SAP, Microsoft Get In Tune For Duet

kicked off a marketing campaign

The enterprise software giants drew attention last year when they unveiled their plans for Duet, which enables users to access data from their SAP ERP systems from within Microsoft Office. The software's initial release will have limited functionality, but the concept of allowing Microsoft Office to essentially become a user interface to SAP drew lots of interest from customers and solution providers. More than 100 have signed on to try the early versions of Duet that SAP and Microsoft began testing late last year.

Duet's first release will handle integration of budget monitoring, calendar and leave-management synchronization through Microsoft Outlook and a handful of human resources activities.

In the second half of this year, SAP and Microsoft plan to add two Duet modules that support five more integration "scenarios" for mySAP ERP, CRM and SRM (supplier relationship management). The scenarios will address business processes in recruitment management, travel management, analytics, purchasing management and sales activity management.

Microsoft and SAP so far haven't disclosed pricing for Duet. More details are expected later Tuesday at a press conference on Duet. The software also will be highlighted at SAP's upcoming Sapphire user conferences, which will be held later this month in Orlando, Fla., and Paris.