Central DuPage Hospital Simplifies Contract Processes with Lawson Contract Management

Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) today announced that Central DuPage Hospital (CDH), a not-for-profit acute care hospital located in Winfield, Ill., has completed its implementation of Lawson Contract Management. This application from Lawson helps organizations simplify the creation and management of contracts by helping to automate many contract-related processes and centralize access to contract terms, prices and documents. CDH worked closely with Lawson Professional Services to complete the implementation in less than four months, which was ahead of schedule.

CDH is a nationally recognized 313-bed not-for-profit acute care hospital that provides inpatient, outpatient and emergency care services for people in Chicago’s west suburbs and surrounding areas. CDH is part of a network of healthcare organizations and services that includes convenient care centers, occupational health services, home health and hospice care. It is also a leading center for medical technology, one of the busiest surgical hospitals in Illinois, and has achieved Magnet^® recognition for excellence in nursing services.

The Supply Chain department at CDH helped lead the implementation, so the initial focus was on loading procurement contracts into Lawson Contract Management. Like many hospitals, CDH relies heavily on an external Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) to manage contracting for most supplies. Contracted prices were loaded into Lawson for inventoried and commonly purchased items. However, ordering unusual or special items involved a cumbersome process that required going to a separate customized website for each individual item. This ultimately resulted in too many contracts, inconsistent pricing and wasted time. With Lawson Contract Management in place, CDH now can track all contracted products and make them available to order directly through Lawson Requisitions Self-Service. This single process will help increase contract compliance, save time and ultimately save CDH money.

"Our former special items ordering process was costly and inefficient. We needed a contract management system that could not only manage both GPO and manufacturer contracts, but also help us decrease the overall number of contracts we had to manage,” said Luis Richard, manager, supply chain management for CDH. "With the new Lawson system, we have one distributor contract, instead of multiple contracts, that can accommodate multiple pricing arrangements. This helps ensure accurate pricing and reporting and allows us to manage all of this through one channel rather than going out to separate sites to order special items.”

Although CDH began its implementation of Contract Management with supply contracts, the hospital plans to begin using it for non-procurement contracts and services contracts, with the goal of making Lawson Contract Management a central repository for a wide range of contracts.

CDH is a long-time Lawson customer and currently uses the Lawson Human Capital Management, Supply Chain Management and Enterprise Financial Management suites. "We chose Lawson based on its solid reputation in the healthcare industry, and because we already view the company as a trusted partner,” Richard added.

"We developed Lawson Contract Management to address the unique needs of healthcare organizations, such as tiered pricing, distributor contracts and rebates,” said Joan Watson, senior product manager for Lawson. "With our solution, Central DuPage Hospital is now seeing how centralized contract document access and increased transparency can help it better control costs and improve reporting accuracy.”

"Standardizing the way contracts are managed helps organizations control and reduce procurement costs,” said Jim Catalino, general manager, Lawson Healthcare. "The business side of healthcare is complex, and solutions like Lawson Contract Management help simplify everyday processes so healthcare organizations can improve their business operations. Well run hospitals are better positioned to provide outstanding patient care, which is the ultimate goal.”

Lawson Healthcare is the information technology partner that helps manage and connect the clinical, financial and operational information that allows providers to concentrate on their mission of delivering the best patient care possible. Lawson Healthcare has the combination of software, people and industry know-how to help improve the business of healthcare.

About Lawson Software

Lawson Software provides software and service solutions to 4,500 customers in equipment service management and rental, fashion, food & beverage, healthcare, manufacturing & distribution, public sector (United States), service industries, and strategic human capital management across 40 countries. Lawson Software is a global provider of enterprise software, services and support to customers primarily in three sectors: services, trade and manufacturing/distribution. Lawson’s solutions include Enterprise Performance Management, Human Capital Management, Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Enterprise Asset Management and industry-tailored applications. Lawson solutions assist customers in simplifying their businesses or organizations by helping them streamline processes, reduce costs and enhance business or operational performance. Lawson is headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., and has offices around the world. Visit Lawson online at www.lawson.com. For Lawson’s listing on the First North exchange in Sweden, Remium AB is acting as the Certified Adviser.

Forward-Looking Statements

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