Lawson Books

I am interested as well in any technical documentation in either digital or print format that others may be able to share. Please contact me via email at maphillips@peacehealth.org

Thanks.

Other than the Lawson-provided documentation, I'm not aware of any (traditional) printed documentation and/or books that have been produced by third parties. There are a couple of other sources of information, such as the Lawson-supported "Lawson Community" site and the (non-Lawson sponsored) topica mailing lists.

One of the reasons I started the LawsonGuru Letter and this website (LawsonGuru.com -- not affiliated with Lawson) was to make sure that as much quality information as possible is available.

I guess I'll have to write a book!

Thanks. This is what I was afraid of. I would definitely invest in any Lawson book you write. The only reason I found out about this site was it came up in a meeting my group was having, and someone mentioned how knowledgable you are. Until then, I'll check out the other resources you mentioned.

Here's my .02: John is an example of what is right about the Lawson world. Someone who is willing to share his Lawson knowledge. An example of what is wrong with the Lawson world is Lawson itself. 1) Software downloads available on to those clients that have purchased the prodcuts. 2) Documentation available only to those with a support contract. Even then, the documenation is of poor quality and often incomplete. My opinion is that they are happy to keep as much information as possible inhouse, in what seems like an attempt to encourage clients to use Lawson Professional Services. As an independent contractor, I have to admit my biases here, but contrast that with Oracle. Software downloads and documentation freely available. I firmly believe that Lawson's client base would grow if they had the same policies. It sure hasn't slowed Oracle down.

My apologies if this sounds like I'm kissing his... I don't know John and have never met him personally. I've just been the beneficiary of his knowledge sharing, especially when I was newer to Lawson.

Chris,
With regards to Lawson's lack of acceptance for independents, you are absolutely correct. Other vendors (Oracle, IBM, Microsoft to name a few) are very open to independent consultants. Lawson's argument has always been that they are not big enough to support such arrangements, but then when I dig deeper the real answer turns out to be that they are always afraid that independents are taking business away from Lawson's own Professional Services group. My argument for that is that there is plenty of work to go around, and we, as independents especially, can't do it all, nor can LPS.

Thanks so much for your kind words; it always is nice to hear that I am indeed doing some good here, and justifies my constant struggles with Lawson...

I agree with you Chris. From my short time in the Lawson world, I've started to form the same impression.

John H.,

Did you ever write a book?  I'd buy it! 

I often feel like I have more questions then answers from some of the documentation that Lawson provides. Sometimes it is so simplistic that I am always asking "what are the ramifications if I set it up ... this way." I just have to set it up in test and then play with it to understand how it handles the settings.

However, recently I was given a document from Lawson that was developed for their implementation team... It provided step-by-step instructions for setting up a Flex Benefit plan and it explained each field. I just looked on the support site and I can not find the same document. I am thinking that they might keep some of the "implementation" types of documents for their team's to use. This is where I understand both views: If they share this openly they may lose business - however, on the other side if they share this companies will be happier with their product and will have a lower cost of ownership.

John, I agree with Thanef - I'd buy it as well.......... If you write it, they will buy it (field of dreams).

Shane

Lawson definitely has a number of internal documents which don't get added to the "public" support site; a perfect example of that was during the rollout of LSF9. There were a number of "internal use only" documents on migration utilities and ldapbind, etc. which either showed up as "this document has been removed" on Lawson KB or were not available at all. We can only speculate as to what their true motives are--whether it be to maximize their services revenue, or to keep the information from being used by "unauthorized" parties (i.e. uncertified consultants.), etc.

I agree that the more information that is available to the customers, the better for everyone, even if that means that some of the information gets filtered down to some non-certified, non-partner third-parties. The Lawson line is that a) they want to tightly control the information so as to reduce misinformation, and b) certification/partners pony up big $$ for that "privilege", and therefore should have access to "inside" information.

Taken a step further, look at the recent "tiering" of support, where "standard" support is now called "bronze", and to get "the best support consultants, dedicated contacts, turnaround, etc" you have to "upgrade" to gold or platinum.

As for my book, if you're willing to round up about 100,000 or so of your closest friends, and guarantee a million-dollar advance, this site, the newsletter, and my blog are still out there (and free!)