Optician chain Specsavers is upgrading its open source-based store applications to automate customer-facing processes and improve service levels.

The migration of business-critical applications to a Linux-based set-up began last year with the creation of a core package, Socrates, which covers customer registration and sales recording, appointment booking, dispensing and payment processing.

“Automation will enable us to offer a faster, improved experience. The more you cut down on time-consuming processes, the more other key capabilities are boosted, such as customer service,” said Specsavers global architecture manager Nigel Spain.

The chain plans to double the number of branches worldwide to 2,000 within three years.

Socrates runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux on an X86 Intel server platform with 610 store terminals in the UK and a number of stores overseas.

Separately, recent research into open source applications suggests that some organisations are underestimating the security risks involved.

The Open Source Security Study, carried out by security vendor Fortify, studied applications including Red Hat subsidiary JBoss and OpenCMS, and found a number of security problems stemming partly from poor security practices and processes by open source programmers.

“Open source packages often claim enterprise-class capabilities but are not adopting industry best security practices. Only a few teams are moving in the right direction,” says the study.