Event Summary
"ST. PAUL, Dec. 28, 1999 - Lawson Software, the only provider of Self-Evident
Applications (SEA) for e-business, today announced the complete delivery of
its enterprise software applications with IBM's DB2 Universal Database. This
full integration availability extends Lawson's support of the IBM DB2 Universal
Database to encompass IBM Netfinity, RS/6000 and S/390 servers. Support for
IBM DB2 on Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems server platforms is scheduled
for May 2000. Customers gain the widest possible choice of hardware platforms
when using IBM DB2 with Lawson solutions, and can leverage their existing mainframe
or client/server infrastructures as significant components of their e-business
strategies."
"The
combination of Lawson Software and IBM DB2 Universal Database provides our customers
with a competitive means to achieve their e-business goals," said Jim Kelly,
vice president, Marketing, IBM Data Management Solutions. "In the arena of e-business,
speed is a distinct competitive advantage, and companies need a highly-scaleable,
available and extensible database to power their growing e-business application
needs. Lawson Software, powered by DB2 Universal Database, is positioned to
help dynamic organizations move their business onto the Web and into the future."
"The
increased platform support gained through integration with DB2 lets us offer
customers greater flexibility in deploying Lawson solutions to achieve their
e-commerce and e-business goals," said Dean Hager, vice president, e-Business
Marketing, Lawson Software. "Lawson gains a significant new market opportunity
in the DB2 customer base, and IBM garners more opportunities to partner in Lawson
engagements. All of the stakeholders in this initiative are winners."
Red
Herring magazine names Lawson "the strongest private ERP Company" and lists
Lawson among the world's top 50 private companies.
Market
Impact
With the recent defection of SAP AG and Siebel (See TEC News Analysis article:
"Oracle
gets SAP'ed by IBM" December 8, 1999), to the IBM DB2 Universal Database
platform as their preferred back-end database, IBM is making strong strides
in making themselves the preferred database for many vendor's ERP solutions.
As they continue to take business away from Oracle, whom many firms are annoyed
with for competing with them directly in the applications space (they are currently
rated the number two ERP vendor), IBM's momentum will likely continue.
User
Recommendations
Customers should consider IBM DB2 Universal Database as a potential platform
for any ERP solutions they may examine. ERP vendors should be strongly questioned
if they lack support for IBM's database solution. The wide variety of platforms
on which DB2 UDB runs is a strong factor on which to give IBM additional consideration,
as is their current financial success and long-standing renown for technological
prowess.