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IBM and Lawson Team to Market Solutions for SOAs in Vertical Markets

IBM and Lawson Software announced yesterday that Lawson will optimize and standardize its business apps portfolio on IBM WebSphere--a move intended to help clients move to a J2EE compliant SOA and mitigate application complexity by reducing the source coding required. Apps and Web services will share the same data repository as clients' existing Lawson applications, enabling clients to perform only an upgrade, not a migration or new implementation, to take advantage of them, Lawson says.

"Midmarket companies are seeking open and integrated solutions that won't lock them into a proprietary environment and help accelerate return on investment," says Steve Mills, senior VP and group executive, IBM Software Group. "The joint IBM and Lawson solutions are easy to implement and will enable customers to solve their industry and business challenges on demand."

During the first half of 2006, Lawson intends to ship Lawson Financials, Supply Chain Management, Human Resources, Enterprise Performance Management and Procurement with embedded components of IBM WebSphere, DB2, Rational and Tivoli.

IBM and Lawson will jointly develop and market solution packs to organizations in healthcare, retail, government, education, financial services and other service-sector, vertical markets. These industry solution packs will provide clients with pre-integrated offerings designed to be easy to install and maintain, and address industry-specific requirements.

Both companies will market the integrated offerings. IBM will provide support and vertical industry expertise through IBM Global Services and Business Consulting Services. The two companies say they also will increase the number of consultants in Lawson's IBM Competency Center to support testing and development.