In the past, if a customer had problems with the Web server, Lawson wasn't always able to help troubleshoot glitches. 'We want to be the first in the line of contact,' said Hager.

Buttressing that point, Lawson this week announced its first application based on Landmark and SOA technology, Lawson Strategic Sourcing. The software is meant to enable customers to more efficiently source goods and automate procurement processes such as creating a request for proposals (RFP), doing bid analyses and awards, and -- for the public sector -- ensuring compliance with governmental procurement regulations.

Lawson also announced a new performance management application, which will be part of the Lawson 9 Human Capital Management line of products. The software will enable a company to measure employee performance against corporate policy and help create specific goals for personnel. The application is the first of a number of products soon to be rolled out to bring a greater degree of sophistication to recruiting and workforce optimization and compensation, said Larry Dunivan, vice president of human capital management products at Lawson.

Some users are already using the Lawson 9 applications and rolling out Landmark. For instance, the city of Greensboro, N.C., is already deploying the Landmark Strategic Sourcing application and hopes to be live with it by fall. The application was designed by procurement business users working with developers, according to Chris Payne, deputy finance director for administrative services in Greensboro. The result was that there were virtually no functional gaps in the software and the first release delivered to the city was nearly as feature-laden as it needed to be. Any remaining issues with the software focused primarily on usability. 'The functional gaps were just about gone,' he said.

Moreover, because of the SOA-based architecture underlying Strategic Sourcing, developers could quickly make changes to the application as needed, said Payne. The city is already live with Lawson 9 human resources and financial applications, a move that required migrating to WebSphere.