O'Reilly Auto Taps Lawson for Human Resources Software

Published: February 21, 2006

by Alex Woodie

O'Reilly Automotive, a growing chain of nearly 1,500 auto parts stores in 25 states, expects to boost the productivity of its human resources department by 20 percent as the result of the implementation of an OS/400-based human resources application from Lawson Software, the ERP developer announced last week.

The specialty auto parts chain, which was already a Lawson customer, picked the vendor's Human Resources suite last fall following a decision to replace its 18-year-old HR program. "We chose to consolidate on Lawson based on our experience using Lawson Financials as well as the functionality Lawson offered for the iSeries platform," says Jim Batten, chief financial officer and executive vice president of finance for the Springfield, Missouri, company.

By streamlining payroll and other HR processes, Lawson will increase the company's administrative productivity by up to 20 percent, said Phil Thompson, VP of HR for O'Reilly. If the past is any indication, O'Reilly will pull it off. The company, which has a long history on the OS/400 server, saved more than $60 million in warehouse and supply chain fees by implementing Evant's (now Manhattan Associates' supply chain planning software in the late 1990s.

Lawson is no slouch in the retail industry, either. The software company claims five of the top 10 U.S.-based retailers as customers, as well as eight of the top 20 apparel retailers, seven of the top 25 grocery chains, 23 of the top 100 restaurant chains, and 20 of the top 100 specialty chains.