Lawson Software-IPO and Several Acquisitions After
Part Five: Challenges and User Recommendations
P.J. Jakovljevic & Lou Talarico - November 11, 2003

Challenges

While we believe that the strategy of Lawson Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWSN) has been sound, many may wonder why the vendor has experienced recent troubles. The reasons are multiple. First, it appears that sectors such as health care, the public sector, and professional services have not been less recession-sensitive amid the overall market malaise. Second, one should never discount fierce competition from much larger vendors, like SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and ever more from SCT Corporation, Geac, SSA Global, Scala, Best Software and Microsoft Business Solutions. Although Lawson might claim to hardly ever face the latter group of vendors, citing that even if they ever compete, then one or the other side is likely pursuing the wrong deal, the competition from these players will at least come from the emerging markets that Lawson plans to tackle. All the above vendors, while possibly inferior regarding the focus of service industries, will have influenced some customers' purchase decisions by offering more comprehensive horizontal product portfolios and by touting a superior global presence and multinational product capabilities, which are still the hurdles for Lawson to overcome. One should keep in mind though that in Lawson's largest market, health care, and in the public sector, Lawson's third largest market, Lawson's customers are inherently US-specific and will likely remain so. Also, within these target verticals, Lawson claims that its competitors are not offering significantly more comprehensive horizontal product portfolios...