The Business
Value of
Duet Enterprise
White Paper
February 2013
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© 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 4
The New World of Work ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
Microsoft and SAP in the Enterprise ..................................................................................................................................... 5
THE MISSION OF DUET ENTERPRISE .............................................................................................................. 6
For Business Users ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6
For Enterprise IT and Partners ................................................................................................................................................. 6
BUSINESS VALUE OF DUET ENTERPRISE ........................................................................................................ 7
Access SAP Data and Processes Using Intuitive Tools .................................................................................................. 7
Access Information Anytime, Anywhere, on Any Device .............................................................................................. 7
Eliminate the Need for End-User Training ......................................................................................................................... 8
Save Time and Reduce Training for IT ................................................................................................................................. 8
Take Advantage of Existing Investments ............................................................................................................................ 8
Achieve Longevity with a Future-Proof Platform ............................................................................................................ 9
DUET ENTERPRISE OVERVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 11
Site Templates .............................................................................................................................................................................11
Prebuilt Components ................................................................................................................................................................11
Building Blocks for Manageability and Support ............................................................................................................12
Development Tools ...................................................................................................................................................................12
EXAMPLES OF PARTNER SOLUTIONS ........................................................................................................... 13
SAP CRM Solution Built By Fujitsu for Omnicell ............................................................................................................14
SAP HR Solution Built by Cordis for Ironwood Pharmaceuticals ............................................................................15
PO Solution Built by Capgemini for GT Advanced Technologies ...........................................................................16
IT BENEFITS OF DUET ENTERPRISE ............................................................................................................... 17
Upgrade with Minimal Effort .................................................................................................................................................17
Unlock the Strategic Potential of IT ....................................................................................................................................17
Simplify Development and Maintenance with Existing Technologies ..................................................................17
Streamline Administration with Common Management Tools ...............................................................................17
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 18
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 3
INTRODUCTION
Duet Enterprise combines the technology that people use every day—Microsoft Office and Microsoft
SharePoint—with the technology used to run the business—SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) and
line-of-business (LOB) applications. Duet Enterprise allows employees to use Microsoft tools to access SAP
workflows and data, including contacts, calendar, sales, and other data types. Users can work regardless of
location (in the office, at home, or on the road), deployment (on-premises, cloud, or hybrid), or device (PC,
tablet, or smartphone).
This white paper discusses the business value of Duet Enterprise, a joint product designed to increase the
efficiency, flexibility, and effectiveness of companies that use SAP and Microsoft products. Duet Enterprise
is especially relevant to today’s companies, where employees are increasingly connected to one another
digitally and where the pace of change demands that people have rapid access to accurate data in order
to increase their productivity.
The New World of Work
The world of work is being profoundly transformed by lower costs, higher performance, and faster speeds
of communication in Information Technology (IT). In turn, IT itself is being rapidly altered by the evolving
workspace. In this environment, enterprises must adapt to four key realities:
Inexorable Rise of the Cloud: The cloud is high on the agenda of business executives
today, and the reasons are clear. For example, cloud technologies:

Allow enterprises to outsource selected IT functions and eliminate the purchase and
management of expensive hardware, software, and storage infrastructure.

Reduce the need to hire, train, and retrain IT personnel in newer technologies.

Provide flexibility to dynamically scale up or down, based on business requirements.

