LawsonGuru Blog
Thought-Provoking Commentary for the Lawson Software Community
Groundhog Day
Six more weeks of winter? Perhaps the same could be said for the Lawson—Intentia merger.
Se Habla . . . Lawson?
It’s a question I get periodically. What are the languages (i.e. Spanish, German, French etc) that Lawson supports? How does it work? For the clients who are (or perhaps are just considering) expanding internationally, one of the basic requirements is that their ERP package support it. Oftentimes, however, this is an afterthought. Only after the big expansion plans have been unveiled does it fall to the IT infrastructure to implement and support it. So, here’s a quick overview of how Lawson supports (and in some ways, doesn’t support) multiple languages, known in the industry as “ERP Localization”. Read more of this post
The Broken Chain & Lawson 9.0
Over the past few months, my wife and I have been tooling along our local bike trails. This came to a surprise halt a few weeks ago. First indication of a problem was that my chain was slipping every now and then as I pedaled hard up a hill. This time was no different, as the chain slipped a couple of times. No problem, I figured—I’d just take my bike into the local shop and have them give it the once-over.
We only had a couple more hills to climb (thankfully, the people in the parks department have managed to put most of the trails along some old railway lines). Then, bam! The chain snapped clean in two. This meant a long walk home, and plenty of time to contemplate the meaning of this, in Lawson terms, of course. (You know that I’d come to that part eventually, didn’t you?).
Read more of this post
Does Landmark Change Lawson’s Offshore Strategy?
Is Lawson about to reinvent itself? Remember a couple of years ago, how everyone was trying to be part of the offshore phenomenon? Lawson, not wanting to miss the party nor the potential savings, hooked up with offshore services provider Xansa (see http://www.danalytics.com/guru/letter/archive/2004-03.htm). The plan was that Xansa would be utilized, “…to manage Lawson’s product maintenance services…” and to “…increase Lawson’s development capacity, to focus on new product development.” (see http://www.xansa.com/shared/pressreleases/192037).
When will LID go away?
It’s a question I hear quite a bit. For years now, Lawson has been telling us that LID will be going away. Now with the just-released 8.1 Technology, this may indeed be getting closer to reality. All application forms can be accessed from the Lawson Portal. In fact, Lawson’s developers have been given free rein to create forms and portlets that run ONLY in Lawson Portal, and Lawson will not guarantee them to work in LID. Read more of this post
Where Have All The (Lawson) People Gone?
I have a number of clients who are looking to fill various Lawson-related positions, and simply can’t find anyone. Even in DC–a major metro area.
It’s kind of scary that there really aren’t any people looking. You would think with the economic gloom and outsourcing and offshoring that we’ve had over the past few years that there would be a huge pool of available resources, but there really isn’t.
Which means that people with Lawson knowledge are in high demand, or that there is so a low demand for Lawson skills, and that means nobody is available. Same issue, viewed from two different angles I guess.
ERP for Professional Services
There was an interesting opinion piece recently in Information Week (see http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165702167). The gist of the editorial is that we are moving to a service economy, and as such, our ERP systems need to change as well. SAP and Oracle are rooted in a manufacturing mentality.
This, of course, piqued my interest, since I’ve been involved in services-oriented ERP (and accounting for those of you who remember before ERP was such a term) software. I probably know more about project accounting (and government contracting) than the average software consultant. And, I was in it way before even hearing the word Lawson. Read more of this post
Lawson’s Good News
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: Read more of this post
Thoughts on the Lawson-Intentia Merger
Wow, what a morning. As many of you may already know, Lawson has announced its acquisition of Intential International. It also announced the planned departure of Jay Coughlan as Lawson’s CEO.
Having been asked by a number of you to provide some thoughts, and never one to pass up an opportunity to voice my opinion, here’s my early insight into these developments. I will do my best to continue to provide coverage of these exciting developments, and look forward to getting your feedback–please post a comment.
Lawson’s Project Landmark
The biggest news from Lawson CUE 2005 was the announcement of Project Landmark. This is the culmination of over three years of development, spearheaded by Richard Lawson, one of the founders of Lawson Software.
You’re probably asking yourself: “Just what is this Project Landmark and how does it affect me?” Read more of this post
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