Pros

Most of the employees and management are great to work with and for, and are well deserving of respect.
Lawson is a place that allows people to make mistakes without being crucified or fired.

Cons

Sometimes, the decisions made by senior management seem somewhat short sighted.
Resouce levels are often cut to the point where there is no one remaining that knows how to do the work that must be done.
Lawson tends to 'reorganize' frequently, which always results in layoffs.

Advice to Senior Management

Get the story straight before you go to employees with changes. In trying to calm fears of impending offshore iniatives, employees were told that certain functions or types of work would NOT go off shore, but they did indeed go off shore. The result is foreign employees are asked to be subject matter experts on sensitive US regulatory issues.

Pros

*Fair/Good Pay and Compensation packages
*Great Medical, Dental, 401k, Stock Purchase Plan
*Very Flexible with time off for sick days, personal appointments, personal vacations
*Upper Management does a good job communicating the important issues Lawson faces.

Cons

*There is not a career path to follow.
*Training is lacking. Lawson seems to prefer to hire people with experience vs training and molding a workforce to their own preferences.
*Major lack of communication between departments. It is very noticeable to employees and customers that the left hand of Lawson never knows what the right hand is doing.

Advice to Senior Management

*Mid Managers need to learn to listen to their employees and figure ways to implement suggested changes.
*Departments need to figure out how to work together and communicate with each other better than they do today.
*Upper Management needs to mandate discussions between employees, managers, and departments requesting constructive criticism / ideas on improving current processes. Things around Lawson could be run more smoothly, but communication is an important step in actually accomplishing a "4 minute mile".

Pros

- nice and helpful colleagues once you have gotten to know them
- decent compensation package
- good product that brings real benefits to their customers
- advanced and well designed product UI

Cons

- inter departmental cooperation is sometimes lacking
- no strong inter departmental cooperation culture
- some leaders in the organization are too self absorbed and lack strong leadership skills

Advice to Senior Management

the leaders of the company should go on the ground more often to understand the customers, business partners and employees better.Should also encourage better cooperation between the organization's functional departments.

Pros

They value employees and treat them well. Lawson offers good growth potential (mid management). Opportunity to travel extensively (domestic & global).

Cons

Small organization, primarily focused on healthcare vertical. You may have to be part of the inner circle to grow beyond mid level management.

Advice to Senior Management

Think Big.

Pros

It is a family type company. Good pay, good benefits, good people and very skilled and dedicated employees. The software is good but simple. It is intuitive but surprising deep in functionality. Clients are very satisfied and the retention rate is about 98%, which is unheard of and an industry leading standard. Upper management is approachable and they actuall listen to your opinions. Client ideas are always taken into consideration and priotized accordingly.

Cons

Very clickish, especially if you come in with no Lawson experience at all.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the field employees and do not keep them in the dark about company financial performance or possible layoffs or rifs. There needs to be true hands on training classes for new employees. Taught by real trainers not consultants.

Pros

High-tech software with mid-west nice culture

Cons

Lots of travel if you're in the field. Plus all the opportunities for advancement are only at Corporate (St. Paul).

Advice to Senior Management

Look outside the box of traditional software delivery and revenue models. Offer field consultants a career path to corporate jobs without requiring them to move to St. Paul.

Pros

Personal Laptop, Casual Environment, Good team members.

Cons

Job shift to overseas. More focus for career advancement need to be provided. There is no clear career track set up or discussed during the performance appraisal. It takes management more than 5-7 years at least to promote from one level to another (senior to lead)

Advice to Senior Management

Middle management issues. Technical skills development for engineers and teams members need to be looked into. Very less budget for tool purchase when other companies spend to increase operational efficiency.

Pros

All employees get laptops with VPN and wifi set up. The mobility is a plus because you can work at home occasionally (if your manager is OK with that) and bring your laptop to meetings. At HQ there are small conference rooms on each floor that you can use, even alone if you just need space and solitude.

Cons

The company is enamored with moving jobs overseas to cheaper locales. That is great if you live in those locales but not so great if you're at HQ. The company president seems to enjoy telling US employees how much cheaper their offshore counterparts are. Also, parking is subsidized but not free.

Advice to Senior Management

I would tell the top brass to stop moving jobs overseas. If they were down at the level of the people actually doing the work, they would see the cultural differences that impede work and the destructive impact on morale, rather than the sunny 30,000-feet view they currently have.

Pros

Lawson provides good opportunities to work in an international mid size company with a great product that is very competitive on the market. Lawson supports working from home, rather then having to go to an office every day. Most work is done in smaller teams, with lots of different companies which give great view into many different business and cultures.

Cons

Lawson management tends to hire friends from old companies to hire someone they know rather than hire someone better for the work. Lawson also tends to hire many older people rather then younger young people which can more easily learn a new product, as well as learn the culture of Lawson.

Advice to Senior Management

Look into younger staff which can more easily learn the great culture and product that Lawson provides.

Pros

Many great people to work with and very good software package that meets customers requirements. Being able to work as a remote employee is a plus. Compensation is okay. Medical benefits are very good.

Cons

Employees are not well treated. Lots of change . No benefit to employees when things are going well, but plenty of downside when they are not going well. No stock options. It is very difficult to get promoted and if you are not part of the old boy network forget it.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees are the key to the company's success. Company makes employees feel like they are part of the problem and not part of the solution. Actions taken are usually top down driven with very little employee input. If you are going to seek input then respect it otherwise don't bother.