Provide new capabilities to users without playing catch-up with upgrades.
Access to Information from Any Device, Anytime, Anywhere: Two growing trends in
today’s enterprises are the relentless drive to reduce real estate costs and the need to
provide flexibility to employees to work from anywhere. Among other factors, these trends
are contributing significantly to the drive toward the adoption of both cloud and mobile
technologies.
Bring Your Own Device: The rapid proliferation of highly capable smartphones and
tablets—along with their easy configuration for Microsoft Exchange and intranet access—
have created both opportunities and challenges for companies. Companies benefit by
cutting the cost of telecommunications and device administration, while improving
employee productivity. However, IT departments are forced to adapt rapidly to the
paradigm shift in device management.
Consumerization of IT: While employees expect corporate tools to support flexibility and
BYOD trends, they also expect these tools to be as intuitive and easy-to-use as consumer
products. When these expectations are not met, employees either find workarounds or
reject the tools that are intended to help accomplish business objectives.
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 4
Microsoft and SAP in the Enterprise
SAP ERP and other LOB applications serve as systems of record for many enterprises. These companies
have invested tremendous resources to optimize their business processes using SAP, embarking on wellintentioned efforts to make this data widely available to employees. The benefits of such efforts are
obvious—getting accurate information about the business in the hands of employees allows them to
make smart decisions, reduce guesswork, and improve reaction time to market changes.
However, it is a challenge to bring comprehensive and robust SAP LOB data to employees across the
enterprise, while also ensuring administrative ease, compliance, compatibility, security, and scalability. In
addition, this data must be made available to employees who are infrequent users of the SAP systems, as
they constitute the vast majority of users within most companies. While SAP systems offer deep
capabilities to empower users to access and analyze data, an average information worker is unlikely to
find these systems easy to navigate. SAP NetWeaver Gateway is designed to address precisely this issue; it
is a bridging technology that surfaces SAP data and processes to other platforms and tools, making this
data available in different form factors to a wide variety of users.
Enter Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office 365, and Microsoft SharePoint—the dominant productivity and
collaboration platform and tools for enterprises. Employees have used these tools for years, are intimately
familiar with the interfaces, and interact with the tools on a daily basis. Indeed, the breadth of Microsoft
SharePoint deployment is remarkable: 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies use SharePoint, and more
than 66,000 customers have purchased 135 million licenses of SharePoint worldwide.1
These Microsoft tools have grown in capabilities over the years, and now provide Business Connectivity
Services (BCS), a robust application development platform for integrating Office and SharePoint with any
LOB platform or application. In addition, Office and SharePoint give enterprises the choice to deploy an
on-premises, cloud-only, or hybrid model with Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft SharePoint Online.
Microsoft and SAP are two of the largest software companies on the planet, and they have many
customers in common. The integration between Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint, and SAP presents
an opportunity for enterprise customers to achieve unprecedented benefits. This integration gives
employees access to SAP data with an ease of use that they have not had before.
For nearly 20 years, SAP and Microsoft have worked together on a partnership that provides their
customers with unprecedented integrated solutions. With Duet Enterprise, both SAP and Microsoft have
established a framework for integrating SAP ERP with the Microsoft platform. With their investments in
research, development, and support for Duet Enterprise, Microsoft and SAP ensure that enterprise
customers can establish and plan for a long-term commitment to the Duet Enterprise platform.
1
Microsoft internal data
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 5
THE MISSION OF DUET ENTERPRISE
The mission of Duet Enterprise is to provide an interoperability foundation and rapid development
approach so that companies can take better advantage of their existing investments in Microsoft
SharePoint, Microsoft Office, and SAP software.
For Business Users
Duet Enterprise combines the technology employees use every day with the technology used to run the
business. The technology employees use every day includes Microsoft Office applications, Microsoft
Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Office 365. Mobile devices and browser-based interfaces are
increasingly becoming part of this mix. For running the operations of a business, a different set of
technology generally is used—such as LOB applications like SAP, which come with a distinct set of screens
and user interfaces.
Solutions built using Duet Enterprise allow employees to use Microsoft Office and SharePoint to access
SAP workflows and data, whether they are in the office or at home. Users can work regardless of the
deployment (on-premises, cloud, or hybrid) and can use nearly any device—such as a PC, tablet, or
smartphone—to tap into the power of Duet Enterprise.
For Enterprise IT and Partners
Duet Enterprise provides a solid foundation so that IT departments, systems integrators (SIs), and
independent software vendors (ISVs) can build their own collaborative composite applications and
