Zeppelin Baumaschinen, Europe’s Largest Caterpillar Dealer, Live on Lawson

Zeppelin operations in Germany now using the Lawson solution for the Equipment Service Management & Rental Industries

ST. PAUL, Minn. (April 16, 2009) – Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) today announced that Zeppelin Baumaschinen GmbH (Zeppelin) has completed its implementation of the Lawson M3 enterprise software solution for Equipment Service Management and Rental industries. The company is using the software at 40 sites in Germany. Zeppelin, as a sales and service company, supplies its customers with more than 650 primary products, including large, standard and compact equipment from Caterpillar. The company is the leader in its markets. The equipment is used in mining, road construction, and civil engineering. In addition, the company’s product portfolio includes Hyster lift trucks.The Lawson solution now supports Zeppelin’s full range of dealership activities, including sales, rental, service and maintenance, purchasing, spare parts management, warranty management and finance.

Zeppelin replaced its legacy in-house systems and its SAP financial application, resulting in a reduction in the overall total cost of system ownership. The Lawson solution provides an organization-wide view into Zeppelin’s business operations, helping to bring greater efficiencies in business reporting at all levels of the organization. Ultimately this is helping Zeppelin get ready to reduce order throughput times while giving the company greater confidence in its customer information and its equipment in sales and service.

“We initially chose the Lawson system because of its ability to support the scale and breadth of our business requirements, said Manfred Schmaderer, CIO for Zeppelin. “Now that we are running live with a solution that is comprehensive and built for the specific needs of our equipment dealership, we have established a foundation of operational excellence at every stage of the equipment and customer lifecycle. The ability to capture critical transactional data will assist us in establishing standards and ongoing performance improvements focusing on our customers, equipment, people and ultimately the financials.

Zeppelin took a strategic approach to the software implementation, given the size and scope of the project. This involved training employees on the Lawson system and the accompanying business process changes. “Together the Zeppelin and Lawson team members delivered a solution that will help support our business now and well into the foreseeable future, added Schmaderer. “The consistency and relevant industry knowledge of the Lawson team has been a significant factor in the project’s success.

“We greatly value the trust the executive team and staff of Zeppelin have placed in Lawson, said Ron Kubera, general manager, ESM&R Business Unit, Lawson. “Zeppelin’s success is further validation of the value we can provide to customers in equipment service management and rental industries.

Lawson created avideo that details Zeppelin’s move to the Lawson M3 system, viewable via www.lawson.com in English and German language versions.

Source: Lawson

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