American Product Distributors Wins Red Hat Software's "Accelerate, Integrate, Automate Award" at the Ninth Annual Red Hat Innovation Awards Honoring Outstanding Achievements in Open Source

CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- American Product Distributors, Inc. (APD), a leading provider of custom procurement solutions for large organizations, today announced it has received the "Accelerate, Integrate, Automate Award" from Red Hat Software as part of its Ninth-Annual innovation Awards Honoring Outstanding Achievements in Open Source.

Founded in 1992, APD is an award-winning, nationally-certified, minority-owned and service disabled veteran-owned small business headquartered in Charlotte, N.C.  APD provides custom solutions for the procurement of office supplies, facilities/maintenance, repair and operation (MRO) supplies and corporate identity products for some of the largest organizations in the world. For more than 20 years, APD has generated millions of dollars in cost savings in corporate procurement through its Value Innovation model, which continually drives down procurement costs by controlling product price while totally managing product choice at both the company level and employee point-of-purchase.

Red Hat's Accelerate, Integrate, Automate Award recognizes the best overall acceleration and automation of IT workloads using Red Hat products. APD turned to Red Hat Consulting to help update its proprietary ecommerce platform and lead the design, implementation, testing and production of eLink™ Gateway, APD's cloud-based, proprietary Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution for building, implementing and maintaining customized direct URL and punchout catalogs for the products and services of a company's preferred suppliers. Built with Red Hat JBoss^® Middleware, eLink™ Gateway uses big data analytics and customized electronic catalogs with automated management controls to help clients maximize cost savings on the products and services they purchase.  Through product-comparison features, eLink™ Gateway utilizes product substitutions to deliver savings superior to price reduction, and allows companies the option to have users purchase items which benefit the company only via approved product substitution.

To date, the new eLink™ Gateway service has reduced its total cost of ownership (TCO) by 25% and trimmed capital expenditures by 52% for customers, generating nearly $10 million in cost savings.  

APD's eLink™ Gateway solution was chosen to win this year's award from the largest pool of entries ever received from companies across the globe. APD was also the only organization from North Carolina to receive a Red Hat Innovation Award.

"APD is honored to win the prestigious 2015 Red Hat Accelerate, Integrate, Automate Award," said Cy Kennedy, president of APD. "When we began developing our eLink™ Gateway system, our goal was to create an innovative model that couldn't easily be replicated in the marketplace. A critical aspect of controlling spend is managing the ordering process. Companies need a more comprehensive solution that fills in the gaps left by an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and simplifies the ordering process and drives significant savings. eLink™ Gateway's new architecture, developed with Red Hat's open source technologies, has allowed our customers to meet these challenges with a procurement solution that includes features they can't find anywhere else."

APD's Accelerate, Integrate, Automate Award was announced today at the 2015 Red Hat Summit, being held in Boston, Mass. June 22-26. The Red Hat Summit is the premier open source technology event to showcase the latest and greatest in cloud computing, platform, virtualization, middleware, storage, and systems management technologies.

As a result of the award, APD's eLink™ Gateway solution will now compete with five other category winners for the title of 2015 Red Hat Innovator of the Year. That winner will be determined by the open source community via online voting that will open on June 22, 2015 and run for two days. The Red Hat Innovator of the Year will be announced on June 25, 2015. For more information or to vote for Red Hat's Innovator of the Year, please visit https://www.redhat.com/en/customers/innovation-awards.  

For more information about APD and its eLink™ procurement solutions, please visit www.americanproduct.com. For more information about Red Hat, please visit www.redhat.com.

About American Product Distributors, Inc.
Founded in 1992, American Product Distributors, Inc. (APD) is a nationally certified minority-owned and service disabled veteran-owned small business that provides custom solutions for the procurement of office supplies, facilities/maintenance, repair and operation (MRO) supplies and corporate identity products to some of the largest organizations in the world. APD helps its customers to achieve sweeping cost savings in every significant procurement category through its Value Innovation model, which continually drives down procurement costs by controlling product price while totally managing product choice at the company level and at the employee point of purchase. For more information, please visit www.americanproduct.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com.

SOURCE American Product Distributors, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.americanproduct.com