reusable site templates—with minimal focus on addressing generic details of the underlying product and
maximum focus on crafting needed business solutions.
Duet Enterprise helps to address the dramatic changes in the world of enterprise software since the
Internet became central to business. Collaborative mechanisms such as wikis and mashups may be easy to
develop, but they are rarely auditable, secure, scalable, or manageable. Likewise, many other techniques,
such as portals, screenscraping technologies, and widget frameworks, meet some but not all requirements
for enterprise-class solutions. Duet Enterprise addresses the weaknesses in many existing approaches by
using technologies such as SAP NetWeaver Gateway combined with the easy-to-use capabilities of
Microsoft tools.
With Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft SharePoint in the cloud, IT departments can deploy Duet
Enterprise in the cloud, on-premises, or as a hybrid combination.
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 6
BUSINESS VALUE OF DUET ENTERPRISE
Duet Enterprise is built, supported, and delivered by Microsoft and SAP; both companies are committed
to working together to provide customers with ways to maximize the business value of their investments
in Microsoft and SAP products. Duet Enterprise is a robust solution that offers diverse business value
across a company’s operations.
Access SAP Data and Processes Using Intuitive Tools
Duet Enterprise allows business users to access relevant, valuable data through the familiar
interfaces of Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Office. Through these interfaces, the SAP data
is presented in a meaningful context; for example, user profile information from SAP may be
accessed or updated using Microsoft Outlook.
In addition, with Duet Enterprise, Microsoft productivity tools can be customized easily to fit
users’ needs. Not only can end users create an ad hoc workspace to collaborate around a
customer, but they also can add additional web parts.
For example, Sandvik Group2 implemented a Duet Enterprise solution in six weeks and cut
invoice approval times in half merely by showing SAP data in the intuitive Microsoft SharePoint
interface.
Access Information Anytime, Anywhere, on Any Device
In addition to an on-premises deployment, Duet Enterprise can be implemented in the cloud
exclusively or in a hybrid cloud and on-premises mode. Duet Enterprise also permits business
users to gain remote access to their SAP data using a smartphone, tablet, or any browser offline
or online.
Duet Enterprise provides many options to visualize SAP data, including the ability to use a
modern, web-style front end with SharePoint, Windows phone, and native Windows 8
applications. This breadth of options enables key consumer-oriented usage scenarios, including
customization to address specific enterprise demands.
Further, the ability to deploy Duet Enterprise with Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint in the
cloud helps to ensure that companies have continued access to the latest capabilities of these
platforms. Cloud deployment addresses the challenge of an on-premises implementation where
the standard IT upgrade/update cycles significantly lag the market availability of products
because the IT department is constantly juggling multiple priorities.
For example, Cordis Solutions3 built a Duet Enterprise-based expense management web
application for 6,500 worldwide mobile users in a quasi-government organization. As all users
did not need access to all screens in SAP, it was understood that these users should not have to
learn a fairly complex SAP user interface to perform simple point tasks.
2
3
Sandvik Group Case Study: Global Engineering Firm Speeds Invoice Approval Process, Boosts Business Agility
SAP Insider Webinar: How to Shorten Time-to-Value with Partner Solutions Built on Duet Enterprise Foundation
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 7
Eliminate the Need for End-User Training
The training-related benefits of using Microsoft Office and SharePoint are obvious: End users do
not need to be trained to use new tools or screens; they also do not need to be retrained when
these tools are upgraded or replaced. This results in reduced downtime, helping to enhance
productivity. Moreover, by using self-service tools based on Microsoft Office and SharePoint,
employees can increase and improve their utilization of SAP data, allowing them to make better
business decisions more quickly.
For example, Daiichi Sankyo Europe4 implemented a Duet Enterprise solution that allows users
to enter accounting data quickly into Microsoft Office forms. Because users were already
familiar with the standard Microsoft Office user interface, they did not need extensive retraining
to learn the new system. Online validation during data entry also reduced errors and improved
the quality of data in the system.
Save Time and Reduce Training for IT
With Duet Enterprise, IT professionals are not required to deploy yet another technology stack
or platform and later follow up with install-update-upgrade cycles. IT professionals also do not
need extensive training on new development tools: Ongoing training investments in ABAP and
Microsoft .NET technologies allow IT to perform all management, operations, security, and
support tasks required to deploy and maintain Duet Enterprise applications.
Further, Duet Enterprise provides the building blocks for IT to create powerful business
solutions without the need for writing code. In addition to eliminating the time required to
write and test code, this ability negates the need for code maintenance cycles as new SAP
versions are deployed.
For example, when Capgemini5 needed to build a purchase order workflow solution for its
