Livestock Management Solution Offered by Lawson

Published: October 30, 2007

by Alex Woodie

The System i was once referred to as a "farmer's box" by the CEO of a major ERP software developer. And now that Lawson Software has expanded its partnership with Mercatus to use IT to manage cows, pigs, and other livestock, the server may be more appropriately called a "rancher's box."

For years, Lawson has partnered with the Norwegian company Mercatus, which specializes in providing IT solutions to the European agriculture and aquaculture industries. Now, the two companies are expanding their partnership to introduce to the United States a new livestock management solution based on Lawson's M3 Food and Beverage software.

Lawson says the new livestock solution was developed specifically around the needs of companies in the farming and production sides of the beef, pork, poultry, and fish industries. It will be sold to businesses in North America, South America, and the Asia-Pacific region.

These are challenging times for companies that supply beef, pork, poultry, and fish to world food markets, the companies say. The effects of consolidation, internationalization, governmental regulation, and big retail chains that squeeze profits combine to make it important for livestock companies to run their businesses as efficiently as possible. Hence the need for greater computerization.

"We believe we can help livestock producers be much more effective in running their businesses," says Knut Eikeland, CEO of Mercatus, which has offices in Norway, Scotland, and Chile. "Our offering has helped others control costs and improve their operations around the globe."

One of these customers is Marine Harvest, which Lawson says is the world's leading farmed salmon seafood company. The Norway-based company uses M3 to match inventory with customer orders, to monitor demand, and track quality and production problems, Lawson says.

M3, which stands for "make, move, and manufacture," was called Movex before Lawson's acquisition of the Swedish ERP maker Intentia in 2006. M3 today is based in J2EE, and is typically deployed on the IBM midrange server.

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