Major International Retailers Choosing Lawson Software Solutions; Key Wins Accelerate Company's Global Market Growth, Referenceability.

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 1998--Lawson Software, The Global Solutions Company, today announced it has expanded its presence in the global enterprise applications market by adding several major European retailers, including Dixons Group plc, Littlewoods Stores, The Electronics Boutique Stores, Ltd., NAAFI (Navy, Army, Air Force Institutes) and GUS Home Shopping, Ltd., to the rapidly growing ranks of its international customers. Lawson Software made the announcement today at the Retail Systems 98 Conference and Exposition in New Orleans.

The wins underscore Lawson's strategic initiative to accelerate growth outside North America, with the United Kingdom serving as the international headquarters for global growth. Lawson has won the recent international contracts against enterprise software giants SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards.

"Lawson has invested the time, money and energy required to bring its strong North American functionality and technology to the international marketplace," said David Dobrin, senior director of research, Benchmarking Partners. "That investment is now bearing fruit. Lawson has important, referenceable European customers who use the software to operate in multiple countries. These customers have chosen Lawson over well-known, European competitors."

Lawson's Self-Evident Applications Wins Dixons Business

Dixons Group plc, a $4 billion consumer electronics retail powerhouse with 1,100 stores throughout the United Kingdom, purchased the LAWSON INSIGHT(R) Procurement process suite, Web Procurement Center and Vendor Web Service Center, as well as LAWSON INSIGHT Financials General Ledger and Activity Management. Dixons Group officials cite Lawson's Self-Evident Applications(TM) (SEA) and strong retail focus as key factors in selecting the Lawson solutions.

The Hemel Hempstead, U.K.-based company will use the browser-based Self-Evident Applications in Lawson's Web Service centers to virtually eliminate training time and costs among its employees, who will enter requisitions directly from the company's hundreds of stores. Dixons Group will also leverage SEA to offer vendors an intuitive interface for selected enterprise data input and access.

Lawson won the Dixons Group, plc contract in direct competition with Oracle. Dixon Group officials said they considered many factors, from functionality to implementation speed, in making their decision, and were also influenced by Lawson's business culture and commitment to customer service.

Global Retail Software Victory

The Electronics Boutique Stores, Ltd., a retailer of packaged consumer software with more than 150 stores in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Korea, Puerto Rico, the U.K. and the U.S., recently purchased the Lawson Enterprise/400T Financials and Procurement Systems.

The Bracknell, U.K.-based company selected Lawson over J.D. Edwards, due in large part to Lawson's strategic partnership with JDA Software Group, Inc., an international provider of client/server retail information systems. The Electronics Boutique required an AS/400-based, Year 2000- compliant financials solution supporting the Euro and multi- currency transactions, as well as integration to their corporate headquarters system, JDA's Merchandise Management System(TM) (MMS(R)) software retail merchandising system. Lawson has been developing standard interfaces with JDA to its solutions since 1997. The combined products provide a proven, integrated solution for the entire retail enterprise.

In addition to winning the The Electronics Boutique Stores' U.K. business, the company's U.S.-based operations also selected Lawson Enterprise/400 Financials and Procurement applications over J.D. Edwards products. The Electronics Boutique's U.S. operation needed a financials system robust enough to handle the company's international requirements, such as currency conversion and value-added tax, available via the Lawson Enterprise/400 System.

Littlewoods Goes With With Lawson

Littlewoods Stores, a $800 million department store chain with more than 130 locations throughout the United Kingdom, recently purchased the LAWSON INSIGHT Financials process suite to support a business with more than 7,500 employees and replace the chain's decentralized enterprise systems with Lawson's Year 2000-compliant solution for managing all core financial processing and non-merchandise purchasing. Littlewoods will leverage the Lawson solutions' tight integration, open architecture, Web-deployability and Drill Around(TM), which provides enterprise-wide data access and reporting capabilities in Lawson's enterprise solutions and third-party applications.

"We needed a financials package with the flexibility to readily accept changes to the business, its processes and its technology environment," said Ken Green, financial accounts manager for Littlewoods Stores. "The Drill Around feature within Lawson will allow our accounting users to interrogate the data without specialist intervention and to utilize it more effectively to offer informed business advice. We also envision using the Internet functionality already built into the software to provide our suppliers with direct Web access to relevant information."