customer GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT), it chose Duet Enterprise. Capgemini’s analysis
revealed that Duet Enterprise would allow IT to develop solutions three to five times faster than
the alternatives.
In any company, the time savings that IT achieves can be redirected toward performing highvalue functions. The IT department can focus on efforts that provide strategic value to the
business rather than on routine tasks common in the life of an IT professional.
Take Advantage of Existing Investments
Most solutions designed to make SAP data and processes commonly available in the enterprise
are incomplete at best, as they require investments in both new platforms and new skills. Duet
Enterprise intuitively addresses this challenge because SAP and Microsoft Office tools are
deployed and widely used in a large majority of enterprises worldwide. With Duet Enterprise,
companies do not need to invest in new technologies, nor do they need to train IT or end users
4
5
Daiichi-Sankyo Case Study: Teaming Microsoft SharePoint and SAP Applications through Duet Enterprise
Capgemini Case Study: GT Advanced Technologies - Getting more from SAP using ERP+ with Duet Enterprise
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 8
in substantively new technologies. In addition, companies do not need to invest precious cycles
(for both the business and IT) to consider, evaluate, procure, and purchase new technologies.
The benefit is clear: When a new Duet Enterprise workspace is rolled out or a new application is
released, employees can use the capabilities immediately, without downtime to learn a new
program or software. This facilitates rapid adoption and maximizes the value that companies
can extract from pre-existing investments in SAP and Microsoft tools.
For example, when Omnicell6 decided to deploy Duet Enterprise for its sales force, the primary
reason was because information could be extracted from the SAP customer relationship
management (CRM) system and then displayed on Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Outlook.
Both tools were already implemented and in use, and Omnicell was able to make centralized
and current sales data available to its sales teams.
Achieve Longevity with a Future-Proof Platform
Both Microsoft and SAP fully understand the significance of rolling out a product and providing
an end-to-end approach to ensure that enterprises are successful at achieving their business
outcomes. This includes providing a solid roadmap, manageability features, security
considerations, and operational capabilities that are essential to a successful enterprise
deployment.
>>>
Duet Enterprise is built on a flexible standards-based architecture. This commitment to
standards-based technology ensures ongoing support and gives partners the ability to build
next-generation solutions with the Duet Enterprise platform—without the need for extensive
coding. With standards-based architecture and no-code business solutions, enterprises
simultaneously can reduce costs and make SAP data and
selection process was
processes more accessible to end users.
The
very intense and robust
because we wanted to make
sure that we made the
investment in the right
solution that we were going
to be able to use long term.
Teresa A. Suganski, Director of Enterprise
Applications, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
Finally, Duet Enterprise is jointly developed by Microsoft and
SAP, two world-class software companies who have worked
together for the last 20 years, This implies that future
versions of Duet Enterprise will continue to interoperate with
future versions of Microsoft and SAP products. Both
companies are dedicated to maintaining their investments in
the Duet Enterprise platform, and customers can be assured
that it will be supported and upgraded on an ongoing basis.
With the recent addition of support for SharePoint Online
and Office 365, Microsoft also has already demonstrated its
commitment to supporting the Duet Enterprise platform for all future versions of the Microsoft
products, whether they are deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration.
For example, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals7 enacted an extremely rigorous process for selecting a
solution for its human resources (HR) benefits enrollment. After evaluating all options,
6
7
Omnicell Case Study: Healthcare Solutions Provider Eases Customer Data Collection, Boosts Agility
SAP Insider Webinar: How to Shorten Time-to-Value with Partner Solutions Built on Duet Enterprise Foundation
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 9
Ironwood chose Cordis Solutions to implement Duet Enterprise as the most capable solution
that would grow with the company’s requirements.
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 10
DUET ENTERPRISE OVERVIEW
Duet Enterprise includes four elements that can be used to create targeted solutions: site templates,
prebuilt components, building blocks for management and support, and development tools. Figure 1
shows the components of Duet Enterprise, as well as related Microsoft and SAP tools.
Figure 1: Components of Duet Enterprise and Microsoft and SAP tools
Site Templates
Consisting of web pages and web parts, ready-to-use site templates allow end users to rapidly create
collaboration workspaces. With these site templates, employees can create workspaces for any of the
following out-of-the-box SAP business objects: Customer, Employee, Product, Customer Inquiry, or
Customer Quote—all at the click of a button. Site templates in Duet Enterprise use synchronized single
sign-on between SharePoint and SAP. Data is populated in SharePoint through SharePoint Business
Connectivity Services (BCS) using SAP NetWeaver.
Prebuilt Components
In addition to site templates, Duet Enterprise includes other prebuilt, ready-to-use components that
speed the creation of special-purpose solutions:

