Enterprise resource planning vendor, Lawson Software, yesterday officially launched the next major release of its flagship applications suite, Insight II. The software vendor said the new software features all the previous application process suites for managing financials, human resources, procurement and supply chain plus new applications for managing collaborative commerce, performance management and enterprise budgeting. It also features the much touted Strategic Ledger product, which is part of Lawson’s Financial Performance Management Suite.
Speaking to ComputerWire yesterday, the company’s CEO, Richard Lawson, said that Strategic Ledger integrates with the company’s standard accounting package, General Ledger, and its Activity Management software to providing real-time financial analysis, reporting and strategic planning. Strategic Ledger integrates with the General Ledger at the transaction level, but stores relationships between ledgers in a new repository, which effectively functions as a datawarehouse, he said. The benefit of this, he added, is that non-accountant staff, such as financial employees or executives who are not technically au fait with ERP software, can now get an overall picture of the value of the business and perform analyses without slowing down general ledger transactions.
Lawson said the new Collaborative Commerce Suite consists of four application modules: electronic commerce (provides the ability to communicate business-to-business and cross-platform, connecting disparate systems in a real-time processing environment to fulfill business processes); enterprise workflow (automates work processes that increase efficiency and lower costs, and provides a performance matrix of business processes to further improve efficiency); broadcast services with information channels (electronically bursts printed reports into targeted information published and accessible via the web to information subscribers); and a corporate resource directory (consolidates all directory information in a single repository for secure access across the enterprise).
Enterprise Budgeting, meanwhile, is an enterprise-wide budgeting and planning solution which integrates with the all the other ERP modules, as well as non-Lawson applications. Incorporating features such as multiple-line detail, multidimensional planning models and ‘what-if’ scenarios, the software pulls data in real time from Insight II, or other enterprise solutions, and consolidates and organizes that data for customized planning, modeling and analysis. The software also integrates with Insight II’s Performance Indicator Suite, enabling enterprise-wide analysis of financial results, the company said. All the new products are available now. á
