ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 25, 2004 -- The latest Lawson Software applications are helping Union Sanitary District (USD) streamline its financial and purchasing processes by consolidating them into one integrated system.
The District went live on Lawson Series 8 Financials and Procurement Jan. 5, 2004. Nearly 90 percent of USD employees currently access the Lawson system for eRequisitions.
USD is an independent special district providing wastewater collection, treatment and disposal services. It serves 322,450 residents and commercial and industrial businesses in the Northern California cities of Fremont, Newark and Union City.
By replacing its legacy systems and consolidating its financial and purchasing processes on one integrated system, USD has eliminated manual processes and dramatically improved its reporting capabilities. USD also has streamlined approval processes and simplified purchasing for its 136 employees.
"With critical information housed in multiple systems operating on different platforms, data access was difficult and reporting was time consuming," said Rich Cortes, business services manager, Union Sanitary District. "Lawson helped us standardize our core business processes to manage projects more efficiently. We're now able to easily maintain, access and share the critical information needed for effective planning, decision-making and reporting."
The integrated Lawson applications help USD more efficiently capture, access and analyze transactional data. Additional benefits include a reduction in administrative time, operational costs and opportunities for data-entry errors.
To standardize project tracking, USD is using the Lawson system to perform activity-based costing, which tracks staff time to specific activities and projects. Lawson is also helping USD track labor costs to capital projects more accurately.
"The best practices built into Lawson's applications allowed us to minimize customization up front," said Cortes. "Our staff has quickly adapted to the new business processes and self-service access, creating significant time savings in reporting and purchasing."
The Lawson Financials and Procurement Suites are the first part of USD's multi-phase implementation in support of a long-term plan to standardize IT systems. From contract signing to complete implementation, the first phase took six months and came in on time and on budget. USD expects to complete phase two of the implementation, which includes Lawson Human Resources, in April 2004. This application will allow USD to bring its previously outsourced payroll function back in house while automating core HR functions, such as payroll and benefits administration.
"Lawson enables public sector organizations to more efficiently manage their business and improve service levels by providing reliable, real-time visibility across departments," said Sam Adams, senior vice president, public sector, Lawson Software. "Our industry knowledge means customers like USD rely on us to help them address their most challenging business issues. We look forward to further supporting USD's business goals through its HR implementation."
Lawson serves more than 140 public sector customers, including four of the 25 largest school districts in the United States. School districts, cities, counties, state governments, publicly owned utilities, municipal districts and membership organizations use Lawson's software designed for the public sector. These organizations depend on Lawson's solutions to help meet the needs of a variety of stakeholders - students, constituents, members, employees, vendors and the community - while maximizing limited budgets and keeping spending on target.
About Lawson Software
Lawson Software provides business process software solutions that help services organizations in the healthcare, retail, professional services, public sector, financial services and other strategic markets achieve competitive advantage. Lawson's solutions include enterprise performance management, distribution, financials, human resources, procurement, retail operations, and service process optimization. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., Lawson has offices and affiliates serving North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Additional information about Lawson is available at www.lawson.com.
