SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2005--
Project Landmark-Developed Applications Will Position Lawson
Applications and Lawson Clients for Service Oriented Architectures
While Lowering Total Cost of Ownership
Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN) today unveiled a new standards-based
business applications platform designed to leapfrog the software
industry by dramatically increasing overall application quality and
improving the product lifecycle experience for Lawson clients, from
construction to deployment, implementation, integration, support and
upgrades.
Codenamed "Landmark," the new technology environment has been
under development by a special team spearheaded by founder Richard
Lawson for more than three years and mitigates the very source of
application complexity: the massive amounts of computer code that have
brought business software innovation to a standstill. The new model
dramatically reduces the source coding required and will result in
virtually error-free, consistent Java code.
Landmark-developed applications and Web services will be rolled
out gradually and will share the same data repository as clients'
existing Lawson applications. This means clients need only to perform
an upgrade, not a migration or new implementation, to take advantage
of them, unlike competitors' approaches.
"By bringing radical simplicity and adaptability to enterprise
applications, we're unleashing innovation again," Lawson said. "It is
the culmination of years of research and was conducted for the
ultimate benefit of clients."
Based on a service-oriented architecture, Landmark is designed to
enable Lawson and its clients to quickly and easily modify and
customize business processes for rapidly changing specific business or
technology needs. The significant reduction in code and errors and
move to entirely open standard technology will also help dramatically
reduce implementation times and further lower total cost of ownership.
"Landmark enhances the entire product life cycle experience for
our clients, epitomizing the spirit of our 'Manifesto for Change in
Business Applications Software,'" said Chief Product Officer Dean
Hager. "Everything from rapid builds and deployments on J2EE
environments, to versioning, automated patching and upgrades become
faster, simpler, easier and more reliable. It promises major gains in
reducing total cost of ownership and increasing return on investment."
Positioning Clients for SOA
With the new technology environment, Lawson will offer a backbone
of J2EE-compliant Web services for SOAs running on industry-standard
platforms, such as IBM WebSphere. Landmark will enable Lawson to
rapidly develop new services addressing industry or
functional-specific business processes without the usual lengthy
product development cycle while enabling clients to incorporate Lawson
applications and components into new composite applications. Landmark
also supports key standards such as WSDL, XML and SOAP.
"Unlike competitors' current projects, Landmark is not a platform
only for assimilating disparate acquired systems with a goal of simply
creating consistencies at the high price of a radical migration," said
Richard Patton, Lawson senior research fellow and project leader.
"Instead, we've created a far-reaching evolution that sets a new
standard for software quality, productivity and ease of use while
protecting clients' current investments in Lawson software."
Lawson is demonstrating a strategic sourcing application developed
with Landmark technology at the company's Conference and User Exchange
(CUE) today. The company said the first Landmark-generated
applications are in development and can be expected next year.
About Lawson Software
Lawson Software provides business application software and
consulting services that put time on the side of services
organizations in the healthcare, retail, government and education,
banking and insurance and other markets. Lawson's software suites
include enterprise performance management, distribution, financials,
human resources, procurement, retail operations and service process
optimization. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., Lawson has offices and
affiliates serving North and South America, Europe, and Africa. Lawson
Software and Lawson are registered trademarks of Lawson Software, Inc.
All rights reserved.
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, Inc., 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 the software industry; global military
conflicts; terrorist attacks in the United States, and any future
events in response to these developments; changes in conditions in the
company's targeted service 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 and as
included in other documents the company files from time to time with
the Commission.
CONTACT: Lawson Software, Inc.
Terry Blake, 651-767-4766
terry.blake@lawson.com
or
Weber Shandwick
Niki Larsen, 952-346-6268
nlarsen@webershandwick.com
SOURCE: Lawson Software, Inc.
