CITING the cost advantage of the Philippines against India, the United States and Europe, Lawson Software Inc. will more than double its investments in the Philippines beginning with the hiring of additional skilled Filipinos.

“Actually, we’re more than doubling our investments,” Lawson vice president for global administration and sourcing James E. Sanderson said in their office in Taguig City on Tuesday.

Sanderson, talked to BusinessMirror after the St. Paul, Minnesota-based firm announced early this month, that it is eliminating “approximately 350 positions in the [US] and Europe… over the next five quarters ending in May 2008.”

Lawson said the slashed positions translates into “a restructuring charge of $11.5 million [for the company] in the quarter for severance and related benefits as work is shifted to a global support center in the Philippines.”

According to Sanderson, “We’re not selling anything yet unlike the bigger guys. What we have here is a center of execution and operations.”

However, John P, Mulchrone, president of Lawson’s Philippine business, said “eventually, we will do that. Our existing customers would eventually need technical expertise and we would be providing them with that from our workforce here.”

Lawson Philippine Solutions & Services Center (PSSC) Inc. last year opened its office in Fort Bonifacio Global City with less than a hundred employees.

Sanderson said they would be spending $5 million in payroll for their targeted 400 employees this year.

Mulchrone said they have upped that number to 900 by May next year. Lawson currently employs 350 Filipino software engineers, quality engineers, and business process outsourcing staff for internal support.

Mulchrone said they would also begin hiring technical consultants.

Using software by other firms like Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp., Lawson crafts software for use by several companies for human resources management, payroll, and other enterprise applications.

He said the decision to transfer operations in the Philippines is based on results of their investigation on the country’s cost advantage. Aside from tax incentives, Lawson said the “an intelligent workforce with high energy and good work ethics” can easily be tapped in the Philippines.

Mulchrone said the firm’s experience in India has much larger costs compared to the Philippines. “So for the past five years, we began transitioning our operations from India to the Philippines,” he said.

Sanderson said Lawson spent $2.5 million since February last year after the plan to open a Philippine office in Global City was hatched in November 2005.

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PHILIPPINE stocks fell from a seven-week high on concern recent gains were excessive given the outlook for earnings and interest rates. Ayala Land Inc. and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) dropped.

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CITING the cost advantage of the Philippines against India, the United States and Europe, Lawson Software Inc. will more than double its investments in the Philippines beginning with the hiring of additional skilled Filipinos.

 As of March 31, 2007, the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation Inc. is the biggest single stockholder of JG Summit Holdings Inc. with 1,997,076,451 shares, or 29.381 percent of outstanding shares, up from 1,129,135,267 shares, or 16.61 percent last year.