Lawson buys San Francisco-based Freeborders PLM division
17 Mar '08
3 min read
Lawson Software announced it has acquired the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software division of San Francisco-based Freeborders. With this acquisition, Lawson will deepen its enterprise software offerings for companies in the fashion industry. Freeborders will retain its existing technology outsourcing services, which are not included in Lawson's acquisition.
PLM helps fashion manufacturing companies more quickly source the materials they need to move a product from design to production. By adding PLM capabilities to its portfolio of enterprise software offerings, Lawson can now help companies establish processes that will enable them to cut the lead time from product concept to production to actual delivery to the retail store shelf.
The best-of-breed PLM solution developed by Freeborders is well-tested and proven in the fashion industry. The company serves 79 PLM customers in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Lawson Fashion PLM will initially be available as a standalone product and Lawson will determine how the product fits with its core Lawson M3 Enterprise Management System for the fashion industry.
"The Freeborders solution fills a gap we had in meeting our fashion customers' overall supply chain needs," said Bob McKee, industry strategy director, Fashion, for Lawson. "We now have a proven PLM solution that our customers can add easily and can work alongside our global fashion solutions."
Lawson and Freeborders currently serve several joint customers around the globe, including Hong Kong-based TAL Group. TAL is the leading manufacturer of men's and women's garments for the world's leading brands. "This is good news for customers of Freeborders and Lawson," noted Dr. Harry Lee, CEO of TAL Group.