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Studio IN-EX

Smarter helps design state-of-the-art buildings

When expert engineers and architects had to wait up to an hour for architectural models to load, Studio IN-EX decided it was time to supercharge its workstation environment by switching to Lenovo ThinkStation hardware. Today, Lenovo solutions enable architects to load models in under one minute on average—boosting productivity and lifting employee satisfaction.

Founded in 2010, Studio IN-EX is a leading architecture firm that offers integrated architectural and engineering services for industrial, healthcare, and commercial clients. Headquartered in Hungary, the company operates across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and boasts an impressive portfolio of architectural innovations.

Empowering precision engineering
Whether Studio IN-EX is designing a data center in Germany or creating a new next-generation office building in Hungary, its team of 150 professionals work tirelessly to plan and test every aspect of a new building meticulously.

To ensure precision and excellence on every commission, Studio IN-EX creates highly detailed virtual designs using specialized Building Information Modeling (BIM) software. BIM enables engineers from a wide range of disciplines to work together to create a single virtual model of a structure. As well as outlining every aspect of a new building in minute detail, BIM enables Studio IN-EX to simulate how a building will behave in real-world scenarios, for instance, to see how it might respond to different weather events or to assess its running costs.

Balázs Molnár, CEO at Studio IN-EX, explains: “As BIM structure models contain a huge amount of data, they require powerful servers, networks, and desktop workstations to be able to view, edit, and render them quickly and effectively. And with BIM technology rapidly advancing, it’s critical that we keep up to date with the latest developments and ensure we have the right hardware to support our operations.”

Switching to Lenovo workstations has significantly enhanced employee productivity and satisfaction— helping to boost innovation and collaboration.
Balázs Molnár, CEO, Studio IN-EX

For many years, Studio IN-EX had built specialized workstations for every architect and engineer, with each comprising unique components. While running its BIM operations on these machines enabled the company to meet client deadlines, the company found that its self-built workstations struggled to handle the latest BIM software upgrades. What’s more, machines from multiple vendors with different specifications and warranties generated significant asset management workloads for the company’s lean IT team.

István Margl, Director of IT at Studio IN-EX, comments: “As BIM solutions advanced, our workstations struggled to keep pace. As a result, some engineers had to wait up to an hour for certain structural models to load—both slowing their individual productivity and limiting their ability to collaborate with their colleagues. To help our teams work more effectively and minimize non-productive time, we set out to eliminate the bottlenecks slowing the performance of BIM software.”

Building the foundations for greater productivity
To empower architects to work more efficiently, Lenovo suggested that the Studio IN-EX replace its existing self-assembled workstations with a complete suite of Lenovo desktop and laptop solutions.

“Our local Lenovo sales representative reached out to us with a proposal to exchange our existing systems with a package of Lenovo hardware specifically designed to meet the performance requirements of leading BIM software,” recalls Balázs Molnár. “We were very impressed with the presentation, it clearly showed that Lenovo could meet our unique workstation needs at an attractive price point.”

In total, Studio IN-EX selected over 80 Lenovo ThinkStation P340 towers to replace its existing desktops. Each tower houses state-of-the art Intel® Core™ i5-10500 processors, 64GB of RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX1660Ti graphics cards for optimum performance. In addition, Studio IN-EX chose to accompany each tower with two Lenovo ThinkVision monitors.

“When we reviewed Lenovo’s proposal, it was clear from looking at the specifications that the Lenovo ThinkStation P340 towers could offer the performance and compute power to enable us to keep our design operations fast, effective, and efficient while also reducing our energy consumption,” says István Margl. “And through the agreement that we have signed with Lenovo, we can upgrade the memory of each tower without invalidating the warranty. This high level of flexibility makes it easier for us to adapt our hardware to meet the evolving demands of BIM solutions.”

As its senior project managers are often out in the field meeting clients, Studio IN-EX decided to provide them with ThinkPad L Series and Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga laptops to enable them to work more effectively on the go.

Balázs Molnár comments: “Lenovo ThinkPad L series laptops are the perfect fit for our project managers, offering the high-performance and memory required to support architectural modeling in a compact form that they can take with them on the road. What’s more, the touchpad screen has proven incredibly useful during collaboration sessions—giving engineers and architects the ability to explore and explain structural concepts with quick drawings.”

Future-ready work environments
In just two weeks, Studio IN-EX deployed 20 Lenovo ThinkStation P340 towers in its offices and the company has plans to implement an additional 60 workstations in the months ahead. Already, switching to Lenovo workstations has contributed to a significant lift in employee productivity.

“Moving to Lenovo ThinkStation P340 towers has dramatically reduced non-productive time for our architects and engineers,” explains Balázs Molnár. “Employees no longer have to wait up to an hour for BIM models to load, and we have now achieved an average model opening time of one minute. Not only does this enhance employee satisfaction, it also has a positive impact on overall team productivity.”

To prevent unexpected workstation downtime, Studio IN-EX signed up to Lenovo’s Premier Support warranty for an initial three-year period. Under this agreement, Lenovo will repair Studio IN-EX’s workstations if any issues occur and replace any broken components.

“The three-year warranty agreement gives us real peace of mind,” says István Margl. “If we have an issue, Lenovo is on hand to offer next-day support and can rapidly ship hardware from their warehouses based in Hungary. Ultimately, this helps to strengthen our business continuity and keep our operations running smoothly around-the-clock. What’s more, running all of our workstations on the same powerful Lenovo hardware makes it much easier for our IT team to manage, upgrade, and monitor the performance of our workstation environment.”

Looking ahead, Studio IN-EX is currently building new areas for collaboration in its head offices, designed to help engineers and architects share ideas and work together even more efficiently.

Balázs Molnár concludes: “We’re looking forward to working with Lenovo as we further enhance our workspaces to support greater productivity and collaboration. Thanks to Lenovo technology, we can easily keep up with rapidly evolving BIM software, which frees up more time to focus on innovating and delivering excellent service to our clients.”

Studio IN-EX Customer Story