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One Tool, Many Uses

Lawson’s ERP solution does the heavy lifting for the Stangeland Group

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Customer: The Stangeland Group Headquarters: Sola, Norway Business: Heavy machines and cranes Hardware: A Power System 520 running IBM i Software: Lawson M3 Challenge: Automating more activity related to servicing machines and cranes and streamlining invoicing Solution: Upgrading to the Power System 520 to allow for company growth and deploying Lawson M3 to improve end-user services

Quick admission: I used to think of ERP solutions as kind of a Microsoft* Office for large enterprises. They handle accounting (as with Excel), document preparation (think Word), data presentation (as in PowerPoint), and internal and external communications (read Outlook).

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Sure, ERP suites do all of those things, but now they’ve become much more customizable and flexible than many could ever have imagined, easily adapting to end-users’ business-specific requirements, no matter how niche. So, instead of being puffed-up Office-style applications, with their single-purpose modules and boilerplate uses, modern ERP solutions are almost living, breathing things, able to fit into whatever working environments their users desire.

Take the case of The Stangeland Group, based in Sola, Norway. It has two related divisions that require specialized software functionality. One, Stangeland Maskin, manages heavy machines and other materials devoted to large packaged-services excavation projects for its customers, including machinery, crushed stone, soil and sheet-pile stabilization. The other, Stangeland Kran, leases humongous cranes predominately to companies working in the oil industry.

“When a machine is due for service, we can identify which parts we’ll need and how much they’re going to cost.” —Annelise Osaland, CFO, Stangeland Maskin

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