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Value of
Duet Enterprise
White Paper
February 2013
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2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 4
The New World of Work ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
Microsoft and SAP in the Enterprise..................................................................................................................................... 5
THE MISSION OF DUET ENTERPRISE .............................................................................................................. 6
For Business Users ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6
For Enterprise IT and Partners ................................................................................................................................................. 6
BUSINESS VALUE OF DUET ENTERPRISE ........................................................................................................ 7
Access SAP Data and Processes Using Intuitive Tools .................................................................................................. 7
Access Information Anytime, Anywhere, on Any Device .............................................................................................. 7
Eliminate the Need for End-User Training ......................................................................................................................... 8
Save Time and Reduce Training for IT ................................................................................................................................. 8
Take Advantage of Existing Investments ............................................................................................................................ 8
Achieve Longevity with a Future-Proof Platform ............................................................................................................ 9
DUET ENTERPRISE OVERVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 10
Site Templates .............................................................................................................................................................................10
Prebuilt Components ................................................................................................................................................................10
Building Blocks for Manageability and Support ............................................................................................................11
Development Tools ...................................................................................................................................................................11
EXAMPLES OF PARTNER SOLUTIONS ........................................................................................................... 12
SAP CRM Solution Built By Fujitsu for Omnicell ............................................................................................................13
SAP HR Solution Built by Cordis for Ironwood Pharmaceuticals ............................................................................14
PO Solution Built by Capgemini for GT Advanced Technologies ...........................................................................15
IT BENEFITS OF DUET ENTERPRISE ............................................................................................................... 16
Upgrade with Minimal Effort .................................................................................................................................................16
Unlock the Strategic Potential of IT ....................................................................................................................................16
Simplify Development and Maintenance with Existing Technologies ..................................................................16
Streamline Administration with Common Management Tools ...............................................................................16
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 17
INTRODUCTION
Duet Enterprise combines the technology that people use every dayMicrosoft Office and Microsoft
SharePointwith the technology used to run the businessSAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) and
line-of-business (LOB) applications. Duet Enterprise allows employees to use Microsoft tools to access SAP
workflows and data, including contacts, calendar, sales, and other data types. Users can work regardless of
location (in the office, at home, or on the road), deployment (on-premises, cloud, or hybrid), or device (PC,
tablet, or smartphone).
This white paper discusses the business value of Duet Enterprise, a joint product designed to increase the
efficiency, flexibility, and effectiveness of companies that use SAP and Microsoft products. Duet Enterprise
is especially relevant to todays companies, where employees are increasingly connected to one another
digitally and where the pace of change demands that people have rapid access to accurate data in order
to increase their productivity.
Allow enterprises to outsource selected IT functions and eliminate the purchase and
management of expensive hardware, software, and storage infrastructure.
Reduce the need to hire, train, and retrain IT personnel in newer technologies.
Access to Information from Any Device, Anytime, Anywhere: Two growing trends in
todays enterprises are the relentless drive to reduce real estate costs and the need to
provide flexibility to employees to work from anywhere. Among other factors, these trends
are contributing significantly to the drive toward the adoption of both cloud and mobile
technologies.
Bring Your Own Device: The rapid proliferation of highly capable smartphones and
tabletsalong with their easy configuration for Microsoft Exchange and intranet access
have created both opportunities and challenges for companies. Companies benefit by
cutting the cost of telecommunications and device administration, while improving
employee productivity. However, IT departments are forced to adapt rapidly to the
paradigm shift in device management.
Consumerization of IT: While employees expect corporate tools to support flexibility and
BYOD trends, they also expect these tools to be as intuitive and easy-to-use as consumer
products. When these expectations are not met, employees either find workarounds or
reject the tools that are intended to help accomplish business objectives.
For example, Sandvik Group implemented a Duet Enterprise solution in six weeks and cut
invoice approval times in half merely by showing SAP data in the intuitive Microsoft SharePoint
interface.
For example, Cordis Solutions built a Duet Enterprise-based expense management web
application for 6,500 worldwide mobile users in a quasi-government organization. As all users
did not need access to all screens in SAP, it was understood that these users should not have to
learn a fairly complex SAP user interface to perform simple point tasks.
