LawsonGuru Blog

I listened in to the analyst conference call a couple of weeks ago when Lawson Software released their Q4 2005 Financials (to hear a replay see http://www.lawson.com/investor/index.shtml).

These conference calls are always a hoot; there’s really any negatives shared in this way–it’s much easier for a company to issue a press release and not take any questions!

Here’s what I got out of the call:

• Lawson made some good money this past quarter, and for the fiscal year. Even though they didn’t sell as much software and services, they managed to prudently manage their costs.
• Lawson expects it will only take 1 or 2 quarters to merge in Intentia. I have a different opinion, of course. And so do others (see http://www.intelligententerprise.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165700220).
• Lawson continues to sign deals, as evidenced by a number of recent press releases. In addition, they are seeing a lot of activity at the various trade shows at which they exhibit.
• After several rounds of layoffs, Lawson expects to be ADDING more sales reps. This one actually took me by surprise, but as Harry Debes (Lawson’s new CEO) put it, if they want to remain competitive, they need “more feet on the street”.
• Debes also said that they need to become more aggressive in the sales of offshore consulting. They need to continue to leverage their relationship with Xansa, and push more offshore consulting resources on to Lawson’s clients.

That one actually made me laugh. I have yet to work with a company that would be able (or even willing to try) to work a consulting relationship. And by consulting, I don’t mean contract programming. Consulting is not contracting. Consulting is telling someone analyzing a situation and teaching to a client how to make something work to their advantage. You simply can’t do that remotely. Period.