Lawson Software announced last week that the general availability of Lawson Budgeting & Planning 9 to help executives and managers make more accurate financial forecasts and faster budgeting decisions using up-to-date information. Lawson Budgeting & Planning 9 is designed to be easier to deploy and use than best-of-breed offerings, features low total cost of ownership and can deliver strategic business benefits for users.

Bassett Healthcare, a rural teaching hospital in upstate New York, provides one example of how Lawson Budgeting & Planning 9 can deliver strategic benefits. Bassett and its affiliates consist of four hospitals and 23 health centers covering 5,000 square miles in eight counties. Accurate forecasts are critical to the success of this rural healthcare network, but in the past the budgeting process was inefficient.

"Before Lawson Budgeting & Planning 9, the budgeting process was tedious, and consumed valuable staff time and dollars," said Christopher W. Graham, director of finance, Budget and Administrative Services, Bassett Healthcare. "Now we have eliminated much of the time spent extracting and organizing data and have developed a more accurate budgeting process, resulting in more effective cost controls across our organization."

Lawson Budgeting & Planning 9 is designed to work with core Lawson systems, such as Lawson General Ledger and Lawson Human Capital Management, and it can co-exist with non-Lawson data sources. The application is designed for ease of use and gives users better context in the planning environment, which can lead to more accurate forecasts and better budgeting decisions.