IBM Lotus Linking Notes To SAP Apps

IBM Lotus and SAP are developing links between their software product lines in an effort to allow their common customers to access the SAP Business Suite of financial and ERP applications through the Notes client, the two companies announced at Lotusphere Monday.

The first SAP plug-in product under the "Atlantic" initiative will support SAP workflows, reporting and analytics and the use of roles from within the Lotus Notes client. Such a link, for example, could be used to process and review travel budget requests and expenses, said Vishal Sikka, SAP CTO, speaking at the Lotus conference in Orlando.

The initial release of Atlantic will ship in the fourth quarter and be sold by both companies. The development alliance between the SAP and Lotus makes sense given that about 80 percent of their customers use products from both companies, said Mike Rhodin, Lotus general manager.

SAP and Microsoft similarly developed technology linking Microsoft's Office desktop applications with SAP's back-office software under the code name "Mendocino" in 2005 and 2006 and debuted the resulting Duet product in May 2006.

Despite coming so long after that development effort, Rhodin said the timing is right for IBM Lotus to undertake similar work because of growing demand from Lotus customers.