Aberdeen Survey Affirms Lawson Equipment Service Management Approach
Manufacturers, distributors and service providers can achieve greater customer satisfaction and profitability with Lawson applications and services
ST. PAUL, Minn. (October 09, 2007) – Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN) today shared results from a recent Aberdeen Group survey, “Getting a Seat at the IT Table: Service Steps Up,” that maintains manufacturers, distributors and service providers that place a high priority on post-sales service improvement initiatives, such as industrial and medical equipment manufacturers, achieve “Best-in-Class” performance. “Best-in-Class” performers give greater attention to post-sales service improvements, such as integrating their enterprise service management and core business systems to gain a holistic view of customers’ needs, as a strategic way to achieve higher customer satisfaction and greater revenue-generation potential.
By adopting Lawson’s service assurance approach, which combines the Lawson M3 Equipment Service Management application and Lawson consultancy services, manufacturers and service providers can operate more like a “Best-in-Class” organization. Lawson M3 Equipment Service Management creates an integrated information infrastructure that helps companies unify their organizational data, eliminating information blind spots. As a result, managers have the ability to optimize decision-making and identify growth opportunities to improve service performance, revenue generation and profitability from an enterprise-wide level.
“We continually hear from companies that–while they know it’s important–they don’t have a simple way to see what’s happening in the equipment services side of their business from elsewhere in the organization,” said Julian Archer, marketing director, Lawson Software. “These companies lack integration between their equipment service management and other business systems, hindering their ability to enhance customer service and profitability.”
According to the Aberdeen survey, conducted by Vice President of Research Cindy Jutras, companies identified as “Best-in-Class” were twice as likely as others to have an integrated service automation infrastructure with their enterprise business systems. They also are 37 percent more likely than others to regularly review service initiatives against their information technology (IT) strategy. In addition, these same companies were two-thirds more likely than all other respondents to systematically measure and report field service performance.
“With our Lawson deployment, we expect to gain a large advantage in the area of field service,” said Manfred Schmaderer, chief information officer at Zeppelin Baumaschinen GmbH, Germany’s largest construction machinery and service organization. “Once implemented, Lawson will help us gain a complete view of the customer, make a customer offer, change it to a work order and pass the information through for final invoicing via a fully integrated process.”
Of the 254 service and IT professionals surveyed, Aberdeen recognized 20 percent of them as “Best-in-Class.” The companies considered “Best-in-Class” had the highest rate of serviceable asset uptime; an increase in asset uptime over the past two years; the highest rate of service automation projects completed on time; and the highest rate of service automation projects completed within budget. Lawson’s enterprise applications and service assurance approach provide the IT infrastructure integration and methodology that manufacturers and service providers need to better maintain and achieve “Best-in-Class” performance and, in turn, higher customer satisfaction levels and long-term profitability.
Source: Lawson
