Lawson Software speeds new product development with EMC enterprise storage

EMC Corporation today announced that Lawson Software (

) has standardized its software development operations on EMC Enterprise Storage systems and software to derive significantly greater business value from its technology investments, such as accelerated time to market of its enterprise business management software products and significant reduction in information management costs.

Dave Young, Vice President of Release Management and Development Operations for Lawson stated, "We`re under enormous R&D pressure to deliver new products on time and on budget. As a result, we are driven to challenge traditional ways of extracting value from our technology investments and measuring the associated business impact. EMC Enterprise Storage has delivered a powerful new dimension to the direct positive impact that technology has on our business by making our indispensable information assets more readily available to our product developers. To this end, our investments in EMC have been quickly justified through operational savings, increased productivity, and speedier application development.

"For example, EMC`s exceptional information availability has allowed us to more easily meet product commitments that in turn impact customer satisfaction and profits. We chose EMC Enterprise Storage because it ensures our developers will have around-the-clock access to vital product development data. This enables Lawson to shorten development cycles, deliver leading functionality faster, bring in revenue more quickly and build on our reputation as a provider of premier ERP solutions."

Minneapolis-based Lawson previously managed storage requirements on a server by server basis, which had become increasingly complex as the number and types of servers grew along with the company`s strong growth. Today, EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems provide Lawson with a centralized pool of storage for nearly 30 different servers, representing numerous hardware vendors and operating environments, such as Sun, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Windows NT.

Lawson also utilizes EMC PowerPath software to alleviate performance bottlenecks by balancing information loads across all available Fibre Channel paths connecting EMC Symmetrix systems and Lawson`s servers.

"With storage distributed across close to 30 servers, we were experiencing numerous performance and storage administration issues, mostly related to the need for frequent disk expansions and storage incompatibility among servers," explained Rajan Shanmugavelu, Lawson`s Systems Manager. "By consolidating our information infrastructure on EMC Enterprise storage, we have dramatically simplified our storage management and expect to save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on new storage and staffing costs."

To support the many short term projects that place unique storage loads on its servers, Lawson is using the Symmetrix Disk Reallocation Option of EMC ControlCenter management software, which allows Lawson to re-allocate storage across its diverse server platforms, quickly and easily.

Said Shanmugavelu, "With EMC Enterprise Storage, we gain high availability and extraordinary flexibility in responding to our applications` changing information requirements. The ability to rapidly shift storage resources allows us to get the most out of our systems, lowering our capital expenditures and reducing our operating expenses."

"Lawson is a leading player in the ERP market because of its ability to anticipate key business trends and quickly deliver leading-edge technology solutions to its customers," commented Mark Ward, EMC`s Vice President of Global Marketing. "With EMC Enterprise Storage Solutions, Lawson can focus its time, money and technical resources on developing new applications rather than supporting complex operating environments."

Lawson Software, a $270 million provider of Self-Evident Applications (SEA) for the NetGeneration, offers role-based Web solutions for financials, human resources, procurement, supply chain and performance management. With 2,800 mid- to large-sized corporate customers, Lawson has distinguished itself competitively through a unique blend of feature-rich customer solutions, technology innovation and user-friendly support. Lawson Software has been acclaimed by technology analysts for its innovative and unique use of leading-edge technologies, like Self-Evident Applications (SEA) on the Web, and Drill Around for integrated, cross-application data access.