New technology platform and enterprise software will help insurer enhance reporting and shorten its monthly financial closing period
ST. PAUL, Minn.--Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN) today announced that American Safety Insurance Services licensed the latest Lawson S3 Enterprise Financial Management Suite and Lawson System Foundation 9 technology platform to help expedite and streamline its reporting processes. With the new Lawson system, the insurer expects to reduce its financial closing period from 10 to six days, a 40 percent improvement. American Safety Insurance (ASI) signed the contract in Lawson's fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, which ended May 31, 2007.
Over the last 20 years, ASI grew from focusing on one market into a multi-line specialty insurance group. Based in Bermuda, ASI offers customized insurance and reinsurance products and solutions to small and medium-sized businesses in Bermuda and throughout the U.S. The insurer targets customers in industries that it believes are underserved by the general insurance market, with services including environmental remediation, contracting and other specialty risks.
“We wanted to have greater visibility into key business processes across our organization and to accelerate our financial reporting processes, but our 15-year-old legacy financial system couldn’t support those goals,” said Bill Tepe, chief financial officer, American Safety Insurance. “After an extensive evaluation process, we were impressed with Lawson’s proven and secure software offerings, finding that they offered the advanced capabilities we need to support our financial processes at a price we could afford.”
The new system will replace ASI's legacy financial system, which required manually-intensive and inefficient paper-based processes. With the Lawson S3 Enterprise Financial Management Suite, ASI will have tools that can help simplify regulatory compliance via enhanced reporting. For example, the system will help ASI create automated workflows to streamline key financial processes, such as budgeting and forecasting. The new system also will help ASI increase employee productivity by eliminating duplicate data entry. Overall, ASI expects the simplified financial processes to help reduce time spent on cumbersome monthly financial reporting processes by up to 40 percent.
ASI plans to implement and run Lawson System Foundation 9 and the Lawson S3 Enterprise Financial Management Suite on an IBM System i platform. Lawson System Foundation 9 combines Lawson's newest technology environment with other world-class technologies, including IBM middleware, for a high-performance, standards-based technology solution. The new technology platform will give ASI a secure foundation and provide a platform for Lawson’s next-generation applications designed for use within a service-oriented architecture (SOA).
“Challenged with evolving regulatory requirements, many insurers want business systems that can help them simplify compliance,” said Robert Peterson, marketing director, Industry Markets, Lawson Software. “Our products and services help financial services companies automate regulatory reporting and other financial processes so they can focus on more strategic initiatives, such as increasing profitability and meeting the needs of the converging marketplace.”
About Lawson Software
Lawson Software provides software and service solutions to 4,000 customers in manufacturing, distribution, maintenance and service sector industries across 40 countries. Lawson’s solutions include Enterprise Performance Management, Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Enterprise Asset Management and industry-tailored applications. Lawson solutions assist customers in simplifying their businesses or organizations by helping them streamline processes, 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.
