Lawson Software is pushing further into the HR arena with its acquisition of staffing and scheduling software provider VasTech. But the move means still more competition for the ambitious business application company.

The VasTech deal gives Lawson workforce management tools, which refer to applications for handling tasks such as time and attendance and employee scheduling. Among the industries VasTech specialized in was health care-also an industry focus for Lawson. But by pitching staffing and scheduling applications to health care companies, Lawson will run up against the giant of the workforce management category, Kronos, as well as Infor, which just released an upgrade to its workforce management software for health care clients.

Despite the challenges ahead, Lawson's leap into the workforce management field makes sense, says Paul Hamerman, an analyst with advisory firm Forrester Research. "It's something that they needed in their portfolio," he says.

The global workforce management market grew 13 percent last year, to $821 million, according to Forrester. It makes up 13 percent of the fast-growing HR software market. Thanks partly to companies' efforts to boost employee performance, spending on HR software jumped 18 percent last year to $5.9 billion, according to Forrester.

St. Paul, Minnesota-based Lawson has made a concerted effort in recent years to tap that lucrative market. Lawson announced a new set of HR applications last year, and it aims to become the largest seller of HR software.

In February, Lawson said it would acquire VasTech, a 45-person firm based in Annapolis, Maryland. Financial details of the deal, which closed in early March, were not disclosed. VasTech had 80 customers-74 of them in the health care field, including Memorial Sloan Kettering and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Lawson said the new workforce management product will help health care organizations manage a variety of compliance and reporting challenges associated with safety initiatives, labor productivity and staffing levels.

But Lawson is not alone in homing in on health care with workforce management software. Kronos, which controls more than half the workforce management market, according to Forrester, says its products are running in more than 4,000 health care facilities.

Lawson also faces competition from Infor, the Alpharetta, Georgia-based software firm that acquired workforce management specialist Workbrain in June. Last month, Infor announced health care-specific improvements to its workforce management software. The upgrades include an "absence management" feature designed to help firms do such things as manage requests for time off, maintain proper patient service levels and comply with labor agreements and laws.

Christa Degnan Manning, an analyst with AMR Research, says Lawson could build on the VasTech technology to create workforce management software for a wider range of clients. And, she suggests, Lawson may be able to present itself as an appealing one-stop shop for workforce management tools as well as other HR software. "More and more organizations are looking for these applications from one software provider," she says.

-Ed Frauenheim