LawsonGuru Blog

A few days ago, Oracle sued SAP in what could turn into a very ugly case.  Depending on the merits and outcome of this case (which I’ll get to shortly), it could mean a rude wake-up call for any firm doing ERP consulting work.  (more…)

This is getting really spooky.
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A few years ago there was a movie by the name of “Sliding Doors” (see http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6305210411/002-1493439-0644836), of which I remember very little except that the concept was pretty unique; it’s essentially the same plot line running in parallel with itself, where in one of the plot lines certain things happen which don’t happen in the other (and vice versa).  In the end, there are-of course-two different endings.  To stretch this just a bit (OK, a lot), sometimes I feel like I’m live a parallel life when it comes to Lawson.  This has really just become abundantly clear to me recently.

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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. (more…)

OK, I’m neither a financial whiz nor a stock prognosticator, so I’m the wrong person to ask! But I’ve been asked for my thoughts on the Peoplesoft, J.D.Edwards, Oracle takeover shakeout.
I think the Oracle bid for Peoplesoft is still WAY TOO LOW, and Oracle will have to go up to $25-30/share to convince the shareholders. Assuming Oracle does end up buying Peoplesoft, I’m sure they’ll nix the JDE deal. Which demotes JDE to the second tier of ERP vendors–well under SAP and Oracle/PSFT.  In the long run, this may be good news for Lawson and JDE in some respects.

Should Oracle buy Peoplesoft, they’ll likely kill the Peoplesoft brand, and force the clients to migrate to Oracle or perhaps buy other ERPs. Nothing kills a client relationship faster than an acquisition by an obnoxious vendor! And, without PeopleSoft, who better to go to for a trusted HR solution than Lawson?

And, if JDE is left limping alone, how about a merger with Lawson? I don’t think either has the cash to acquire the other, so a stock swap may be a possibility. Both companies operate in some distinctly different vertical markets, and complement each other in that way. However, their technologies are so different, they’d probably never be able to truly merge.