City of Abilene Signs Enterprise Software Contract with Lawson Software

The City of Abilene, Texas, has signed a contract with Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) to implement a multi-application contract that includes the Lawson Strategic Human Capital Management and Enterprise Financial Management suites. These applications will help the city automate and streamline HR processes and give employees and administrators more flexibility with many HR self-service functions. The Lawson applications will also help reduce costs through more efficient financial and accounting processes. The contract was signed during Lawson's first quarter of fiscal 2010, which ended Aug. 31, 2009. Lawson Professional Services will provide implementation services for the project rollout.

Abilene has approximately 117,000 residents and an annual budget of about $156 million. It recently earned the distinction of being named one of the best small cities in the nation to start a small business. The Lawson applications will provide a unified administrative system that will support all city departments, and replace the city’s legacy mainframe accounting, budget and HR processes.

"The City of Abilene is committed to maximizing value for citizens and taxpayers, driven by our core values of continuous improvement and responsiveness. Upgrading our human resources, finance and accounting systems are key priorities for Abilene,” said Ronnie C. Kidd, managing director for Administration for the City of Abilene. "The Lawson solution will provide tools to help us strengthen our budget and HR management processes, improve workforce retention, and manage federal state and private grant processes that can bolster our finances. In doing so, we’ll be better positioned to better serve our citizens and visitors to our community.”

Specifically, the new enterprise system brings together core Lawson business applications, including:

• Enterprise Financial Management, which will help provide Abilene with a more comprehensive view of its financial and accounting processes.
• Budgeting & Planning, which will help streamline the city’s budgeting, periodic forecasting, and planning functions.
• Grant Management, which will help the city pursue public and private grants for key projects.
• Strategic Human Capital Management, which can help reduce the time, effort and expense city managers need to spend on day-to-day administrative tasks.

"Tight budgets, coupled with growing demands to do more with less, are posing budgeting, reporting and staffing challenges for local government administrators using inefficient legacy business and HR systems,” said Brian Murphy, general manager, Public Sector for Lawson. "Abilene’s move to emerge from a patchwork of systems and implement a single, streamlined application structure is testimony to the strength of their technology planning, and their concern with long-term benefits to employees, citizens and taxpaying entities.”

"We chose Lawson over other vendors because of its commitment and track record in the public sector, the proven functionality of Lawson’s government-specific products and its ability to integrate our core needs into a modern enterprise software solution,” said Kidd.

About Lawson Software

Lawson Software provides software and service solutions to 4,500 customers in equipment service management and rental, fashion, food & beverage, healthcare, manufacturing & distribution, public sector (United States), service industries, and strategic human capital management across 40 countries. Lawson Software is a global provider of enterprise software, services and support to customers primarily in three sectors: services, trade and manufacturing/distribution. Lawson’s solutions include Enterprise Performance Management, Human Capital 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. For Lawson’s listing on the First North exchange in Sweden, Remium AB is acting as the Certified Adviser.

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 uncertainties in the software industry; uncertainties as to when and whether the conditions for the recognition of deferred revenue will be satisfied; increased competition; general economic conditions; the impact of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; continuation of the global credit crisis; global military conflicts; terrorist attacks; pandemics, and any future events in response to these developments; changes in conditions in the company's targeted industries and other risk factors listed in the company's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lawson assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release.