Lawson beat Oracle and CODA for Littlewoods' enterprise financials software business after an evaluation of the vendors on product performance, functionality, UNIX capability and integration with the chain's Retek merchandising system. Littlewoods also plans to leverage the integrated Activity Management of LAWSON INSIGHT in its capital refit programs as it goes through re-launch and re- branding processes, as well as to monitor marketing campaign spending. Lawson Software is one of the few enterprise application vendors to include activity-costing as a key component of its solutions, and the first and only to incorporate true activity management.

Lawson Wins NAAFI

NAAFI (Navy, Army, Air Force Institutes), the first- choice provider of retail and leisure facilities to U.K. Armed Forces with annual revenues approaching $465 million, expects to complete an implementation of the LAWSON INSIGHT Financials process suite before the end of June, 1998 - less than five months after purchasing the solutions - via its chosen outsourcing partner, Capita Business Services. The Wiltshire, U.K.-based company operates more than 500 retail stores and leisure clubs, serving the British Royal Navy, Army and Air Force around the globe.

In head-to-head competition with every major enterprise applications vendor - SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, CODA and J.D. Edwards - NAAFI and Capita Business Services selected LAWSON INSIGHT Financials. The selection comes at a key time in the NAAFI's continuing mission to meets its customer needs. The business has responded to competition with a thorough reorganization that has returned a loss-showing business to profit in the past two years. NAAFI and Capita cite Lawson's technological vision, strong retail focus and references, and superior professional services and implementation speeds as major considerations in choosing Lawson over every one of its larger competitors.

GUS Picks Lawson Over ERP Giants

GUS Home Shopping, Ltd., the U.K.'s largest home shopping retailer with revenues of $2.8 billion, recently purchased the international version of the LAWSON INSIGHT Financials and Procurement process suites. The Manchester, U.K.-based company is replacing a variety of outdated legacy systems to take full advantage of the certified Year 2000- compliance of the Lawson solutions and to automate many accounting processes that are currently performed manually.

"Lawson's Drill Around feature is quite impressive," said Annette Whitehead, divisional management accountant for GUS Home Shopping, Ltd. "It will give us much better access to financial information across the enterprise and speed up our reporting procedures."

Great Universal selected Lawson after evaluating Oracle, SAP and PeopleSoft. Company officials cite many reasons for their decision to favor Lawson, including ease of implementation, multi- currency and Euro support and an intuitive, user-friendly interface.

Global Solutions For a Global Market

While Lawson's larger ERP competitors struggle with initiatives in the mid-tier, client/server applications market Lawson Software has dominated for 25 years, top industry analysts are touting the performance and referenceability both of Lawson's mid-market and high-end solutions, as well as its growing global presence. "Over the past five years, Lawson Software has been successfully executing a go-up-market business and technology strategy," said Ed Black, vice president, enterprise business applications, Aberdeen Group. "As Lawson has effectively repositioned itself in the enterprise applications market, competitors often have been caught flat-footed in sales opportunities by having clung too long to outdated categorizations of Lawson and its solutions. Lawson has become more frequently referenced by competitors in sales situations as a competitive force with which to reckon."

Lawson Software, The Global Solutions Company, is a $166 million provider of self-evident, role-based Web solutions for financials, human resources, procurement and supply chain management. With more than 2,500 mid- to large- sized corporate customers, and sales of its healthcare and retail market solutions growing at 174 percent and 119 percent respectively, Lawson has distinguished itself competitively through a unique blend of feature-rich customer solutions, technology innovation and user-friendly support. The LAWSON INSIGHT(r) line has been acclaimed by technology analysts for its innovative and unique use of leading-edge technologies, like Self-Evident Applications(tm) (SEA) on the Web, and Drill Around(tm) for integrated, cross- application data access.

IDC states Lawson is "the first among leading enterprise application vendors to deliver Web-based applications to market." The Information Technology Association of America asserts Lawson is the first to be certified for Year 2000 compliance. Says the Meta Group, "Lawson gives its customers quantified savings by aiming their technology at saving corporations on overhead...a rare thing in the client/server world." Offering LAWSON INSIGHT for UNIX and NT platforms and Lawson Enterprise/400r for the AS/400, Lawson has offices in 17 countries, more than 20 distributors worldwide and a 96 percent client retention over five years. The company is headquartered in Minneapolis and London. Additional information about Lawson Software is available on the company's Web site, http://www.lawson.com, or by calling [phone].

Lawson and LAWSON INSIGHT are registered trademarks of Lawson Software. Other company and product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

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