Case Study: Bukwang Pharmaceuticals achieves major IT cost savings and new business growth with Ubuntu

Bukwang Pharmaceuticals cut IT costs and created business value with Ubuntu

Bukwang Pharmaceuticals, a South Korean drug and personal hygiene manufacturer with over 600 employees, faced rising desktop costs after Microsoft ended support for Windows XP. With 620 PCs (60% on Windows 7, the rest on XP), the company would have needed an expensive Enterprise Assurance contract and hardware upgrades. Although Bukwang had some experience with open source, concerns remained about corporate support costs and compatibility with Microsoft-dependent tools like ActiveX.

Bukwang chose Ubuntu for its ease of deployment, security, user-friendly interface and interoperability; two administrators upgraded about 390 machines in two weeks and the platform could coexist with Windows where needed (initially migrating roughly 62% of PCs). In the first phase about 400 PCs moved to Ubuntu, yielding approximately $300,000 in annual licensing savings, wide media interest, and new in-house software skills that led to the launch of a profitable open-source services subsidiary, Bukwang C&C.

Bukwang Pharmaceuticals

Sang-Hoon Kim

President and CEO