Sandvik Group Case Study: Global Engineering Firm Speeds Invoice Approval Process, Boosts Business Agility
SAP Insider Webinar: How to Shorten Time-to-Value with Partner Solutions Built on Duet Enterprise Foundation
For example, Daiichi Sankyo Europe implemented a Duet Enterprise solution that allows users
to enter accounting data quickly into Microsoft Office forms. Because users were already
familiar with the standard Microsoft Office user interface, they did not need extensive retraining
to learn the new system. Online validation during data entry also reduced errors and improved
the quality of data in the system.
For example, when Capgemini needed to build a purchase order workflow solution for its
customer GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT), it chose Duet Enterprise. Capgeminis analysis
revealed that Duet Enterprise would allow IT to develop solutions three to five times faster than
the alternatives.
In any company, the time savings that IT achieves can be redirected toward performing highvalue functions. The IT department can focus on efforts that provide strategic value to the
business rather than on routine tasks common in the life of an IT professional.
Daiichi-Sankyo Case Study: Teaming Microsoft SharePoint and SAP Applications through Duet Enterprise
Capgemini Case Study: GT Advanced Technologies - Getting more from SAP using ERP+ with Duet Enterprise
The benefit is clear: When a new Duet Enterprise workspace is rolled out or a new application is
released, employees can use the capabilities immediately, without downtime to learn a new
program or software. This facilitates rapid adoption and maximizes the value that companies
can extract from pre-existing investments in SAP and Microsoft tools.
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For example, when Omnicell decided to deploy Duet Enterprise for its sales force, the primary
reason was because information could be extracted from the SAP customer relationship
management (CRM) system and then displayed on Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Outlook.
Both tools were already implemented and in use, and Omnicell was able to make centralized
and current sales data available to its sales teams.
>>>
The
very intense and robust
because we wanted to make
sure that we made the
investment in the right
solution that we were going
to be able to use long term.
Teresa A. Suganski, Director of Enterprise
Applications, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
For example, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals enacted an extremely rigorous process for selecting a
solution for its human resources (HR) benefits enrollment. After evaluating all options,
Ironwood chose Cordis Solutions to implement Duet Enterprise as the most capable solution
that would grow with the companys requirements.
6
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Omnicell Case Study: Healthcare Solutions Provider Eases Customer Data Collection, Boosts Agility
SAP Insider Webinar: How to Shorten Time-to-Value with Partner Solutions Built on Duet Enterprise Foundation
Site Templates
Consisting of web pages and web parts, ready-to-use site templates allow end users to rapidly create
collaboration workspaces. With these site templates, employees can create workspaces for any of the
following out-of-the-box SAP business objects: Customer, Employee, Product, Customer Inquiry, or
Customer Quoteall at the click of a button. Site templates in Duet Enterprise use synchronized single
sign-on between SharePoint and SAP. Data is populated in SharePoint through SharePoint Business
Connectivity Services (BCS) using SAP NetWeaver.
Prebuilt Components
In addition to site templates, Duet Enterprise includes other prebuilt, ready-to-use components that
speed the creation of special-purpose solutions:
Duet Enterprise Reporting allows end users to retrieve SAP reports directly from SharePoint and
Office applications. End users can subscribe to, schedule, and receive automatic delivery of
reports in all formats supported by SAP.
Duet Profile allows users to enrich user profiles in SharePoint with HR data from SAP.
Duet Enterprise Sites provides ready-to-use Duet Enterprise site definition templates for the five
specific SAP business objects. Microsoft SharePoint Designer can be used to easily modify these
templates and create new ones.
Duet Enterprise Workflow allows user decision steps in SAP workflows to flow into Microsoft
Outlook and SharePoint as workflow tasks. These tasks then can be disseminated through email
templates. This means that action can be taken on the tasks through a message in Outlook or
from a workflow site in SharePoint, thereby removing the need for a user to log on to SAP.
Security and Single Sign-On capabilities help to ensure that Duet Enterprise users have highly
secure access to all data residing in SAP or Microsoft applications. These capabilities are
implemented with mapping tables in Duet Enterprise that map SharePoint user accounts to SAP
user accounts. More granular privileges are enabled using graphically intuitive SharePoint tools
and data ported from SAP.
