Green ERP could be a winner

Lawson may have stolen a march on other vendors with its corporate social responsibility initiative

Hype is endemic in the IT industry. Whether it's a product that can make your firm compliant with all major pieces of legislation as soon as you plug it in, or antivirus software that can stop all known threats, many product launches are accompanied by outrageous claims that can't be substantiated. "Fully interoperable", "end-to-end" and "leverage" are just three press release staples that should put IT managers on their guard straight away.

Harry Debes, chief executive of enterprise resource planning (ERP) specialist Lawson Software, recently drew my attention to the truth-stretching that software vendors are often guilty of in an effort to flog their gear. Although he is an ex-JD Edwards executive, I'm sure there was no malice intended when he suggested that Oracle may now be wishing it had taken a decision to keep schtum about all the wonderful things Project Fusion will do for organisations, until the never-ending initiative is finally complete. By prematurely raising expectations, the vendor risks seriously disillusioning its customers if and when the project finally delivers.

Of course, this is not something that could be levelled at Lawson, continued Debes, before listing all the announcements at its recent user event that show the firm is meeting all its targets.

In reality, Lawson has struggled to attract new business since its acquisition of Swedish-based ERP firm Intentia. In the battle to win the hearts and minds of customers in what is a very competitive market, the firm has traditionally focused its efforts on the mid-market, providing products tailored to specific verticals. But with SAP and Oracle both extending their reach, it could be argued that in most sectors it is still feeding off the scraps from these two super-vendors.

One new venture that might just get Lawson onto the IT chief's shortlist, though, is its new corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative. The firm is probably ahead of the game here in announcing that it will support organisations' CSR projects with ERP applications and BI software in a number of pre-defined areas, ranging from energy consumption and wildlife preservation to customer privacy complaints. Although details about the initiative remain vague, it does seem the company may be on to a winner. According to AMR Research, CSR and environmental initiatives are among the top business issues facing firms today.

Given that ERP systems lie at the heart of what many businesses do, Lawson is in the perfect place to offer firms a way of viewing and interpreting corporate data and automating processes to satisfy regulatory and internal requirements. It's surely only a matter of time before the other vendors jump on the bandwagon, but whether the hype lives up to the reality is another matter.