Scott County Moves all of its Lawson Enterprise Apps to the Amazon Web Services Cloud

Fastest Growing Minnesota county pioneers use of cloud-deployed business software

ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN - News) today announced that Scott County, Minn., a longtime Lawson customer, is now live on all of its Lawson enterprise applications on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) via Lawson’s Cloud subscription offering. The county completed the move from a third-party hosting center to Amazon Web Services in March 2011. Scott County’s story will be featured prominently during the 2011 Lawson Conference and User Exchange (CUE), which opened today in Boston.

Scott County is the ninth largest and fastest growing county in Minnesota. With a population in excess of 125,000 people, Scott County is a mix of suburban and rural areas and is part of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Twin Cities metro area. Scott County employs nearly 800 people and uses multiple Lawson enterprise application suites, including Enterprise Financial Management, Procurement and Human Capital Management.

Scott County began using Amazon Web Services in 2010 as an early adopter of Lawson’s cloud-based Disaster Recovery offering. Lawson Disaster Recovery proved successful, delivering as promised in terms of system reliability, access, uptime and recovery time. As Scott County gained more experience with Cloud-based application performance and security, the county then worked with the Lawson Cloud Services team on a full migration to the Amazon Web Services platform for its full ERP strategy.

The project was completed in March after a thorough testing period to help support a smooth transition. By eliminating the need to manage multiple servers in an on-site data center, Scott County transitioned IT staff to other more constituent-focused activities, including the development of new case management tools, reporting and web services for residents. The county has also shifted risk of system downtime and outages to Lawson, which provides uptime service level agreements around the availability of its applications.

“Lawson Cloud Subscription provides a secure, cost-effective alternative to our IT infrastructure needs,” said Kevin Ellsworth, CFO for Scott County. “We manage a fast-growing county with increasing demands for constituent services. So we are constantly looking for ways to increase efficiency and reduce costs while continually improving our services to residents of this county. The Lawson and Amazon Web Services solution supports that effort.”

“We are pleased to work with Lawson to provide customers with a cloud-based model for their enterprise class ERP solutions,” said Terry Wise, director of Business Development at Amazon Web Services. “Scott County’s successful migration of its full ERP system to Amazon Web Services is exciting and represents an important opportunity for customers of all sizes to leverage the cloud to support their business needs.”

“Scott County is one of many forward-thinking Lawson customers who are in various stages of moving to the Cloud,” said Terry Plath, vice president of Cloud & Managed Services for Lawson. “We believe the ERP market is moving toward a point where the Cloud will become a standard deployment option. Lawson and our customers are well positioned for this transition point.”

Scott County is a great example of how government organizations can move their full deployment of enterprise apps to a cloud-based environment. The county is now working with its largest school district in Shakopee, Minn., to deploy the school district’s Lawson applications on Amazon Web Services. The county and school district belong to the Scott County Association for Leadership and Efficiency (SCALE). Through this inter-government association, all of the government entities in Scott County work together to promote best practices and gain efficiency from one another.

“Through SCALE, we see a real opportunity to align our strategies around our Lawson applications – for the county and the school district,” added Ellsworth. “Our initial operations have been positive and we continue to work toward a shared resource with Lawson Cloud Services. It’s one more way we can improve efficiency and effectiveness for the residents of Scott County.”

About Lawson Software

Lawson Software is a global provider of enterprise software. We provide business application software, maintenance and consulting to customers primarily in specific services, trade and manufacturing/distribution industries. We specialize in and target specific industries including healthcare, services, public sector, equipment service management & rental, manufacturing & distribution and consumer products industries. Our software solutions include Enterprise Financial Management, Human Capital Management, Business Intelligence, Asset Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Supply Chain Management, Service Management, Manufacturing Operations, Business Project Management and industry-tailored applications. Our applications help automate and integrate critical business processes, which enable our customers to collaborate with their partners, suppliers and employees, 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 the software industry; uncertainties as to when and whether the conditions for the recognition of deferred revenue will be satisfied; uncertainties as to when and whether signed software license contracts will meet the conditions for the recognition of revenue; increased competition; the impact of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; continuation of the global recession and credit crisis; Lawson’s ability to integrate acquisitions successfully; changes in conditions in the company's targeted industries; the impact of the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand on the business environment; the outcome of pending litigation and other risk factors listed in the company's most recent 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.

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