Lapeyre implements Red Hat Enterprise Linux to run its sales and ordering software

Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT), the world's leading supplier of open source solutions to the enterprise, today announced that Lapeyre, specialist in the manufacture and distribution of furniture and household accessories, has chosen Red Hat Enterprise Linux to power Caméléon, a sales and stock control package designed to assist product sales within a multi-channel environment.

Forming the nucleus of Lapeyre's sales system, salespeople and subsidiary distributors use Caméléon to check catalogue listings, offer customised solutions and draw up cost estimates for orders while the customer is present. Caméléon then automatically sends the production data from the point of sale to the factory. IT managers at Lapeyre chose to migrate to an Oracle9i database and to implement Red Hat Enterprise Linux for greater safety, stability and flexibility across the sales and ordering system.

"Linux presented itself as the ideal solution for us, especially as most of our engineers have a strong background in UNIX platforms. Our objective was to avoid vendor-lock-in from proprietary technologies, but also to keep the advantages of a regular and perennial solution. It was crucial for us to benefit from fully certified equipment, hence our choice of Red Hat Enterprise Linux," explains Philippe Rennes, Head of Systems and Databases at Lapeyre.

The use of pre-configured servers ensured the rapid deployment of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux solution and assisted in the seamless migration of Caméléon to new technology. From now on, Lapeyre’s store infrastructure will benefit from Red Hat support as well as the advantages of Red Hat Network which is being used to automatically download and install software updates, errata and patches, and to manage the whole Linux infrastructure.

"The faith that Lapeyre have in our products and services is demonstrated by the fact that the company has entrusted its core business to Red Hat Enterprise Linux throughout stores in France and overseas," declared Franz Meyer, Red Hat Director for South Europe, Middle East and Africa.

A case study detailing the problems facing Lapeyre, the reasons for choosing the Red Hat solution, roll-out, and the numerous benefits resulting from this migration, is available on request.

For more information aboutRed Hat please visit http://www.europe.redhat.com

About Lapeyre

Lapeyre manufactures and sells fixtures and fittings for throughout the house:
• for the interior (doors, stairs, flooring, cupboards and shelving, complete kitchens bathrooms and tiling),
• for the exterior (windows and shutters, outside doors and garage doors, gates, garden furniture and equipment).
Through its network of 100 stores, LAPEYRE, is a real force to be heard, from the facilities and services offered to individual customers, to craftsmen, in organising their home improvement projects, from the simplest to the most elaborate. The Lapeyre Group is a part of the Saint-Gobain Group of companies (Construction Distribution branch).

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's Open Source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com

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For more information, please contact Andi Lustak, Axicom, +44 20 8392 4058, andi.lustak@axicom.com