SAP, Microsoft Duet Partner Plans Differ
The product, known until last week as Mendocino, will let customers use the familiar Microsoft Office as front end for MySAP 2004 ERP data.
While the vendors will sell the same product, they’re parting ways on pricing and distribution: Microsoft said it will put Duet on its Volume Licensing product list and make it available through resellers, while SAP said it will only sell Duet directly.
One SAP partner is bullish on Duet, even though he can’t sell it.
Brad Nicolaisen, president of Et Alia, Milwaukee, said Duet will set up good services and consulting opportunities for partners.
“For years, customers and prospects have been asking for this,” he said. “Until now, we couldn’t do much except set up some e-mail functionality. Now, we can integrate [SAP] into all the Outlook functions, including calendars and tasks. For example, if I have a workflow event within SAP and I need to interview a particular candidate, normally I’d set up a workflow request in SAP. Now I can create a meeting request right within Outlook. And if I change it in Outlook, it’ll update in SAP.”
Duet is the product of an unusual—and uneasy—alliance between Goliaths. By easing integration between their widely used software, both vendors hope to deepen their roots in customer organizations and fend off circling vultures like Oracle. Duet targets large enterprises, businesses that have extensive mySAP deployments and thousands of workers spending time working in Office applications such as Outlook.
Only Microsoft is willing to disclose its Duet price tag. (The companies claim antitrust regulations bar them from collaboratively setting a price.) Microsoft will charge a list price of $125 per user client access license, with discounts available depending on individual deal terms. SAP declined to discuss pricing.
Microsoft also is parting ways with SAP on reseller distribution. “It should be available from the channel right after release,” said Chris Caren, Microsoft’s general manager of Office business applications. “We’re doing a lot of work with partners already in the preview.”
SAP said it expects heavy partner involvement on the services side of Duet deals but won’t offer the software to its resellers. “Currently, our target is to sell directly and to sell to large enterprises,” said Sharada Achanta, senior director of emerging solutions marketing at SAP. “We’ve been saying primarily direct. You never say never, but that’s the strategy for now.” One Microsoft channel that won’t be involved with Duet is its Dynamics resellers. Microsoft executives insist Duet doesn’t compete with Microsoft’s own ERP products because Duet targets large enterprises, while its Dynamics ERP base is smaller organizations. But industry watchers say that distinction isn’t so clear in practice.
“One of the major selling points for Microsoft Dynamics is becoming its ability to interface to Office, particularly to Outlook,” said Josh Greenbaum, principal of Enterprise Applications Consulting, Berkeley, Calif. “If Duet does that well in the SAP world, it potentially undercuts Microsoft’s ability to go into the midmarket and high-midmarket companies and compete.”
Duet’s executive backers, Microsoft Business Division President Jeff Raikes and SAP executive board member Shai Agassi, pledged at a joint press conference last week to continue close collaboration on Duet.
“It’s really the first time that our two companies have come together to jointly develop, market and sell a product,” Raikes said.
Ten integrators already are working closely with Microsoft and SAP on testing a beta that shipped late last year. Infosys has a pilot deployment running internally and plans to go live with a companywide deployment later this year.
“Once we implement it in production, we can take it to clients and use ourselves as a proof point,” said Pradeep Prabhu, Infosys’ associate vice president in charge of its Microsoft alliance. “We’ve been waiting for the official [availability]. Now we can start talking to our early adopters. We’ve had a lot of clients having interest in this.”
Infosys said it will play Switzerland when it comes to handling the sales overlap between Microsoft and SAP: Infosys doesn’t resell software itself and will encourage clients to buy their licenses from whichever of the two vendors they prefer, Prabhu said.
Duet is due in late June, with two “value packs” offering additional functionality slated for release later in the year. Duet’s road map beyond that has not yet been announced.
BARBARA DARROW contributed to this story.