Lawson Widens ASP Lead With Three International Partnerships

Business Wire, July 21, 2000

Business Editors

ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 21, 2000

Aqeuro Africa, Makino Alliance Solutions,

Unihold Business Solutions Join LawsonTone

Lawson Software, the Enterprise behind the Internet, today announced that three new international application service providers (ASPs) have joined the LawsonTone remote computing program. Aqeuro Africa, a leading professional services firm in South Africa, Makino Alliance Solutions, a South African-based international technology provider in the government sector and Unihold Business Solutions, the sixth largest global IT company in Africa, will offer the lawson.insight(TM) line of e-business solutions as LawsonTone members.

Through partnerships with leading independent ASPs, the LawsonTone program provides for the delivery of Lawson enterprise e-business applications to end users via the Internet or private networks. The program is designed to provide maximum flexibility in working in this new market. LawsonTone partners provide remote hosting of applications and aggregate all of the infrastructure and application management services needed to deliver the application to the end-user. LawsonTone ASP partners also add value to Lawson solutions by customizing and pre-integrating Lawson applications to address the specific needs of a targeted industry or market segment.

Aqeuro Africa

Aqeuro Africa is launching its hosted Lawson solution in July 2000 to companies throughout Europe and South Africa. Founded in March 1998, Aqeuro Africa is a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Aqeuro Holdings BV. In response to growing unemployment among overqualified graduates and unskilled labor in Holland, Aquero developed a process to train disadvantaged citizens and empower them with the ability to take on suitable, permanent jobs. This model of training was brought to South Africa and adapted to suit varied cultural, educational and ethnic backgrounds. Aqeuro shifted its focus on the ASP market when it foresaw the adherent benefits of ASPs as a tool in effective business management.

"Small-to-medium (SME) sized businesses must utilize software to help run their companies more efficiently, improve customer service and compete in the global marketplace," said Jan Smit, chief operating officer, Aqeuro Africa. "But companies seek alternatives to the `ownership' model, which forced businesses to live with the high costs and complexity associated with software technology. Many businesses would rather be making investments to strengthen their own core competencies instead of purchasing increasingly complicated, and rapidly changing IT systems. Hosting your IT infrastructure enables businesses to focus on vital business practices such as customer relationship management, human resource management and target achievement."

Smit compares Lawson very favorably to other software vendors.

"Unlike competitive solution providers, Lawson's software was initially designed for the Internet, instead of being adapted, making it more suited and efficient. Lawson's advanced software integrates with legacy systems and existing software, keeping it affordable," said Smit.

Makino Alliance Solutions

Makino Alliance Solutions is a subsidiary of Makino Technologies, a global software implementor in the public sector. This relationship has allowed Makino to acquire valuable knowledge in the technical field, as well as develop relationships with key government officials.

"Our strength lies in providing the technical expertise of government installations," said Sheiks Makhado, executive chairman, Makino. "Joining Lawson's ASP initiative has allowed us to move forward aggressively in the emerging ASP market."

Makino was impressed with Lawson's reputation for service, advanced partnerships and focus on leading-edge e-business solutions. In addition, Makino company officials cited Lawson's robust functionality as a major factor in partnering with Lawson.

"Lawson's solutions are specifically designed for the Internet, instead of being adapted," said Gerhard Cloete, relationship manager, Makino. "The software is flexible, affordable and scaleable, allows easy upgrades and provides organizations with a better, faster return on investment than traditional enterprise systems."

Unihold Business Solutions

Johannesburg-based Unihold is the holding company of a primarily South African-based group with a predominant focus in the information technology industry. It operates four divisions - consulting, infrastructure, business solutions and outsourcing.

"Unihold's new ASP service will utilize Lawson's software solutions to provide clients with a total hosted solution," said Cliff van Tonder, country manager, Lawson South Africa. "Organizations are focusing on business practice and bottom line, instead of IT systems management. Investing in buying versus renting a total solution can be costly from both a maintenance and installation perspective, not to mention the additional costs for release upgrades."

Unihold, which already has a virtual private network (VPN) system in place, can provide clients with the hosting of their IT systems, either through a VPN, the Internet or through dedicated leased lines.