Duet Enterprise

Duet Enterprise is the product jointly developed by corporations SAP and Microsoft which allows to integrate data and workflows between the SAP platforms, Microsoft SharePoint and Office.

2011: Attempt No. 2: start of a packet of Duet Enterprise

The companies Microsoft also SAP put on the market Duet Enterprise packet intended for the organization of communication between Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and ERP- the systems of SAP.^[1] It is possible to claim that long ago waited for the similar solution in the companies which made investments both into a corporate ERP system of SAP, and into informational portals based on MS SharePoint, and actively using the solutions Microsoft Office. Now there is an opportunity to quickly create the most convenient and flexible solutions which combine unique experiment of Microsoft on creation of the means increasing productivity of work of personnel with SAP solutions for effective management of the enterprise.

In 2005 the companies announced release of the similar tool under the name Duet. It had to provide integration with ERP systems of SAP of the Microsoft Office office suite. Despite advertizing, Duet did not win great popularity, mainly, because of the high price and complexity of setup.

Duet Enterprise has similar functionality, but is constructed on a new integration framework of SAP Project Gateway which, according to in the company, provides idle time and the standardized access method to SAP applications. Duet Enterprise supports a uniform input and allows to create the "joint work environment" delivering information from SAP applications to users of SharePoint and Office.

The second attempt of integration of programs of SAP and Microsoft has more chances of success, than the first, analysts consider. Both SharePoint 2010, and SAP during this time considerably promoted in the field of the interface. However the price which the companies did not announce yet remains a key factor.

2006: Duet with Microsoft frightened clients of SAP

Duet technologies are designed to facilitate to the users who long ago mastered office programs of Microsoft, use of powerful opportunities of ERP systems from SAP. However technical requirements to implementation of Duet are so serious that for most of clients the arising problems are more powerful, than the promised advantages.

In June, 2006 the finished development of Mendocino Project went on sale under the name of Duet. At a beta testing stage, since the end of 2005, possibilities of a new product studied about 100 clients and partners. However users of SAP do not hurry to begin to use new software, and there is a number of the reasons explaining this care.

Recently the AMR Research company conducted a research of 74 American clients of SAP in the sector of production and trade. About a third of respondents (27 of 74) said that they are afraid to implement new technology, and as the reasons called need of updating of the used software and the additional "hidden" investments.

As you know, use of Duet technology requires use of SAP ERP 2004 and also NetWeaver, Microsoft Exchange Server and Windows Server 2003, and besides Microsoft Office 2003 Professional. Some scenarios included in Duet demand existence of additional applications from SAP, such as Employee Self Service, mySAP CRM 4.0, mySAP SRM 5.0 and SAP NetWeaver BW 3.5. Thus, the considerable number of clients should execute significant updating of the software which is available for them.

Many clients of SAP considered Duet technologies convenient and useful, however only 11% of survey participants said that they are ready to execute necessary updating to begin to use Duet. About 60% of respondents told that they will prefer to purchase software at one of representatives of SAP, but not at Microsoft.

Besides, a part of clients of SAP already use IBM Lotus Notes and, respectively, its Lotuses Access for SAP or Lotus Workplace for SAP Software are tools similar Duet, but the supporting bigger number of scenarios not requiring the additional server and working with any OS, including other than Windows. These developments of IBM are available since May of the current year.

Part of the respondents participating in poll of AMR said that they are afraid to make additional resources in Duet deployment as in case of not too great success of new technology in the market in general, SAP can refuse in the future support of this tool, and then additional efforts and investments that will be necessary for users or to contract use of Duet in the companies, or to update software independently.

And at last, the current version of Duet does not support user preferences and developments of independent vendors. According to Kevin Fliss, the vice president of SAP, these opportunities will be implemented only in the next version, Duet 2.0.

Meanwhile, in the third quarter 2006 SAP prepares for an exit of Value Pack 1, containing new scenarios in the field of management of personnel recruitment, movements of personnel and also means of analytics. In the fourth quarter emergence of Value Pack 2 where scenarios on sales management and purchases will enter is expected and also support of Microsoft Office 2007 will be implemented.

According to some sources, Staffordshire County Council is going to begin implementation of Duet at the beginning of next year as a part of the five-year plan for transition to SAP as the corporate standard. It will be one of the first implementations of Duet in Great Britain.

At the end of July in the USA Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission announced the beginning of the project on SAP implementation together with Duet technology.

2005: The first declaration of a joint product under the name "Mendocino Project"

For the first time the joint software product of two software giants SAP Microsoft it was also announced in the first half of 2005, then it was called Mendocino Project.

It was announced that the final beta of a joint SAP product and Microsoft will be released on April 28, 2006, in two months prior to an exit of official release. In the initial version of Mendocino four functions should be implemented:

• management of holidays,
• management of the schedule,
• organizational management and
• monitoring of budgets.

The SAP company is going to complement until the end of the year this functionality with the accessibility to an analytical subsystem of the ERP system. Information will be issued in the form of tables, histograms and diagrams. As the interface means of Microsoft Office, in particular will be used by Excel. By calculations of the company such opportunity will allow to double number of the users working with an information system.