Duet Enterprise Reporting allows end users to retrieve SAP reports directly from SharePoint and
Office applications. End users can subscribe to, schedule, and receive automatic delivery of
reports in all formats supported by SAP.

Duet Profile allows users to enrich user profiles in SharePoint with HR data from SAP.

Enterprise Collaboration features in SharePoint (such as shareable documents, discussion
forums, blogs, and wikis) can be used to collaborate around an SAP business object (such as
Customer, Employee, and Product).
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 11

Duet Enterprise Sites provides ready-to-use Duet Enterprise site definition templates for the five
specific SAP business objects. Microsoft SharePoint Designer can be used to easily modify these
templates and create new ones.

Duet Enterprise Workflow allows user decision steps in SAP workflows to flow into Microsoft
Outlook and SharePoint as workflow tasks. These tasks then can be disseminated through email
templates. This means that action can be taken on the tasks through a message in Outlook or
from a workflow site in SharePoint, thereby removing the need for a user to log on to SAP.
Building Blocks for Manageability and Support
Duet Enterprise provides several building blocks for enhancing the manageability and supportability of
customer data and processes:

Administration and Support Tools—including Microsoft System Center Operations Manager,
SAP Computing Center Management System (CCMS), and SAP Solution Manager—are used to
manage Duet Enterprise and minimize training requirements for IT teams. Duet Enterprise
provides tools that enable administrators to trace a message through its communication path
using standard Microsoft and SAP monitoring and support features, as well as to monitor the
status of applications, deployment components, and users’ logon/logoff activity.

Security and Single Sign-On capabilities help to ensure that Duet Enterprise users have highly
secure access to all data residing in SAP or Microsoft applications. These capabilities are
implemented with mapping tables in Duet Enterprise that map SharePoint user accounts to SAP
user accounts. More granular privileges are enabled using graphically intuitive SharePoint tools
and data ported from SAP.

Landscape Management capabilities permit Duet Enterprise to enable failover scenarios, use
mechanisms such as load balancing, and connect to multiple back-end systems.

Application Lifecycle Management tools and practices allow the entire lifecycle of application
components to be maintained through the commonly understood stages of Expose, Compose,
Consume, Deploy, and Innovate. It is important to note that application components can include
Microsoft or SAP products, components of Duet Enterprise that run in SAP, or even customdeveloped elements.

