Lawson Rolls Out Enterprise Portal

Lawson Software today became the latest enterprise resource planning vendor to unveil an enterprise portal product. Called Lawson Insight II SEAport, the portal provides users within a company a single point of access to information in software files, data warehouses, E-mail systems, and the Internet, as well as all Lawson and non-Lawson applications. All information and applications are maintained in a secure, personalized desktop accessible from any Web browser.

The Lawson portal, which will be available in June, is role-based and can be customized to meet the needs of any employee. For example, an employee in the financial department can have stock quotes and spreadsheets on his personalized portal, while a salesperson may choose to display links to customer sites. Lawson officials say the idea behind enterprise portals is getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

SEAport is integrated with Lawson's core ERP applications, as well as with its new business-intelligence product. As a result, SEAport can automatically deliver critical business data and metrics--such as up-to-the-minute sales figures--directly to executives, according to company officials. SEAport is also integrated with Lawson's E-commerce applications. Officials say this should enable system-to-system communication between supply-chain partners by connecting disparate systems in a real-time environment, as well as provide a distribution vehicle for Web reports.

SEAport's key features are that it's easy to design and personalize, officials say. It comes with portal designer tools that eliminate the need for HTML coding and any type of file transfer protocol. In addition to developer tools, the portal includes features that let each end user personalize the portal interface's look and feel.