SAP and Microsoft Deliver Extended Road Map for Duet(TM) Software
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ATLANTA, April 24- SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) today announced that they have deepened their relationship and extended their product road map for Duet(TM) software for Microsoft® Office and SAP, a solution that allows information workers to interact with select SAP business processes and data through Microsoft Office applications. The companies will jointly enhance Duet with additional business scenarios, platform capabilities and development tools. The upcoming version, Duet 2.0, is planned for the end of 2008 and Duet 3.0 is planned to be released soon after the next generation of SAP® Business Suite applications and Microsoft Office software, including Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server. This announcement from SAP and Microsoft underscores the companies' continued investment in shaping the future of Duet to ensure that it benefits their joint customers. The news was released at SAPPHIRE® '07, SAP's international customer conference, being held in Atlanta April 22-25.
"Today's announcement is a win for customers, another example of SAP's ongoing tradition of co-innovation with partners and evidence of our continued commitment to our relationship with Microsoft," said Leo Apotheker, president of Customer Solutions and Operations and deputy CEO of SAP AG. "Duet started out as a revolutionary combination of two industry leaders and continues as the only commercially available product that is jointly developed and supported by both Microsoft and SAP. With this Duet road map, customers and partners can count on richer business scenarios, new collaboration features and simpler, more flexible ways for information workers to leverage their organization's business processes and information."
For organizations to succeed, all employees need instant access to relevant enterprise information and processes. Originally announced in April 2005, Duet is the result of groundbreaking collaboration between SAP and Microsoft which extends the benefits of SAP to information workers through the familiar Microsoft Office environment. Duet makes SAP applications useable right away without the need for training on a new user interface.
"The incredible level of interest in Duet by our customers motivated us to share specifics around the future direction of the product," said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division at Microsoft. "The broadened capabilities of Duet coupled with the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server integration will bring businesses new value and people the tools to help them drive business success."
Duet is a model for how applications perform in the age of enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA). Combining the power of enterprise SOA capabilities in the coming versions of SAP® Business Suite applications, Microsoft Office software and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Duet will help customers create software building blocks that they can use to easily deploy and customize Duet without disrupting their current IT infrastructure. As a result, Duet continues to be embraced by customers and partners with more than 250 customers and 400,000 licenses sold in less than a year. The upcoming features are based on feedback from this growing community of Duet customers.
Both industry leaders continue to co-innovate using their rich portfolios of enterprise SOA technologies to empower information workers with access to critical business processes and information, and collaborate via their preferred user environment. Following are some new features customers can expect in Duet 2.0 and Duet 3.0:
o Enhanced and new business scenario support for sales and supply chain
management, and other business scenarios - extended capabilities will
allow sales professionals to manage sales leads and opportunities within
SAP® Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) from Microsoft Office.
Additionally, supply chain managers will have new capabilities for
purchasing and legal contract management. There will also be support for
selected governance, risk and compliance scenarios.
o Expansion of Duet to support unstructured processes, information and
team collaboration through embracing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server,
Microsoft's business productivity platform. The combination of SAP
Business Suite and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server streamline the way
people do business by truly connecting people, process and information.
o Enhanced Duet tools and infrastructure interwoven with Microsoft Office
SharePoint Server, so customers and partners can customize existing
scenarios and create new ones. New scenario templates and development
tools allow organizations to adapt existing Duet scenarios and build new
scenarios that meet their evolving business needs.
For more information on Duet, visit www.Duet.com
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 39,400 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP® applications - from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small businesses and midsize companies to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver® platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP software helps enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP solution portfolios support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, retail, financial services, healthcare and the public sector. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at < www.sap.com/ >)
(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.
For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1-800-872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)
Source: SAP AG
CONTACT: press only, Robin Meyerhoff, +1-650-461-1916, robin.meyerhoff@sap.com, PDT, or Press Office, +49-6227-7-46315, CET,
+1-610-661-3200, EDT, press@sap.com, both of SAP AG; or Rachel Allen,
+1-415-591-4041, rachel.allen@bm.com, PDT, or Uwe Schaad, +49 69 238
+09-31,
uwe.schaad@bm.com, CET, both of Burson-Marsteller, for SAP AG; or Rapid Response Team of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, +1-503-443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com, for Microsoft
Web site: www.sap.com/
