Lawson Turns to Services as Part of Java Conversion Planning

Published: April 18, 2006

by Dan Burger

With its LSF 9 (Lawson System Foundation) enterprise software for iSeries customers at least six months from general availability, Lawson Software switched its emphasis from software to services last week at its annual user group conference. However, the iSeries customers were likely to be more interested in Lawson's long-term plans for replacing its RPG-based software with a Java-based, platform-agnostic alternative and the possible upgrade paths that move is going to present.

One of the most talked about issues in the iSeries world is the continuing development of new RPG-based applications compared to the development of Java-based applications. (You can also add .NET-based applications and numerous third-party applications as well, but those go beyond the scope of this article, which is focused on Lawson.) Depending on a wide array of variables, the conversion from RPG to Java can be viewed as relatively simple or painfully difficult. When Lawson launches LSF 9 for iSeries, the existing RPG code will not change, says Maher Hakin, Lawson's senior vice president of product management. "We are putting WebSphere and the Java platform underneath it to demonstrate how RPG applications can take advantage of WebSphere based on scalability and performance." It's the first step in a step-by-step process.

The reason for this has to do with Lawson's strategic planning that makes multiplatform interoperability of its applications a priority. It is also based on its partnership with IBM and its agreement to promote a service oriented architecture (SOA) approach with WebSphere as the middleware of choice. "We are relying on IBM middleware technology to help our clients through the transition to SOA architecture," Hakin says. "Our clients will be able to integrate with Lawson through an SOA architecture."

Lawson is in a transition stage of converting its applications to Java, and it hopes to transition its OS/400-based customers as well. Along those lines it is putting an upgrade program in place that allows its customers to run Lawson RPG apps next to Lawson Java apps. Both will have WebSphere Application Server and DB2 licenses embedded in the software. Lawson reasons that as users become familiar with WebSphere and the SOA, it will be a much easier transition for customers when the day comes that all Lawson applications are written in Java. Lawson is moving in that direction now with a platform it refers to as Landmark.

"We believe the iSeries clients choose the platform for a reason," Hakin explains. "They want simple solutions that are easily manageable. We continue to promise our clients, whether they are iSeries or other clients, that we will allow them to move to the SOA world without sacrificing simplicity and ease of management of applications. Our intellectual property that we are building into our applications focus 100 percent in that area."

Lawson estimates that iSeries customers make up 20 percent of its installed base, which it claims is more than 2,200. The remaining 80 percent use Lawson's Unix- and Windows-based solutions. And, by the way, LSF 9 is generally available for Lawson's Unix and Windows customers. This platform-based prioritization of new releases (Unix and Windows versions released ahead of iSeries) has always been in place at Lawson. When the pending merger between Lawson and Intentia International takes place (still on track to happen before the end of the month according to Lawson sources), the percentage of Lawson customers on iSeries will jump to approximately 60 percent. That will certainly put the iSeries customers somewhere closer to the front row at the old ballgame, and because Lawson will develop future applications in Java, the iSeries customers will get their new software releases simultaneously with Unix and Windows users in the future. After the merger, the Intentia customers will definitely become familiar with Lawson software. Those customers, by the way, have already been introduced to the ideas of RPG to Java conversions, WebSphere, and SOA. Intentia claims approximately 400 of its 3,000 or so iSeries customers have come aboard the Java train. It seems likely these would be larger shops with a fairly high number of system users making scalability an important factor in continuing to run Java on the iSeries rather than moving the ERP suite to Unix or Windows.

Lawson customers that have customized their applications to better suit their individual needs will have more difficulty transitioning from RPG to Java. It will be a more labor-intensive transition due to the increased complexity of converting code. Those companies, and others not certain whether they want to go down the Java road, will likely want to hang with RPG for as long as possible.

That brings up the topic of support.

"Lawson will continue to support customers running RPG apps indefinitely," Hakin says. "There's no plan to force migration to any new platform. Our current support will continue to be in place for all our clients."

Terry Plath, Lawson's director of ERP market development, says that based on his conversations with people at Intentia and IBM, "there's not as much pushback as expected from the iSeries shops on the topics of Java and WebSphere. We are finding that the mainstream of iSeries customers are not ruling it out just because this is a move to a Java-based product." Plath realizes, however, that Java and WebSphere adoption by iSeries customers will not be landslide event.

"No matter what kind of technology adoption there is," he says, "it creates a situation where there will be folks on the back end of the product- or technology-adoption lifecycle. We have to assume there will be some of those. It's our intent to continue to support our products as long as we can to cater to those companies. But at the same time, hopefully, people are understanding the benefits of this from a functional and from a technical perspective."

The topic of support for both the Java-based and RPG-based users also brings us to a new service being offered by Lawson. Actually it's not new, it just has a name and a formalized program now. Lawson Managed Services is an avenue for customers to turn over management of their Lawson software customizations, upgrades, and maintenance, to Lawson Professional Services. The Professional Services group has been involved in this type of thing in the past, however, it was sort of like ordering off the menu. If a customer requested these services, they were accommodated. "It could apply," Hakin says, "to an iSeries shop that decides its three or five or however many IT employees need to apply their time to more strategic projects than maintaining applications and therefore Lawson can either take over on site or remotely system management responsibilities or even customization of the product if that is desired."

With WebSphere in the mix, Hakin points out there will be a learning curve for some clients. "There is a new technology involved and some customers are going to have to learn if they want to maintain product on their own. Some companies will examine the division of responsibilities that can be done internally and those that can be contracted to Lawson," he says.

Also announced last week is a service called the Lawson 9 Migration Program. It is designed to make it easier for customers to move to the latest version of Lawson's applications. This will be available to iSeries customers when Lawson 9 for iSeries debuts later this year. The program provides business needs assessments, change management, business process and technology integration assistance, and partial, phased, or complete implementation, based on a customer's resources and business requirements.

Customers can choose between onsite and remote services to help implement and optimize the system. Lawson's investments in the services side of its business resulted in a Remote Services Lab that provides assistance in the implementation and optimization processes and also in the addition of more than 50 consultants, including several to support the company's Enterprise Performance Management efforts.