And since the creamery is on the same property with

Case Study | Briar Rose Creamery

her home, she also frequently brings her non-cheese-making work up to the house. The new Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga* 2 in 1’s light weight and slim profile make it a powerful productivity tool that’s easy to bring wherever she needs to be.

New 2 in 1 PCs powered by the latest Intel Core processors—like her Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga—deliver up to 10 hours of battery life3, exactly the flexibility Marcus needs to get more done without plugging in.

“Battery life on the new 2 in 1 is awesome. I love how long it can stay on. On my old laptop, it was maybe an hour, if that. If I was doing anything, it was even shorter,” said Marcus.

Marcus constantly experiments with her cheeses—trying out different formulations and techniques. Currently she handwrites her cheese recipes on paper, but she’s excited to start recording recipes digitally on the ThinkPad 2 in 1 using its integrated stylus.

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“Often I’ll have two different things open side by side and I can multitask between the two. And the screen is big enough so that I can read everything easily.”

Case Study | Briar Rose Creamery

Increased securityWhile Briar Rose Creamery’s rural Oregon location provides a sense of safety, Marcus knows that increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals can attack anywhere. Hardware-enhanced security built in to the new devices helps protect her identity, data, and access, and enables her to work with greater peace of mind.

ConclusionWhile Briar Rose Creamery produces their fine cheeses slowly by hand, their new Intel Core processor-powered devices complement their careful craftsmanship with major upgrades to the speed, productivity, mobility, and security of the business side of the operation. As a result, Marcus and her staff can focus on what they do best, creating award-winning, artisanal cheese.

Solution IngredientsLenovo ThinkCentre* All-in-One PC

6th Gen Intel® Core™ i5 processorWindows* 10

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga* 2 in 1 6th Gen Intel® Core™ M series processorWindows 10

Learn more: intel.com/smallbusinessAbout Briar Rose CreameryLocated in the heart of the Willamette Valley, Oregon wine country, Briar Rose Creamery creates handcrafted fresh and aged goat cheeses, aged cow’s milk cheeses, and award-winning chocolate goat cheese truffles. They nurture each small batch to achieve the best flavor and texture, highlighting the seasonal qualities of their cheeses.

Learn more: briarrosecreamery.com

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1. Intel technologies’ features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled hardware, software, or service activation. Performance varies depending on system configuration. No computer system can be absolutely secure. Check with your system manufacturer or retailer or learn more at support.intel.com.

2. Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel® microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations, and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products. For more information, go to http://www.intel.com/performance.

3. Windows 10* 1080p 24fps Local Video Playback Component Average Power. Disconnect all USB devices, connect to a local WiFi access point, and set the screen brightness to 200 nits (disable DPST, set brightness to 200 nits on a white background, and enable DPST). Wait for 10 mins for the OS to completely idle. Launch Tears of Steel (1080p H264 10MBps 24fps) video using the Windows Movie & TV App. Measure and calculate average power for the duration of the video. Report 3 run median. Intel® Core™ i7-7500U, PL1=15W TDP, 2C4T, Turbo up to 3.5GHz, Memory: 2x4GB DDR4-2133, Storage: Intel SSD, Display Resolution: 1920x1080, Intel HD Graphics 620, OS: Windows* 10, 40WHr battery.

© 2016 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Inside, the Intel Inside logo, and Intel Core are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.0916/VCB/CMD/PDF 334728-001US