Windows 8 Pro
Customer Solution Case Study
Manufacturer Upgrades Operating System to
Boost Productivity, Promote Mobility
Customer: Southern Spring and
Stamping
Website: www.southernspring.com
Customer Size: 100 employees
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Manufacturing
Partner: TechHouse
Website: www.tech-house.com
Customer Profile
Founded in 1957, Southern Spring and
Stamping is a family owned and
operated manufacturer of custom
springs, stampings, and sheet metal
fabrications for customers in a range of
industries.
Software and Services
 Windows 8 Pro
 Microsoft Office
− Microsoft Office Professional Plus
2013
Hardware
 Surface Pro
 Lenovo ThinkPad Twist convertible
tablet
 Samsung ATIV Tab 7
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“My first impression of Windows 8 Pro was, wow—this
is fast. The second thing I thought was how versatile
and customizable the software is to my work style.”
Lloyd Weed, Controller, Southern Spring and Stamping
Southern Spring and Stamping searched for a way to boost the
performance of its existing PCs and increase its capabilities for
mobile computing. Recently, the company upgraded several
Windows XP desktop PCs to Windows 8 Pro, while also testing
the software on a variety of devices. Through its use of Windows
8 Pro, the company has benefitted from faster system
performance, increased productivity, and greater flexibility.
Business Needs
Based in Venice, Florida, Southern Spring
and Stamping specializes in designing and
manufacturing high-quality machinery
components, including compression
springs and tooling for industrial presses.
To manage complex bills of material for
numerous, concurrent production jobs,
employees at Southern Spring must
rapidly locate inventory and order status
details. The company depends on the
performance of its desktop computing
infrastructure to keep pace with its
complex production process and to scale
to handle large order volumes.
For more than a decade, Southern Spring
used the Windows XP operating system on
most of its desktop PCs, for both office
staff and front-line factory workers.
Employees appreciated the stability and
ease of use of Windows XP. In particular,
company leaders valued its straightforward
interoperability with business-critical
applications, including a program called
JobBOSS, the production management
software that Southern Spring uses.
More recently, employees have reported a
decline in their PCs’ performance while
handling specific functions. For example,
they’ve noted that searching for records
within JobBOSS has gradually become
more time consuming. Executives were
also aware that support for Windows XP is
set to expire in 2014. They wanted to avoid
the risk of running non-supported
software, which could expose the company
to security risks and prevent it from getting
the most out of its investment.
Company leaders also wanted to increase
the mobile productivity of its workforce.
Specifically, they saw an opportunity for
stock pickers to update inventory
information in real time from practically
anywhere—even from a forklift in the
warehouse. Employees typically recorded
this information manually from on board
the forklift and then entered updates into
the JobBOSS system in batches when they
returned to their PCs, a process that took up
to two hours per employee each day.
“We were interested in finding a way to
boost the performance of our PCs and
provide employees with greater flexibility,”
says Lloyd Weed, Controller at Southern
Spring and Stamping. “At the same time, we
wanted to ensure that any new technology
we introduced was easy to use and fit the
way our employees work.”
Solution
Executives at Southern Spring consulted
with TechHouse, an IT services firm and
member of the Microsoft Partner Network
based in Sarasota, Florida, about
performance and feature enhancements to
the Windows 8 Pro operating system. “We
enjoy developing agile solutions that enable
our customers to be successful,” says Kathy
Durfee, Owner and Founder of TechHouse.
“Southern Spring required an innovative
approach to its mobility and reporting
needs, and Windows 8 provided the
flexibility and increased productivity that
the company needed.”
Southern Spring ultimately tested the use of
Windows 8 Pro across a variety of job
functions, from accounting to production.
For several weeks, Weed used Windows 8
Pro on a Lenovo ThinkPad Twist, a laptop
that converts into a tablet. “My first
impression of Windows 8 Pro was, wow—
this is fast,” says Weed. “The second thing I
thought was how versatile and
customizable the software is to my work
style. I love being able to resize and
organize the tiles based on the
applications that I use most often.”
Beyond the dramatic increase in
processing speed and responsiveness that
he has experienced with Windows 8 Pro
devices, Weed also enjoys the ability to
quickly move between apps using a simple
swipe gesture, along with the ability to run
two apps side-by-side using the touchenabled snap feature.

Increased productivity. By taking
advantage of the performance and user
interface enhancements offered by
Windows 8 Pro, Weed has already found
that he saves at least two hours a week
on a single reporting task. When the
company is able to use the Windows 8
version of JobBOSS on mobile
computing devices, Southern Spring
expects to save each of its four stock
pickers 10 hours each week. “Eliminating
the need for manual reentry of data in
our inventory management process will
drive enormous gains in efficiency,” says
Weed.

Improved support for flexibility and
data protection. With Windows 8 Pro,
Southern Spring gains enhanced
support for flexible, mobile work styles
without sacrificing control. Employees
can use advanced tools in Windows 8
Pro to customize the Start screen and
work from practically anywhere with
greater ease. At the same time,
company leaders gain peace of mind
that the devices employees are using
are highly secure, whether they are
tracking inventory in the warehouse or
accessing work files from home.
“Although our employees are more
mobile, we can still manage our new
Windows 8 Pro devices with the same
standardized approach we’ve always
used to manage our PCs,” says Weed.
Production staff enjoy the dynamic search
capabilities that Windows 8 Pro offers. “We
constantly have to match up part numbers
with available inventory and purchase
order information,” says Janine, an
inventory clerk at Southern Spring and
Stamping. “With Windows 8 Pro, I can just
start typing, and the results are
automatically displayed in seconds.”
Based on its evaluation, Southern Spring is
looking to expand its use of Windows 8
Pro in the coming months. “All of the
feedback we have received has been
overwhelmingly positive,” says Weed. He
and other company leaders are especially
excited by the opportunity to eventually
use the Windows 8 Pro version of
JobBOSS. That application is scheduled to
be released in the summer of 2013.
Benefits
By using Windows 8 Pro, Southern Spring
and Stamping is experiencing the
following benefits:

Faster system performance. Weed and
other employees at Southern Spring
have found that Windows 8 Pro delivers
a substantial performance increase when
compared to Windows XP. Employees
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published September 2013
are impressed by how quickly they can
perform search functions and shift
between applications, just to name a
few basic functions. “The processing
speed is definitely much faster with
Windows 8 Pro, and on top of that, the
way the software is designed means I
use fewer inputs—basically fewer clicks
or gestures—to get to the information I
need,” says Weed.