Microsoft Corp. and SAP AG today provided an update on Project Mendocino, the joint effort to develop a software product to allow users to access SAP's software through Microsoft Office, saying that the product would reach general availability in June, one month earlier than they originally predicted.
In a Web-based press conference today, the two companies also said the software product has been named Duet for Microsoft Office and SAP. The two said further that following Duet's availability next month, they would provide later this year what they called "value packs" for the software that would address customer relationship management and supplier relationship management capabilities.
Project Mendocino was announced in April 2005 in Copenhagen at SAP's annual Sapphire conference. The objective of the project is to make it easier for users to access the mySAP ERP system by allowing entry through the familiar Microsoft desktop interface that so many knowledge workers already use in their companies. SAP's goals were to enhance and simplify the user experience and also grow the population of people who use the SAP system.
At the time of the announcement, SAP said the software would begin to be available in the fourth quarter of 2005. In December, SAP said a "preview" of the software was being made available to 40 customers and 10 partner companies, and that an additional 50 customers would be announced in April, followed by general availability in July.
Today, SAP and Microsoft said that Duet would be generally available in June and would support four business processes designed around employee administration. They are: budget monitoring, which will give managers access to financial data in SAP software; time management, for recording work and billable hours using the Outlook calendar and then synchronizing such information with mySAP ERP; leave management, to enable employees to submit leave requests and management approvals through Outlook; and organization management, which will enable employees and managers to access HR information and tasks in the Outlook environment.
The number of companies in the early release program for the software has grown to about 100 joint customers. Microsoft and SAP cited three companies in their announcement today: Atmel, a manufacturer of microcontrollers, logic, memory, and radio frequency components; Infosys, a consultancy; and Kimberly-Clark.
The two Duet value packs the companies are jointly planning for the second half of this year will address five business processes coming from mySAP ERP and mySAP Business Suite applications in CRM and SRM. The "scenarios" described are: recruitment management, travel management, analytics, purchasing management, and sales activity management.
SAP and Microsoft said the value packs will be compatible with the next release of mySAP ERP and the 2007 release of the Office system. They will support English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese languages.
In a question and answer session following prepared remarks, Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, declined to provide specific pricing for Duet or reveal how revenues will be shared between the two companies, saying only that SAP and Microsoft will both sell and price the product.
"We each set the price and tell the customer which company to get in touch with," Raikes said.
Asked whether value packs were planned for specific industries, Raikes and Shai Agassi, SAP executive board member and president of the company's Product & Technology Group, said that they expected such needs to be addressed by partners. "We're seeing a bottoms-up emergence of scenarios," Agassi said.
During the press conference, the two executives several times referred to how they have worked together over the years, noting that Duet represents the first time the two companies have jointly developed a product. "It has been a growing relationship for many years, almost 15 years," Raikes said.
But Raikes said twice during the press conference today that work on Duet hasn't been easy. "This was really an ambitious undertaking," he said. "Two companies, two different styles, two different approaches to the market. It's been an incredible year of progress, but, quite frankly, not without challenges."
In fact, Microsoft earlier this year began offering software remarkably similar to Duet via free online downloads. Called Dynamics Snap, the software "plug-ins" give users of Microsoft's Dynamics AX ERP and CRM packages the ability to use Office 2003 to access and share enterprise applications data as well as initiate cross-enterprise collaborative workflows.
While Dynamics Snap is similarly focused, at least initially on time and vacation management applications, Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) made a concerted effort when the software was unveiled to differentiate it from Duet. For instance, one MBS official pointed out that Dynamics Snap is delivered as "a shared source initiative" to enable Microsoft's independent software development and reseller partners to "build and customize solutions" for their customers.
Asked during the Q&A whether the working relationship would result in Microsoft acquiring SAP -- which the two companies had discussed but later then dropped during the height of Oracle's takeover battle with PeopleSoft -- Agassi said, "Not everything is a zero-sum game and not everything needs to end up as an acquisition ..."
"I'm just pleased we can work together as two companies," Raikes added.