Lawson Software, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor known for its range of self-evident applications for e-business, wrapped up its annual conference and user exchange (CUE) in San Diego this weekend.
The conference was attended by upwards of 7 000 delegates, and played host to the introduction of what Lawson touts as its flagship e-business product line, lawson.insight.
The product provides trademark Lawson role-based self-evident applications, e-business transaction engines and solution extensions. In addition, Lawson introduced lawson.consulting, an implementation project management and consulting division, and lawson.community, a digital information exchange channel.
The ERP vendor also announced the appointment of Jay Coughlan, formerly executive VP of US field operations and marketing, to president and chief operating officer, as well as a value-added reseller agreement struck between Lawson Software and global customer relationship management company, Siebel Systems.
Coughlan reassured Lawson clients and users that he would run the company as it always has been, but with an increased focus on the application service provision market. It is hoped that the "Powered by Lawson" ideal will be achieved through Lawson`s existing clients making e-business functionalities based on Lawson products available to their own clients.
As to the Siebel partnership, Coughlan believes the agreement, which was initiated, negotiated and finalised in less than two weeks prior to CUE 2000, marries Siebel`s extensive brand awareness with Lawson Software`s client base, and is a good match between the companies` similar product architecture, corporate cultures and industry rivals. "Any good partnership starts with having good common enemies," he notes.
Robert Toatley, executive VP and GM, Retail, agrees. "That goes back to [Lawson`s] overall philosophy of working with people who have established industry standards. What you see is an openness on the part of Lawson to partner with companies that we think will add value to our client base."
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