IBM has announced Gruppo Amadori, a wholesale distributor of quality food products in Italy, is rolling out Linux-based desktops running IBM email, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software to select employees.

About 1,000 of the company's 6,000 employees access PCs to help manage the production, processing, and delivery logistics of its poultry products for customers within Italy and internationally. In 2009, some of these employees will move to a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop client operating system and IBM Lotus Symphony, open standards-based word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.

For its collaboration services, the company is moving from Microsoft Exchange to an IBM Lotus Notes and Domino environment hosted on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The first users have moved to Lotus Domino and will continue rolling out to the entire company through the course of the year.

The benefits that drive Gruppo Amadori's migration to Linux and IBM collaboration software are the lower acquisition and operational costs.

"Our strategy is to focus on Linux first and foremost, taking a practical and pragmatic approach," said Gianluca Giovannetti, CIO and Director of Organization, Gruppo Amadori. "For us, the Linux environment is the right choice for very focused applications and is more cost effective than Microsoft."

In the first migrations, the Linux desktops will run Lotus Symphony; IBM collaboration software including Lotus Notes and Domino, IBM Lotus Sametime and IBM Lotus Quickr; and a Web browser to access an ERP application.

"Linux on the Desktop is providing great value and cost reductions to companies at a time when they need it the most," said Bob Sutor, vp of Linux and open source, IBM Software Group.