(For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies) (Customer: i-siliconeWebsite: www.isilicone.com Customer Size: 45 employeesCountry or Region: KoreaIndustry: ManufacturingDurable consumer goodsCustomer Profilei-silicone is a Korean toy company that makes Think-Doh, a silicone modeling clay that children use to create anything in their imaginations. i-silicone markets its products primarily in Korea but is expanding globally.Software and ServicesWindows 8.1 ProMicrosoft Office 365HardwareLenovo ThinkPad tablets)

Windows 8 Pro

Customer Solution Case Study

Korean Toy Company Halves Product Design Time by Using Tablets and Cloud Sharing

With our new Windows 8 Pro tablets and Office 365, we [have] cut our new-product development time in halfto 15 days instead of a month. This helps us be more competitive and profitable.

Bo Young Lee, Assistant Manager of International Business, i-silicone

i-silicone is a young, innovative company that markets silicone modeling clay for children in Korea and beyond. After acquiring several Windows 8 Pro tablets and Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions, i-silicone has revolutionized how employees work. By sharing ideas and meeting in the cloud, employees can create new products in half the time. They are fully productive while traveling, make better impressions on buyers, and know that their data is safe.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published April 2014

i-silicone was formed in 2012 when Daeil Advanced Materials Company, a leading Korean silicone manufacturer, invented a magical nonhardening silicone clay that solved the problem of modeling clay hardening when left out for too long. Today, i-silicone markets the clay, called Think-Doh, and related products to children across Korea and in six other countries.

Hampered by Old Technology

i-silicone considers creativity and innovation its core competencies and invests heavily in developing new products. However, as a startup, it didnt have a big technology budget, and its 15 information workers were using older laptops running 10-year-old software.

It was ironic that we were using old software to create and sell innovative products, says Bo Young Lee, Assistant Manager of International Business at i-silicone. We were worried that these old computers were tarnishing our reputation as the leader in our sector. When we meet with overseas buyers, we often show product videos, but they ran slowly and made us look bad. Or a buyer might ask for documents that Lee and her boss didnt have on their laptops. It often took hours to request these documents from colleagues in Korea and for the documents to be downloaded to a file-sharing website.

i-silicone also worried about the security of data that was stored on portable computers, because it often related to new products in development.

Introduce Tablets and Cloud Solutions

Through a local Microsoft small business IT makeover program, i-silicone received three Lenovo ThinkPad tablets running the Windows 8.1 Pro operating system and Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions. Office 365 is a cloud-based service that includes the Microsoft Office desktop applications and email, videoconferencing, and file-sharing services.

Lee, her boss, and one of the companys three product designers adopted the new tablets and love their lightweight design, fast performance, long battery life, and touch interface. Instead of lugging heavy laptops to exhibitions, Lee and her boss now take their tablets, which they use to give presentations, show product usage videos, and access needed documents instantly in SharePoint Online, the team file-sharing service in Office 365.

Lee uses the Microsoft OneNote note-taking program in Office 365 to make notes during exhibition visits and saves those notes to OneDrive for Business, a storage service in Office 365. If she sees an interesting idea, she can sketch it on the tablet using her stylus and quickly send it to the product designers. When roaming conferences or on trains and buses, Lee uses her device in tablet mode. When back in the office, she snaps on a keyboard for document creation. In or out of the office, i-silicone files are protected by Windows 8 Pro.

The product designer works fluidly with performance-hungry applications such as Adobe Photoshop and three-dimensional design software. Of enormous value is the ability to share files immediately by using the tablets and Microsoft SharePoint Online, and to meet virtually using the Microsoft Lync Online conferencing service in Office 365.

Halve Product Development Time

i-silicone is working on two to three new products each month and has been able to dramatically speed up the development process by using the tablets to share information in the cloud. With our new Windows 8 Pro tablets and Office 365, we no longer have to get everyone in a room to share ideas. We can meet online and share ideas very quickly. This has helped us cut our new-product development time in halfto 15 days instead of a month, Lee says. This helps us be more competitive and profitable.

Make Better Impression

By using the sleek Windows 8 Pro tablets, Lee and her boss can present a more tech-savvy image to buyers and also give more compelling presentations. We make a better impression giving presentations on our tablets than on our clunky old laptops, Lee says. Windows 8 itself is a very visual product, and video performance is much better on Windows 8 Pro.

Improve Productivity, Especially When Traveling

When Lee and her boss are out of the office, the work at the office doesnt stop. There are still orders to fill, shipping paperwork to complete, and emergencies to address. When were at an exhibition in another country, we still need to keep our office work going, Lee says. We now have fully functional office computers that are also mobile. They run the Word, PowerPoint, and Excel applications exceptionally well so that we can continue our jobs even while were on the road.

Lee and her colleagues love the fact that the tablets are lightweight and handy, yet incredibly powerful. I can multitask between several applications at once, and I have the flexibility to size the application windows the way I want them, Lee says. I can use my keyboard, hand, or mouse to interact with my applications, whichever is best suited to the task at hand.

She saves time throughout the day by saving files to OneDrive and SharePoint Online rather than uploading and downloading them to file-sharing sites. Having quick Lync Online meetings from her tablet also eliminates the need to wait until shes back in the office to meet with colleagues.

Enhance Data Security

With the built-in security technologies in Windows 8, i-silicone data is better protected. We can take our new tablets with us everywhere without concern that company information could be compromised if the device is lost or stolen, Lee says. This gives us tremendous peace of mind.