Baptist Health Completes Lawson Implementation Six Months Ahead of Schedule.

Arkansas-based health system is the first healthcare customer to implement Lawson 9 applications on the IBM System i platform

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Baptist Health is using the latest Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN) applications and technology platform to help drive administrative time and cost savings via streamlined business processes. In a six-month period, Baptist implemented Lawson System Foundation 9 and the Lawson S3 Enterprise Financial Management and Lawson S3 Supply Chain Management suites on the IBM System i platform. The Lawson system now helps Baptist simplify regulatory compliance with enhanced reporting, reduce time spent on purchasing processes by up to 50 percent and gain greater visibility into key business processes throughout the organization.

Baptist credits a comprehensive business process assessment conducted by Lawson for helping predict the work and effort required for the project, which was a key factor in reducing the project timeline from a predicted one year to just six months. The organization also credits Lawson's implementation approach for successfully accelerating the project timeline.

A Lawson customer since 1998, Baptist Health is a not-for-profit healthcare system serving many cities and communities in Arkansas. It operates more than 130 facilities statewide, including the state's largest rehabilitation hospital, major medical centers, family clinics and therapy centers. The health system employs more than 7,000 people.

Baptist chose to update its technology platform to Lawson System Foundation 9 to allow the organization to migrate directly from Lawson 7.2 to 9.0 applications.

"Lawson's assessment of our business processes and their implementation approach allowed us to more quickly realize business process improvements and a faster ROI while simplifying the entire upgrade project," said Dennis Strobel, director of Information Systems for Baptist Health. "Lawson's user-friendly system has helped us streamline standard processes while giving our employees access to self-service features, such as online requisitions."

"Having completed more than 500 healthcare implementations, we bring proven business best practices and technical expertise to our customers," said Jim Catalino, vice president of Services for Lawson. "This, coupled with our project management methodology, helps providers like Baptist reduce their implementation time and costs."

To manage the system rollout, Baptist created a cross-departmental team. This team, led by a Lawson project manager, included representatives from Baptist's finance, administration and materials management departments. The team communicated regularly with system users and participated in weekly status meetings to guide system design and deployment. Team members also provided updates to their respective departments to help ensure buy-in from the 500 people expected to use the system.

The new system helps streamline the health system's key financial and supply chain workflows. Baptist has simplified its purchasing process by automating the approval process and automatically generating purchase orders, reducing administrative time and eliminating paper-based processes and duplicate data entry. Overall, Baptist estimates the simplified processes have helped reduce time spent on cumbersome purchasing processes by up to 50 percent.

The consolidated Lawson system also helps provide a more accurate and detailed audit trail, allowing Baptist to more easily track its regular item purchases and purchase order changes, including when they are made and by whom. This helps minimize the time spent managing changes in the system to support regulatory compliance.

"Challenged with evolving regulatory requirements and scarce resources, healthcare providers seek creative ways to further minimize administration," said Sara Van Kempen, healthcare marketing director for Lawson. "Our experience working with hundreds of healthcare providers enables us to deliver industry-leading software that directly addresses healthcare business needs so our customers can devote more time to serving patients."

Lawson serves more than 500 healthcare industry customers representing more than 4,500 facilities, including eight of the top 10 integrated delivery networks. The company also serves managed care systems, academic medical centers, hospitals, clinics, physician group practices, home healthcare, long-term care and other health services enterprises. Lawson solutions help healthcare organizations manage their business so they can focus on their patients, automate and streamline materials management for a better bottom line, and overcome the challenges of the labor shortage.

About Lawson Software

Lawson Software provides software and service solutions to approximately 4,000 customers in manufacturing, distribution, maintenance and service sector industries across 40 countries. Lawson's solutions include Enterprise Performance Management, Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Enterprise Asset Management and industry-tailored applications. Lawson solutions assist customers in simplifying their businesses or organizations by helping them streamline processes, reduce costs and enhance business or operational performance. Lawson is headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., and has offices around the world. Visit Lawson online at www.lawson.com.

Forward-Looking Statements 

This press release contains forward-looking statements that contain risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements contain statements of intent, belief or current expectations of Lawson Software and its management. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The company is not obligated to update forward-looking statements based on circumstances or events that occur in the future. Risks and uncertainties that may cause such differences include but are not limited to: uncertainties in Lawson's ability to realize synergies and revenue opportunities anticipated from the Intentia International acquisition; uncertainties in the software industry; uncertainties as to when and whether the conditions for the recognition of deferred revenue will be satisfied; global military conflicts; terrorist attacks; pandemics, and any future events in response to these developments; changes in conditions in the company's targeted industries; increased competition and other risk factors listed in the company's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lawson assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release.