What is Duet software?
Duet is a solution from Microsoft and SAP that enables seamless access to SAP business processes and data via Microsoft Office, revolutionizing how information workers interact with enterprise applications. Why did SAP and Microsoft decide to partner together to offer this software?
For Microsoft and SAP, the primary focus is to help customers increase business performance by giving information workers greater visibility and use of SAP business data from familiar, easy-to-use Microsoft Office software. For Microsoft, it supports the expansion of Microsoft Office from a set of applications into a "system" for organizational productivity. For SAP, it means more people within an organization have access to SAP processes. Who is the target market?
Duet is targeted toward enterprise customers who are running their businesses on Microsoft Office and SAP today.What is the value proposition for Duet?
- Increase corporate policy compliance. Duet simplifies employees' ability to interact with business processes which enables consistent and proper use of corporate policies.
- Improve decision-making. Duet provides employees and managers with straightforward and timely access to relevant, contextual business information.
- Save time and money. Duet increases the return on investment (ROI) of enterprise software implementations by reducing employee training costs and accelerating user adoption.
Where can I gain additional information on Duet?
Contact your Microsoft account manager or account teams. Additional information is also available on the Duet home page. What are the system requirements for Duet?
Users will need at least Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office 2003 Professional licenses and SAP ERP 2004/2005 or SAP CRM 5.0 or SAP SCM 5.0 or SAP NetWeaver BI 3.5/7.0. While the first release, delivered in 2006, does not require any components that are not in Office Standard Edition, the first service pack will require InfoPath. What is the licensing model for Duet?
The model for Duet 1.0 requires customers to have Microsoft Office 2003 plus Windows and Exchange Server and a User license for MySAP (employee license or higher).Who sells which licenses?
Licenses for Microsoft Office are sold through Microsoft. SAP sells licenses for their solution. Both companies sell Duet. Please contact your Microsoft account manager or account team for more information. Will this solution offer backward compatibility to older versions of R/3 Enterprise and Microsoft Office?
Duet version 1.0 leverages the latest technology of both firms to allow the product to be as complete and flexible as possible: mySAP Business Suite 2004, Microsoft Office 2003.Who is providing support for this solution?
Since Duet was jointly developed, it will be jointly supported.
Support will be provided by a joint team from Microsoft and SAP and centralized in two locations that will serve the Americas and EMEA markets. If a customer purchased Duet from Microsoft, the first-level support (logging the initial question) will follow the Microsoft Customer Support Services escalation procedures. Second-level support (implementation and use questions) will be done by the joint co-located teams. Third-level support (break-fix) will be completed by back-end experts from each company.
I would like to partner to sell services related to Duet. Who should I contact?
Microsoft has created a Duet partner program to enable partners to sell and service Duet. Please visit the Microsoft Partner site for further information.Can I partner with both SAP and Microsoft to sell services related to Duet?
Yes. To provide optimal support for partners, both companies enable the program through their existing partner programs. Do you offer training for Duet and where can find more information about upcoming Duet trainings?
Yes, Duet training is available globally to customers and partners. For schedules and more information, please refer to the Duet education page.Which Microsoft Office versions are supported in Duet?
Microsoft Office 2003 will continue to be supported through the Duet 1.5 release. The 2007 Microsoft Office system and the next version of Microsoft Office (Microsoft Office 14) will be supported in the Duet 3.0 release. See the list of supported Microsoft platforms and features for the past and upcoming releases of Duet.Would it be possible to run Duet with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 but Micrsoft Office Excel, Word. and PowerPoint 2003?
Duet 1.0 supports Microsoft Office 2003 and the 2007 Office system support starts with Duet 1.5. Mixed landscapes such as Outlook 2007 and Excel 2003 will not be supported. Is 64 bit support available for Duet?
The Duet 1.5 release will support 64 bit on the server where one can host a complete 64 bit server components. Client support for 64 bit will not be available on Duet 1.5. Does Duet support Microsoft Exchange Server 2007?
Starting with Duet 1.5, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will be supported.What is the value-add of Duet with SAP Employee Self Service (ESS), deployed in the enterprise?
Duet exposes SAP data and process from within Microsoft Outlook. SAP ESS is a pre-requisite for deploying the Duet Leave-Request scenario. The compelling story for Duet is that the employees are now able to request their day-off using the Outlook calendar which will then trigger the right processes in SAP for the approval and for updating the data in SAP back-end. This results in increased information worker productivity because employees are able to continue to use the familiar Outlook calendar.How many users can Duet server support?
You can find the Duet Sizing Guide at SAP’s Service site, registration required. In a nutshell, this is a simple t-shirt sizing (small, medium, and large). As with any other SAP applications, SAPS (SAP Application Performance Standard) measurements for CPU sizing provided by SAP should be reviewed by the customer's hardware vendor for actual hardware requirements.How do customers receive updates, tools and support packages associated with Duet?
Duet is designed to allow customers to make the most out of their mySAP ERP investment. To do so, a customer needs to have both Microsoft Office and mySAP ERP installed. As with any enterprise software product, there is an array of tools, support packs, and updates for Duet made available through the standard channels of both Microsoft and SAP.
For example, the Duet Support Packages for the SAP components of Duet include fixes incorporated with a number of SAP backend modules and are delivered through SAP Service Marketplace, a community site accessible by SAP customers to help maintain their mySAP ERP implementations. Most of the updates and tools available for Duet from SAP are actually updates to mySAP and NetWeaver infrastructure and are not necessarily Duet specific.
Similarly, community tools and guidance for enhancing, monitoring, and maintaining solutions using Duet through Microsoft technology (e.g. building composite applications with SharePoint and SAP) are available through Microsoft channels such as MSDN.
Microsoft partners that engage in Duet deployments should be prepared to use their customer's existing SAP licensing and maintenance agreements to obtain access to SAP Service Marketplace and other product support channels on behalf of the customer. In instances where the Microsoft partner is also an SAP services partner, they may use their existing partnership agreements with SAP to access the necessary resources.
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