Offline Support is enabled within Duet Enterprise by allowing selected data elements (such as
contact information) to be extracted from SAP and stored in Outlook or SharePoint in an offline
mode. Offline data has the same security protections and encryption as online data.
Development Tools
Duet Enterprise uses standard development tools for the Microsoft and SAP platforms:

Microsoft SharePoint Designer enables power users to create new sites, applications, workflows,
and document lists.

Microsoft Visual Studio and .NET development environments can be used to build components
for Duet Enterprise applications, including Microsoft Silverlight, HTML5, Outlook Task Panes,
custom user interfaces, and advanced business logic.

ABAP Workbench is used with the service consumption layer in SAP NetWeaver to implement
web services invoked through BCS to communicate between SharePoint and SAP.
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 12
EXAMPLES OF PARTNER SOLUTIONS
Duet Enterprise provides a foundation for the extensibility of solutions that combine the power of data
residing in SAP applications with the ease-of-use and familiarity of Microsoft tools. SI and ISV partners use
this foundation, along with their real-world knowledge of the needs of enterprise customers, to craft
innovative and long-term solutions.
When partners build solutions using Duet Enterprise, they know that the applications will function, with
minimum customization, in another Duet Enterprise environment. This allows them to focus on
developing customer-specific features rather than rebuilding the foundational elements for every
customer.
Microsoft and SAP have worked closely with partners to build a variety of solutions tailored to specific
customer scenarios. The solutions created by partners span all industries and functional spaces, including
HR, CRM, Procurement, Finance, Manufacturing, and others. Three of these solutions are highlighted on
the following pages.
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 13
SAP CRM Solution Built By Fujitsu for Omnicell
>>>
Challenge: Omnicell8 provides automation solutions for healthcare facilities. While on the road, the
Omnicell sales force is frequently disconnected from the Internet. Historically, sales contacts and activity
information were fragmented across a variety of locations. Sales contacts were captured as paper business
cards, through third-party contact tools on mobile
devices, or in Outlook. Sales activity was captured in
We went from distributed, nonemail messages, day planners, or the SAP CRM system.
centralized contact data to being
Documents existed in email, on SharePoint, or on
able to organize and categorize individual laptops.
the contact data in one system.
Having a centralized repository of
customer information is critical to
improving the efficiency of our
sales and marketing operations.
Rob Johnson, IT Manager, Omnicell
This fragmented sales information prevented
executives from gaining a 360-degree view of the sales
cycle, increased the risk of the loss of important
account-related information when sales personnel
departed, and hindered marketing teams attempting
to access the latest information for demandgeneration campaigns.
Solution: Omnicell selected SI partner Fujitsu to
deploy a Duet Enterprise-based solution that provides the front end of
Microsoft Outlook on top of SAP CRM. With direct integration and
automatic updates to SAP CRM, the Outlook interface enables sales
personnel to add or modify customer contact information in Outlook,
input tasks in Outlook, forward emails to an SAP CRM account, and run
sales reports directly from a SharePoint-based intranet portal.
Benefits: Omnicell has seen remarkable benefits from implementing Duet
Enterprise. The easy and familiar interface of Microsoft Outlook provides
a standardized mode for capturing data in SAP CRM. Running sales
reports that access SAP data from SharePoint is quick, and the reports are
meaningful because all data is being captured in a centralized and
organized manner. In addition, marketing campaigns are efficient and
targeted because they are based on accurate information.
8
Omnicell Case Study: Healthcare Solutions Provider Eases Customer Data Collection, Boosts Agility
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 14
SAP HR Solution Built by Cordis for Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
>>>
Challenge: Ironwood Pharmaceuticals9 is an entrepreneurial company with a passion for discovering,
developing, and delivering human medicines. Ironwood has been growing very rapidly and has more than
500 employees. It is committed to maximizing SAP investments through strategic solutions that
encourage strong user acceptance and utilization,
