Lawson 8.1.0 Technology, which forms the environment that Lawson’s suite of applications operate within, adds support for IBM-AIX and HP-UX platforms plus improved security, performance, and the ability to use industry standard J2EE compliant application servers. Lawson’s n-tier architecture ensures existing users can implement the new version without having to go through a complete re-implementation, and the overall intention behind the release is to reduce complexity and enable Lawson to more easily slot into organizations’ infrastructures.
Key security features include support for one central repository security for administration of Lawson’s portal-based products and support for roles- and rules-based security measures. Lawson has also tackled performance, scalability, and usability. The technology’s Web-tier component uses Java servlets and servlet technology to improve performance throughout the Lawson technology layers with the objective of delivering faster transaction speed.
Business applications vendors fall into two camps: those that offer their own technology stack, and those that have allied with one of the key providers. Lawson is in the second camp, having allied itself with IBM, building and optimizing its software around IBM’s technology base. In May 2005, IBM and Lawson announced an expanded partnership aimed at integrating IBM’s middleware technology such as WebSphere and Tivoli into Lawson’s ERP product set, and optimizing Lawson performance on IBM’s hardware, software, and DB2 Information Management products.
In addition, IBM’s WebSphere is the middleware foundation for Lawson’s Landmark business application environment, which is designed to help Lawson clients move to a J2EE-standard service-oriented architecture and utilize an open standards-based framework. IBM pSeries/AIX, WebSphere, Tivoli and DB2 have been selected by Lawson as their native platform for all new development.
Lawson is currently in the process of acquiring fellow mid-market ERP vendor Intentia which is also IBM-centric and has standardized its platform around IBM WebSphere.
