Lawson M3 wins against the solutions IFS and SAP "on points"

The North American company which is engaged in production of different construction materials has more than 200 branches in 35 states and two Canadian provinces. The number of her employees exceeds 7000 people. The company management made the decision on replacement of the ERP system of Microsoft Axapta 2.5 existing at that time which, according to the customer, was not capable to satisfy to the either the current, nor strategic requirements for automation. Creation of the tool for support of plans of the company for further growth and development became a main objective of the new project.

According to the customer, originally the company considered more than 100 software products, however at a final stage the choice was performed between the mySAP ERP, Lawson M3 and IFS Applications systems. In addition to functionality, the main criteria were: marketing information which is available in the market, scalability and system performance, quality of support by vendor. Assessment was made by means of the special analytical tools provided by Technology Evaluation Centers company.

The importance of the considered criteria

"Starting point" of any assessment of software is its functionality, and here all three systems proved to be approximately equal. However, in view of the test examples reviewed in all systems, the layout significantly changed, and the IFS Applications system "left" a competition.

'The weighted average assessment  'on functionality                  

                                                         

The weighted average assessment on functionality and a test example

               

Based on the weighed assessment of all called criteria, the company made a choice for benefit of Lawson M3 in which many customer requirements were already implemented that had to reduce process of implementation and reduce total cost of ownership.

Final weighted average assessment by all criteria

Thus, in view of the received results, it is possible to recommend to the companies selecting a new ERP system, not to be limited  by consideration of software products their functional, including industry, opportunities, and to give bigger value  to not less essential  factors, such as performance  and support of vendor.