To have a partner and a product, support business processes, and increase functionality.
both in Cordis and Duet
Enterprise, that are nimble and
able to be easily configured
was really important to us.
Teresa A. Suganski, Director of Enterprise
Applications, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
Ironwood HR required a highly configurable, branded,
customized, intuitive, and user-friendly employee
interface to manage annual enrollment for benefits.
Due to its strong growth, Ironwood also wanted to
build out this system in the long term to support
employee self-service and handle ongoing changes to
personal data and benefits.
Solution: Ironwood conducted an elaborate selection
process to select the right product and partner, ultimately choosing ISV
partner Cordis Solutions to implement a Duet Enterprise solution. Cordis
utilized Duet Enterprise to deploy myData and myCompensation
applications, which allow employees to select health insurance, flexible
spending accounts, life insurance, and accidental death and
dismemberment benefits as part of their annual enrollment process. In
addition, Ironwood intends to extend the solution to other HR functions,
such as performance management.
Benefits: During deployment of the myData and myCompensation
solutions, Cordis obtained complete user acceptance sign-off from
Ironwood within an unprecedented six weeks. In addition, the ability of
Duet Enterprise to surface SAP HR information in Microsoft SharePoint is
expected to provide rich benefits to HR users at Ironwood.
9
SAP Insider Webinar: How to Shorten Time-to-Value with Partner Solutions Built on Duet Enterprise Foundation
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 15
PO Solution Built by Capgemini for GT Advanced Technologies
>>>
Challenge: GT Advanced Technologies10 (GTAT) is a leading global manufacturer with manufacturing
operations that require the company to purchase large amounts of raw materials; therefore, employees
must handle more than 300 purchase orders (POs) every day. However, the GTAT PO approval process
was not standardized across the company and took an
inordinate amount of managers’ time.
Our executive teams and
mobile users now have the
ability to review and approve
purchase orders from outside
of the SAP environment, and
from their mobile devices
while travelling. This has
greatly improved the
purchase order approval
process.
Tom Doyle, VP of Information Technology,
GTAT
Although GTAT had deployed SAP for the PO approval
process, managers were not using it extensively. While SAP
provides tremendous capabilities to power users, it was
difficult for the managers, who are occasional users of the
system, to learn and navigate the native screens to perform
approval tasks.
Solution: Capgemini designed, developed, and delivered a
PO approval portal based on Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft
SharePoint, and Duet Enterprise—with Duet Enterprise
acting as a fully integrated bridge between SAP and
Microsoft technologies. With this system, POs in SAP are
synced with SharePoint, effectively in real time. End users
can easily create, view, and approve or reject POs using the
familiar Microsoft interface.
When a PO is presented for approval, PO details and
contextual information appear together on a single screen,
facilitating quick and accurate decision-making. Besides
providing senior managers with a dashboard that displays
up-to-date PO data, the solution also offers bulk approve
and reject operations.
Benefits: With Duet Enterprise, GTAT implemented a
standardized and streamlined PO process across the
company. In addition, GTAT managers now can review and
approve POs from their mobile devices while they are
outside the office.
10
Capgemini Case Study: GT Advanced Technologies - Getting more from SAP using ERP+ with Duet Enterprise
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 16
IT BENEFITS OF DUET ENTERPRISE
There are a number of compelling considerations for IT while implementing Duet Enterprise. These
considerations range from simplified deployment through add-ons to streamlined security, management,
and support.
Upgrade with Minimal Effort
Duet Enterprise is deployed by adding capabilities to existing platforms. That is, no new platforms are
required to be deployed. Duet Enterprise add-ons must be installed on SAP NetWeaver and Microsoft
SharePoint instances that use existing capabilities, but no changes are required on client applications. The
ability of SAP NetWeaver Gateway to abstract SAP version changes from external applications that rely on
SAP data and processes saves time and effort for IT departments.
Unlock the Strategic Potential of IT
Duet Enterprise allows IT departments to focus on value-added activities instead of daily low-end tasks.
