Systems integrator and IT consultant Capgemini late last week announced an initiative aimed at delivering greater productivity to customers running both SAP and Microsoft business applications.
The initiative, dubbed ERP+, teams Capgemini with Microsoft in what a Capgemini statement called a “multimillion euro initiative” to help manufacturers and other businesses mine more value from their enterprise applications.
The move parallels two recent trends in business technology circles: making complex ERP systems accessible to a broader range of enterprise workers, and enhancing the IT return on investment for companies struggling to cope in downtrodden business markets.
Specifically, through ERP+ Capgemini will use Microsoft Office and SharePoint applications, Windows phone, and Microsoft Application Platform technologies to deliver SAP data to desktop and mobile devices; cut down on duplicate data entry; increase the automation of unstructured work functions; and help companies stretch IT budgets by allowing them to forgo additional worker training and reuse Microsoft licenses.
"This alliance addresses our customers' need for integration beyond Microsoft .NET and [SAP] NetWeaver and enables seamless integration that really drives role-based productivity and cost reduction," said Olivier Picard, Capgemini’s chief sales officer, in a statement.
In 2007, SAP and Microsoft rolled out their own interoperability technology, Duet, to allow SAP users to access ERP data and functions via Microsoft productivity tools such as Word and Excel.
Rob Cocorocchia, director of application platform business development at Microsoft, told Managing Automation that the ERP+ agreement differs notably from the Duet initiative. Whereas Duet focuses on pre-developed integration points, ERP+ is a wider-ranging effort to create business value where needed, he said.
A manufacturing worker tasked with checking the condition of a piece of equipment, for instance, would be able to use a Windows Mobile device to access the machine’s schematics, which reside in the SAP system, “enabling that user to access info in a very simple way with limited training,” Cocorocchia said.
The partnership calls for joint investment in “marketing, demand generation, and asset development” in support of Capgemini and Microsoft customers in various industries and locations around the world. Among other things, Camgemini has pledged to create a Center of Excellence for Microsoft–SAP interoperability, train 1,000 of its employees on how to meld the two environments to best effect, create an “accessible” interoperability environment, and develop a suite of accelerators, based on the SharePoint and Windows Mobile platforms, to automate specific industry scenarios.
“We are extremely excited to partner with Capgemini to help as many of these customers maximize employee productivity, extend SAP utilization, and further reduce TCO via SharePoint and Microsoft's mobility solutions," said Simon Witts, corporate vice president of the Enterprise and Partner Group at Microsoft, in the statement.