Case Study: C&K Market achieves scalable, low-cost open-source database with Actian Ingres

C&K Market Rings Up Business with Actian Open Source

C&K Market, a regional grocery and pharmacy chain that grew from three to 60 stores, faced the need to retire its legacy VMS platform while preserving mission‑critical systems for inventory, pricing, payroll, accounts payable and reporting. The challenge was to transition without disrupting daily operations or incurring the high cost of a full commercial database migration.

C&K migrated to the Actian Ingres open source database on Linux (using Ingres ABF, SQL and Report Write), keeping its in‑house financial, inventory and HR applications intact. The move delivered scalable, low‑administration operations with 24x7 availability, easier integration with open source tools and lower total cost of ownership; a four‑person development team now maintains ~3,000 reports, supports hundreds of daily users, and completed a third‑party pharmacy migration in three months.

C&K Market

Alan Nidiffer

Vice President of IT