Lawson Budgeting and Planning includes retail industry-specific functionality and integration to Lawson Financials, Human Resources
ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 9, 2004 - Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) today announced the addition of Lawson Budgeting and Planning to its comprehensive suite of retail applications. The new application is designed to help companies more easily manage and control their forward-looking financial pictures and strengthens Lawson`s Enterprise Performance Management suite. "Lawson Software continues to deliver on its commitment to bring deep vertical functionality to the marketplace," said Carol Mackenzie, retail market director at Lawson. "Retailers are getting a budgeting application that`s easy for line managers to use and tuned to the unique needs of this industry. This is yet another example of Lawson executing on its vision to enrich its enterprise applications for the retail industry." Lawson Budgeting and Planning, which is generally available next week, helps retailers improve their top- and bottom- line results through better visibility into their financial future by providing:
-- Retail-specific, 13-period planning calendars
-- The ability to control and adjust expense structures in the face of short-term sales turndowns in order to meet earnings commitments
-- Collaborative as well as top-down forecasting and steering of expenses
-- An overarching grasp of financial commitments being made in Retail Operations and Store Operations suites
-- Synchronization of operating activities and decisions with the financial outlook
-- Effective establishment, communication and enforcement of dynamic expense controls to respond to changing business conditions
In addition to optimization of business planning and forecasting, Lawson Budgeting and Planning also improves the productivity of the finance team by promoting business manager ownership of financial plans. Budgeting and Planning enhances dynamic steering and control of financial results and drives more accurate forecasts through collaboration. Added Mackenzie, "While finance teams have a better view of the overall financial picture, business managers often have the best knowledge and control of the headcount, capital spending, and other resource requirements for their departments. Competitors` budgeting and planning systems are often tedious to use and hinder business manager participation in infrequent, off-line communications with financial analysts. Lawson Budgeting and Planning enables merchandising to stay in synch with finance by providing real-time forecasts that finance can count on." "Regulatory and competitive pressures are making financial planning applications more egalitarian," said Alex Veytsel, research analyst at the Aberdeen Group. "Traditionally confined to a financially sophisticated elite in select industries, budgeting and planning software must now reach the line-of-business manager in technological backwaters where the annual battle of the spreadsheets is still the dominant planning practice. Vertical expertise and ease-of-use will be essential to making this leap forward possible." Lawson Retail Solutions were developed specifically to assist high-volume retailers in improving net profitability by helping to increase revenues, reduce costs and more effectively deploy their workforce. Lawson Retail Solutions encompass Enterprise Operations, Retail Operations, Enterprise Visibility and Retail InSight - a comprehensive set of solutions that includes merchandising, supply chain, store operations, financials, human resources, procurement and enterprise performance management. Lawson`s industry-focused software solutions help retailers integrate the systems they use to run and grow their businesses. Lawson customers include five of the top 10 U.S.-based retailers, eight of the top 20 apparel retailers, seven of the top 25 grocery chains, 23 of the top 100 restaurant chains and 20 of the top 100 specialty chains.
About Lawson Software
Lawson Software provides business process software solutions that help services organizations in the retail, healthcare, professional services, public sector, financial services and other strategic markets achieve competitive advantage. Lawson`s solutions include enterprise performance management, distribution, financials, human resources, procurement, merchandising and services automation. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., Lawson has offices and affiliates serving North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Additional information about Lawson is available at www.lawson.com .
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. 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 which occur in the future. In addition to factors discussed above, risks and uncertainties that may cause such differences include but are not limited to: a decline in general economic conditions; 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 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and as included in other documents the company files from time to time with the Commission.
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