Plans to release a pair of value packs (free releases with updated features) for the SAP-Microsoft Duet product in 2006 have been dropped. Duet provides self-service access to the mySAP suite of business applications via Microsoft Office. The value packs have been pushed into 2007 but some features originally planned for them will be deferred to an incremental upgrade, Duet 1.5, scheduled for the summer of 2007. Among other features, the new release will make it easier for customers to configure and customize existing Duet applications, but it will not allow partners to create new Duet applications.

What Is Duet?

Duet is a joint Microsoft-SAP product that uses Office 2003 applications (mainly Outlook) as the front end to mySAP, the successor to SAP's R/3 ERP applications. MySAP includes standard ERP functionality—such as financial management, human resources, supply chain management, and warehouse and distribution applications—as well as customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities.

The first version of Duet, which shipped in June 2006, included the following:

• An organization management application that allows managers to view information about employees, new positions, and organizational structure from within Outlook
• A time management application that lets workers use the Outlook calendar to enter time worked into SAP
• A leave management tool that allows workers to request and schedule time off and view leave details (such as vacation days remaining) from within Outlook
• Budget monitoring tools that deliver SAP financial reports to workers' inboxes.

The product aims to make business data and processes that are generally the domain of back-office specialists and managers accessible to a wider cross-section of workers on a self-service basis. By allowing workers both to view and update data in back-end business systems, self-service applications promise several benefits. For example, such applications can typically reduce or eliminate duplicate data-entry (transcribing timesheets from a project tracking application into a back-end ERP system, for instance) and lessen reliance on back-office workers to complete mundane tasks. Early sales figures suggest this concept resonates with customers—according to Microsoft and SAP, Duet has sold over 200,000 licensed seats in the several months since it shipped.

Value Packs Slip, Roadmap Adjusted

According to the original Duet plan, a value pack scheduled for the third quarter of 2006 would deliver new recruiting, travel management, and analytics applications, in addition to support for French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish (currently Duet is available only in English). A second value pack planned for the fourth quarter of 2006 was to deliver support for purchasing and sales processes.

A Nov. 2006 announcement describes an adjusted Duet roadmap that now includes the following:

• A value pack that supports Office 2007 applications and several additional languages (support for Office 2007, which itself was delayed and only shipped to business customers in Nov. 2006, probably contributed to the schedule slips)
• A second value pack that delivers the travel and sales applications as well as a previously undisclosed application for demand planning via Excel
• An incremental Duet version (version 1.5) that will include the recruiting application originally planned for the first value pack, the purchasing application originally planned for the second value pack, and improved tools for configuring and customizing Duet.

Although Duet 1.5 will make it easier to customize existing Duet applications, it does not appear that the release will include the developer tools or documentation needed for partners to expand Duet to new scenarios or create new Duet applications.

Availability, Pricing, and Resources

The announcement indicated that the value packs would ship in the next 12 months but did not provide more specific timing. Microsoft and SAP have since said that the value packs will be released at the same time in the first quarter of 2007; delivering the value packs (particularly the first value pack) as soon as possible will help prevent Duet from blocking upgrades to Office 2007. Duet 1.5 is planned for the summer of 2007. The value packs and Duet 1.5 are free for existing Duet customers with Microsoft or SAP maintenance agreements (such as Microsoft's software assurance).

More information about Duet is at www.duet.com.

The first version of Duet was described in "Duet Delivers Office Client for SAP" on page 27 of the July 2006 Update.