Microsoft began pricing war against Lawson

At the beginning of August of Microsoft announced an exit of a new set of the software of Dynamics AX 2012 ERP. Soon it became available in 25 countries of the world. And in a month the company prepared for the clients of Lawson Software wishing to pass to software of Microsoft, a special offer. It is said in the official statement of vendor.

For the clients migrating from the Lawson systems (M3 or S3) on AX the discount is provided in 50% for the license AX 2012. Partners can also obtain the credit for each certified consultant of Lawson who will purchase certification on the product AX 2012. Offers work till June 22 of the next year.

Kirill Tatarinov, the president of Microsoft Business Solutions, said in connection with an exit of a new solution: "Deployment of corporate applications resembled filling of electronic concrete traditionally more. Now to customers the application supporting the speed and permanent development are demanded". According to him, such opportunities are given by AX 2012.

Tatarinov noted that the structure of AX 2012 as "the main ingredient" switches on also tools of a business intelligence (BI). Recently as well Oracle included BI functionality in the new offer of Fusion Applications.

Microsoft just should adapt Dynamics sets for work in "cloud" though AX can already provide a number of cloud services on the Windows platform of Azure. As expected, Dynamics NAV will be the first product in the ERP family from Microsoft which is completely supporting "cloud". This release is expected next year, Microsoft at the Convergence conference in April stated.

Let's remind that recently Lawson was purchased by Infor. As a result of this transaction the third largest supplier of ERP in the industry after SAP and Oracle was created. So desire of Microsoft to wound Lawson is quite clear.

Infor started implementation of the ambitious plan for integration of the numerous products and the generalized experience of customers meanwhile for what employs several hundred new employees. Nevertheless, Microsoft obviously intends to benefit by any doubts of clients of Lawson concerning the future of the products which are under control of Infor company.

According to the analyst Chris Kanaracus, Lawson in the statement of reply exaggerated the importance of actions of Microsoft.

As the press secretary of the company Terry Blake, the customer base of Lawson one of the most loyal in the industry told what very high rate of customer retention testifies to. "One of the reasons for that, permanent investments of Lawson into new sets of products, modern technologies and industry solutions. Investments into RESEARCH grew for many years and after Infor purchased Lawson and Golden Gate Capital, grow even more", - he emphasized and added that practice of providing discounts for functionality of products was tested by the company, but it never was significant in relation to crucial applications.

However Microsoft financed such functionality for AX as accounting in funds and management of grants that improved a product for application in public sector where Lawson holds the main positions, the analyst Ray Wang, the CEO of Constellation Research company noted.

The discounts offered Microsoft are considerable as normal discounts at vendors are not so high as at other companies which can reduce the prices in the range from 80% to 90%, added Vang and emphasized: "Every time when Microsoft enters on the market, pricing wars begin".