Lawson Signs Contract with Lyttelton Port of Christchurch
Lawson Software, a global provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software applications, has signed a contract with Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) to provide Lawson M3 Enterprise Asset Management, Finance and e-Procurement applications.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (August 28, 2007) – Lawson Software, a global provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software applications, has signed a contract with Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) to provide Lawson M3 Enterprise Asset Management, Finance and e-Procurement applications. Under the contract, Lawson will also provide implementation and support services through Lawson Professional Services. The contract was signed in Lawson’s first quarter of fiscal 2008, which ends 31 August 2007.
Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, LPC is a major South Island deep water port and hub of maritime trade activity. It provides port facilities, marine services and cargo handling for coal and container shipments. As such, it plays a vital role in linking New Zealand to the global transport network via worldwide shipping services.
LPC’s comprehensive and non-stop service includes the provision of tugboats and pilots to escort ships as they enter and leave the Lyttelton Harbour. The company also assists with security and docking for ships entering the port.
According to Kathy Meads, Chief Financial Officer, LPC, the key business reason behind the decision to implement Lawson’s solutions is to drive maintenance efficiencies from both staffing and asset utilisation perspectives. “LPC is an asset intensive business and profitability is dependent in part on the effectiveness of our maintenance strategy, said Meads. “In today’s competitive business environment, maintenance strategies can no longer be focused on preventing failures – they need to take into account a multitude of challenges. These include maximising safety, increasing demand for asset availability and reliability, optimising and extending asset life, catering for increasing customer demands, as well as increasing legal and regulatory requirements.
The Lawson applications will help LPC address these challenges by linking financial and asset management systems, which will help the company maximise capacity and increase asset utilisation.
“Once fully implemented, the new Lawson system will help us minimise downtime and optimise maintenance resources, which will in turn allow us to better deliver on customer demands, added Meads. “It will also help enhance our reputation for quality services and provide transparency across all areas of the business.
Lawson secured the LPC contract as the preferred supplier in a competitive tender against JDE/Oracle, Maximo/IBM and Microsoft.
“There were several reasons for LPC choosing Lawson over the others, said Meads. “Initially, we were impressed with the team of consultants who demonstrated a deep understanding and knowledge of our business and our requirements. We also liked the fact that Lawson has a focus on enterprise asset management and asset intensive industries. The demonstration assessment confirmed the Lawson M3 product suite as the overall preferred solution from both our finance and asset maintenance teams because it offered ‘best of breed’ functionality within an integrated ERP application. The system also has a good technical fit to our existing environment.
Meads anticipates seeing a number of business benefits delivered to LPC once the new Lawson system is deployed. This includes improved customer service, better access to business information, increased cost savings and a reduction in risk.
“On the customer service side, we’re expecting to see significant improvements in how we can maximise equipment availability, which will help us respond better to market and customer demands, said Meads. “The new Lawson M3 Asset Management system will also help us make sure that essential maintenance work is scheduled to minimise impact on our operational capabilities and prevent delays to customers due to equipment failure. It will also allow us to maximise customer service quality by ensuring that equipment operates correctly.
Meads added, “The new system will provide transparency, allowing LPC users to see right through to the base data. It will also give us timely and accurate access to business information for decision making via a set of simplified processes. This will allow us to enhance our planning capabilities and improve our preventive maintenance performance goals. It will also enable us to better deliver on internal and external service level agreements. On cost savings, the Lawson system will provide us with sharper procurement prices, led by changed behaviours in the purchasing process. It will also help us improve labour and asset utilisation, as well as providing a way for us to better manage the extension of asset life. As a result, we anticipate making gains in the area of minimising stock levels. We also anticipate procurement will become more visible and seamless once the implementation project is complete.
Meads concluded, “Furthermore, we will also be able to use the new Lawson system to reduce the risk of undocumented individual knowledge and improve internal controls. Operational risk will also be reduced because the new system will provide us with a sound IT infrastructure base that will allow us to better meet our compliance obligations.
Stephen Moore, managing director for Lawson in ANZ said, “Our agreement with LPC is an important first step for Lawson into the ANZ shipping transport industry. We have well-established relationships in traditional distribution sectors but Lyttelton is the first port company to sign with Lawson in the ANZ region. LPC will also become our first e-Procurement site in the region.
Source: Lawson
