Lawson Announces M3 7.1 Applications for Manufacturing/Distribution Companies
Highlights include new user interface, Supply Chain Orders, enhanced industry functionality, and simpler upgrade approach
ST. PAUL, Minn. (March 05, 2007) – Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN) today announced Lawson M3 7.1 applications for manufacturing, distribution and maintenance companies. Lawson M3 7.1 delivers on the company’s commitment to develop and support distinct product lines – one tailored to manufacturing-related sectors and one for service sector organizations. Highlights of the Lawson M3 7.1 application release include:
Smart Client, a significantly enhanced user interface
Increased functionality through Supply Chain Orders
Continued enhancement to Lawson’s industry-specific functionality
New system foundation that separates Lawson M3 applications from Lawson M3 technology and helps customers avoid disruptive upgrades.
Lawson M3 7.1 is designed for customers in fashion, food and beverage, distribution, asset-intensive and manufacturing industries. Lawson unveiled Lawson M3 7.1 applications at the Lawson Conference and User Exchange (CUE), taking place this week in San Diego. The previous year at CUE, Lawson highlighted Lawson 9 applications and technology designed for Lawson’s customers in service sector industries.
“Following our recent release of the new Lawson M3 7.1 technology, today’s announcement about M3 7.1 applications means we are now delivering the complete package to Lawson M3 users,” said Dean Hager, senior vice president of product management for Lawson. “More importantly, by delivering a new technical foundation for Lawson M3, we have separated the applications from the technology and have made it simpler for our customers to move up to the latest release without disrupting their entire organization.”
Lawson Smart Client
With the Lawson Smart Client user interface, which is a core element of the overall M3 7.1 applications release, Lawson is redefining how people will interact with their Lawson applications. Lawson worked with leading user interface developer frog design(TM) to create Smart Client, which will become the common user interface for Lawson products moving forward.
Smart Client is an easily deployed and managed client application that sits on a central server. It delivers an intuitive user interface that allows user-specific customization and personalization to put the right tools and information on every user’s screen. The new user interface can incorporate features such as documents, two- and three-dimensional graphics, and video. And because of its intuitive design, Smart Client can help companies achieve greater data discipline, because the interface will help ensure that people use the system and work with data in the right manner.
“Smart Client transforms the enterprise desktop work environment and the user experience,” said Henrik Billgren, vice president of applications product management for Lawson. “With Smart Client, users won’t merely tab through data entry forms anymore. By putting key information specific to an individual person’s role on their screen in a user-friendly format, this new user interface can help bring about significant improvements in productivity.”
Lawson Supply Chain Orders
The new Lawson Supply Chain Orders provides functionality for a wide variety of industries that use the M3 applications. Supply Chain Orders links the various orders within a supply chain to provide greater visibility into the entire supply chain and allow greater flexibility to successfully react to changes in orders. As an example, the application allows automated adjustments throughout the supply chain if a delivery date or quantity change is made. The application automates the process of making changes to order networks and enables users to check on the status of a linked order chain and whether the current delivery terms can be met.
In addition, Lawson M3 7.1 applications provide enhancements to better meet a company’s global capable-to-promise needs. A user can analyze orders and quickly identify their capability to deliver as promised, based on inventory, sourcing needs and overall capacity. This “what if” capability can help save time and provide critical intelligence to help companies provide realistic delivery dates to their customers.
Industry-specific functionality: Lawson Fashion Production Planning
Lawson Fashion Production Planning delivers improved supply chain visibility and quicker information access for fashion manufacturers. The new Fashion Planning Workbench helps improve management of capacity and delivery performance by simulating production capability at one or a number of sites and supporting decision making to balance load and meet customer delivery dates.
Hong Kong-based TAL, one of the world’s largest apparel manufacturers, has piloted and is now live on Fashion Planning Workbench. “We work with very complex supply chains where any delay can hamper our ability to meet our delivery deadlines,” said Delman Lee, director of technology, TAL. “With Fashion Planning Workbench, we can easily make changes to order entries and quickly determine where to move orders between facilities to respond better to customer requests and ensure on-time delivery.”
Industry-specific functionality: Demand Planner
Demand volatility and changing product ranges can make effective forecasting and demand planning a challenge for manufacturers and distributors. Lawson M3 7.1 Forecasting and Demand Planner applications will help improve forecasting results and avoid depleted or excessive inventory which leads to poor customer service and increased operating costs. Enhancements include:
Statistical forecasting improvements for more business flexibility and faster forecasting
Improved demand planning functionality to help improve forecast accuracy, which can help increase customer loyalty, reduce product waste due to product expiration or obsolescence, and reduce rushed orders and stock handling costs
The ability to lock and store budgets for future comparisons.
Jelly Belly, a well known confectionery manufacturer, is engaged with Lawson to pilot the Lawson M3 7.1 Demand Planner application. The company makes more than 75 flavors of jelly beans and sells its products in 35 countries. “Manufacturing a Jelly Belly jelly bean can take up to 21 days and we can face hefty penalties for late or incomplete shipments,” said Ryan Schader, vice president of business development for Jelly Belly. “We’re working extensively with Lawson on exception management, product classification and sales outlier handling and are confident these components will help us provide an even higher level of customer service.”
Industry-specific functionality: Sales and Marketing Automation
Distribution companies and food and beverage manufacturers face an increasing challenge of effectively developing and executing marketing initiatives. Lawson Sales and Marketing Automation helps distributors and food and beverage manufacturers become more strategic about sales and marketing through greater visibility into the overall process. Through features such as Territory Management, Sales Cycle Planning and Dashboards, Sales and Marketing Automation can help customers:
Track marketing activities, pipeline, qualified leads, budget versus actual spend, as well as monitoring activity by campaign, sales associate, customer or territory.
Manage marketing promotions to determine the best product promotion strategy with retailers and monitor how particular product promotions are going.
Access new functionality that displays data tailored to the specific user and allows the user to choose from a library of predefined reports and graphs.
Lawson Sales and Marketing Automation was designed with the needs of sales people in mind, with an intuitive user interface to make it simpler to access and use the right information and accurately enter order information while in the field. It also provides online/offline capability, so order information entered in the field is automatically synchronized when a sales associate is back online.
The Lawson M3 7.1 applications will be phased in globally beginning in May.
About Lawson Software
Lawson Software provides software and service solutions to 4,000 customers in manufacturing, distribution, maintenance and service sector industries across 40 countries. Lawson’s solutions include Enterprise Performance Management, Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Enterprise Asset Management and industry-tailored applications. Lawson solutions assist customers in simplifying their businesses or organizations by helping them streamline processes, reduce costs and enhance business or operational performance. Lawson is headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., and has offices around the world. Visit Lawson online at www.lawson.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that contain risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements contain statements of intent, belief or current expectations of Lawson Software and its management. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The company is not obligated to update forward-looking statements based on circumstances or events that occur in the future. Risks and uncertainties that may cause such differences include but are not limited to: uncertainties in Lawson’s ability to realize synergies and revenue opportunities anticipated from the Intentia International acquisition; uncertainties in the software industry; uncertainties as to when and whether the conditions for the recognition of deferred revenue will be satisfied; global military conflicts; terrorist attacks; pandemics, and any future events in response to these developments; changes in conditions in the company’s targeted industries; increased competition and other risk factors listed in the company’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lawson assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release.
Source: Lawson