With the framework provided by Duet Enterprise, end users can own and manage simple tasks, such as
creating product-focused workspaces, without having to engage IT. The framework also enables IT to roll
out useful and high-quality applications faster by using prebuilt components.
Plus, the ability to deploy Duet Enterprise in the cloud means that IT departments are not required to
manage new hardware and software infrastructure associated with Microsoft Office and SharePoint. This
means that IT professionals can focus on measuring and monitoring the quality of service rather than, for
example, provisioning additional memory due to slow email delivery.
Simplify Development and Maintenance with Existing Technologies
Duet Enterprise is built on technologies that are proven and familiar to IT departments. Enhancing and
maintaining it requires only existing tools and well-known frameworks, platforms, and development
environments. IT teams do not need to learn new skills to work with Duet Enterprise; their existing skills in
Microsoft .NET and SAP development are sufficient.
From an application perspective, Duet Enterprise extends the use of standard forms of information, such
as SAP roles and profiles. Similarly, Duet Enterprise can deem processes and workflows as standard forms
of information that can be surfaced and used from within SharePoint and Outlook.
Streamline Administration with Common Management Tools
A major benefit of Duet Enterprise is that the management tools required to administer Microsoft and
SAP are the same tools that can manage Duet Enterprise components. These tools—Microsoft System
Center Operations Manager, SAP CCMS, and SAP Solution Manager—have been used, tested, and refined
over many years. With Duet Enterprise, IT professionals do not need to gain new coding skills to develop
applications, and IT administrators do not need to learn a whole new management stack.
The single sign-on authentication implemented in Duet Enterprise provides an important additional
benefit: IT professionals are not required to build and maintain yet another custom authentication
mechanism because the capability is built and maintained out-of-the-box and works seamlessly with SAP
ERP and Microsoft Office productivity tools.
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 17
CONCLUSION
Microsoft and SAP have jointly created Duet Enterprise to unite the intuitive user interfaces of Microsoft
Office and Microsoft SharePoint with the power of SAP applications. Fundamentally, this enables business
users to access SAP data and processes more seamlessly, and makes it easier for IT departments to deploy
and maintain relevant business solutions. In addition, Duet Enterprise provides many other business
benefits, including enhanced user productivity, reduced training for end users and IT, and better platform
adoption and longevity.
With Duet Enterprise, business users can access relevant data using tools that are familiar and
comfortable, helping to increase both productivity and user adoption. Likewise, because Duet Enterprise
can be implemented on-premises, in the cloud, or as a hybrid model, users have the flexibility to access
SAP data whenever and wherever, using any device.
In addition, training for both end users and IT is streamlined. Because Duet Enterprise uses well-known
Microsoft Office and SharePoint interfaces, end users do not need training on new tools or screens.
Moreover, with self-service tools based on these interfaces, Duet Enterprise enables users to increase their
use of SAP data and improve their productivity. For IT, training is simplified because there is no need to
learn new development tools. IT professionals can maintain Duet Enterprise applications using their
existing skills with ABAP and .NET technologies. Also, because Duet Enterprise-based solutions can be
created without writing code, IT can redirect time traditionally spent writing, testing, and maintaining
code toward performing high-value, strategic functions for the business.
Finally, because Duet Enterprise takes advantage of existing investments in platform technologies and
employee skill sets, companies do not need to invest in new tools or expensive training programs. This
promotes rapid end-user adoption and negates the time and effort required for IT to research, purchase,
and implement new technologies. Further, both Microsoft and SAP are committed to maintaining Duet
Enterprise as a future-proof platform. Built on a flexible standards-based architecture, the Duet Enterprise
platform delivers the ability to build next-generation, no-code solutions and ensures ongoing support
across versions of Microsoft and SAP products.
Microsoft and SAP | Business Value of Duet Enterprise | 18