LawsonGuru Blog

According to this recent article (http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/saas/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207403609), it seems that SAP’s ambitious plan for offering software-as-a-service (SaaS) to the mid-market was just a wee bit too ambitious:

(more…)

Despite the upbeat quarterly report, I’m hearing a lot of grumbling from the troops.  In particular that the company is being decimated in the name of cost-cutting, and that the focus has shifted away from long-term R&D to short-term billable/maintenance revenue.  Also that all intellectual properties, etc. (e.g. Architects) are now being offshored and that St. Paul will be only a shell, if it even survives as the HQ.  Lastly, that Landmark apps are on the back burner.

Last summer’s reading included a significant and highly-relevant book, “The Change Function: Why Some Technologies Take Off and Others Crash and Burn” (see http://www.amazon.com/Change-Function-Technologies-Others-Crash/dp/B000NA6U2O) by Pip Coburn.  As I was reading, I naturally started to draw some parallels to some Lawson initiatives.    (more…)

I recently wrote (see http://lawsonguru.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/applying-the-change-function-to-lwsn/) about Pip Coburn’s book “The Change Function: Why Some Technologies Take Off and Others Crash and Burn” (see http://www.amazon.com/Change-Function-Technologies-Others-Crash/dp/B000NA6U2O) and how it can be applied to Lawson.   I want to expand a bit on how I think it applies to Landmark.  (more…)

 A number of years ago, I wrote a LawsonGuru Letter article titled “Lawson’s Quality Crisis”.  I really had high hopes that Lawson was turning the corner on these problems as part of their various initiatives (including their adoption of better CMM practices, the Xansa partnership, etc.)  (more…)

What we saw of Landmark at CUE 2006 looks like it may be the real deal, even though it sounds like it is still living in the ivory tower and hasn’t (yet) been exposed to many people.  As soon as that happens and the defects start to surface…then we’ll know more.  (more…)

Over the past few months, my wife and I have been tooling along our local bike trails. This came to a surprise halt a few weeks ago. First indication of a problem was that my chain was slipping every now and then as I pedaled hard up a hill. This time was no different, as the chain slipped a couple of times. No problem, I figured—I’d just take my bike into the local shop and have them give it the once-over. 
 
We only had a couple more hills to climb (thankfully, the people in the parks department have managed to put most of the trails along some old railway lines). Then, bam! The chain snapped clean in two. This meant a long walk home, and plenty of time to contemplate the meaning of this, in Lawson terms, of course. (You know that I’d come to that part eventually, didn’t you?).
(more…)

Is Lawson about to reinvent itself? Remember a couple of years ago, how everyone was trying to be part of the offshore phenomenon?  Lawson, not wanting to miss the party nor the potential savings, hooked up with offshore services provider Xansa (see http://www.danalytics.com/guru/letter/archive/2004-03.htm).  The plan was that Xansa would be utilized, “…to manage Lawson’s product maintenance services…” and to “…increase Lawson’s development capacity, to focus on new product development.” (see http://www.xansa.com/shared/pressreleases/192037). 

(more…)