Landscape Management capabilities permit Duet Enterprise to enable failover scenarios, use
mechanisms such as load balancing, and connect to multiple back-end systems.
Application Lifecycle Management tools and practices allow the entire lifecycle of application
components to be maintained through the commonly understood stages of Expose, Compose,
Consume, Deploy, and Innovate. It is important to note that application components can include
Microsoft or SAP products, components of Duet Enterprise that run in SAP, or even customdeveloped elements.
Offline Support is enabled within Duet Enterprise by allowing selected data elements (such as
contact information) to be extracted from SAP and stored in Outlook or SharePoint in an offline
mode. Offline data has the same security protections and encryption as online data.
Development Tools
Duet Enterprise uses standard development tools for the Microsoft and SAP platforms:
Microsoft SharePoint Designer enables power users to create new sites, applications, workflows,
and document lists.
Microsoft Visual Studio and .NET development environments can be used to build components
for Duet Enterprise applications, including Microsoft Silverlight, HTML5, Outlook Task Panes,
custom user interfaces, and advanced business logic.
ABAP Workbench is used with the service consumption layer in SAP NetWeaver to implement
web services invoked through BCS to communicate between SharePoint and SAP.
>>>
Challenge: Omnicell provides automation solutions for healthcare facilities. While on the road, the
Omnicell sales force is frequently disconnected from the Internet. Historically, sales contacts and activity
information were fragmented across a variety of locations. Sales contacts were captured as paper business
cards, through third-party contact tools on mobile
devices, or in Outlook. Sales activity was captured in
We went from distributed, nonemail messages, day planners, or the SAP CRM system.
centralized contact data to being
Documents existed in email, on SharePoint, or on
able to organize and categorize individual laptops.
Omnicell Case Study: Healthcare Solutions Provider Eases Customer Data Collection, Boosts Agility
>>>
SAP Insider Webinar: How to Shorten Time-to-Value with Partner Solutions Built on Duet Enterprise Foundation
>>>
10
Capgemini Case Study: GT Advanced Technologies - Getting more from SAP using ERP+ with Duet Enterprise
CONCLUSION
Microsoft and SAP have jointly created Duet Enterprise to unite the intuitive user interfaces of Microsoft
Office and Microsoft SharePoint with the power of SAP applications. Fundamentally, this enables business
users to access SAP data and processes more seamlessly, and makes it easier for IT departments to deploy
and maintain relevant business solutions. In addition, Duet Enterprise provides many other business
benefits, including enhanced user productivity, reduced training for end users and IT, and better platform
adoption and longevity.
With Duet Enterprise, business users can access relevant data using tools that are familiar and
comfortable, helping to increase both productivity and user adoption. Likewise, because Duet Enterprise
can be implemented on-premises, in the cloud, or as a hybrid model, users have the flexibility to access
SAP data whenever and wherever, using any device.
In addition, training for both end users and IT is streamlined. Because Duet Enterprise uses well-known
Microsoft Office and SharePoint interfaces, end users do not need training on new tools or screens.
Moreover, with self-service tools based on these interfaces, Duet Enterprise enables users to increase their
use of SAP data and improve their productivity. For IT, training is simplified because there is no need to
learn new development tools. IT professionals can maintain Duet Enterprise applications using their
existing skills with ABAP and .NET technologies. Also, because Duet Enterprise-based solutions can be
created without writing code, IT can redirect time traditionally spent writing, testing, and maintaining
code toward performing high-value, strategic functions for the business.
Finally, because Duet Enterprise takes advantage of existing investments in platform technologies and
employee skill sets, companies do not need to invest in new tools or expensive training programs. This
promotes rapid end-user adoption and negates the time and effort required for IT to research, purchase,
and implement new technologies. Further, both Microsoft and SAP are committed to maintaining Duet
Enterprise as a future-proof platform. Built on a flexible standards-based architecture, the Duet Enterprise
platform delivers the ability to build next-generation, no-code solutions and ensures ongoing support
across versions of Microsoft and SAP products.