Duet Business Value

Bringing together the worlds of desktop productivity and enterprise applications

4/9/2007

Table of ContentsExecutive Summary....................................................................................................................................3

Challenges for Information Workers in the Enterprise..............................................................................4

Duet brings enterprise data and processes to the IW desktop..................................................................6

Business value enabled by Duet.................................................................................................................9

Examples of Duet creating value in business scenarios...........................................................................10

Duet Simplifies Calendar Management................................................................................................10

Leave Management..........................................................................................................................10

Time Management............................................................................................................................12

Reports & Analytics...............................................................................................................................14

Sales Management...............................................................................................................................16

Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................18

Appendix A – Additional Resources and How to Buy...............................................................................19

Appendix B – System Requirements for Duet..........................................................................................20

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Executive Summary

Information workers are operating in an environment where there is increased focus on corporate governance, faster and more accurate decision making, increased productivity, reduced layers of management, and a need for wider adoption and more rapid implementation of enterprise systems. Work is performed 24/7 by groups of workers collaborating across organizational and geographic boundaries. Task completion requires increasing volumes of both structured and unstructured data from disparate applications and data repositories. These types of requirements put pressure on the infrastructure/systems/applications to support information worker needs. These kinds of challenges require a new generation of information work tools: ones that simplify rather than complicate, and automate many of the low-level tasks and decisions that currently clutter the lives and waste the time of information workers. A single unified user experience should emerge with one user interface for each enterprise application or tool.

Duet™, a software solution developed jointly by SAP® and Microsoft®, enables users to enjoy the benefits of SAP enterprise software without leaving the ubiquitous Microsoft Office desktop environment. Duet hides the complexity of the myriad applications and data stores required by information workers each day, enabling workers to concentrate on their tasks rather than on accessing and manipulating multiple applications and data repositories.

Providing contextual, role-based information seamlessly to information workers increases worker productivity, improves compliance with processes and regulatory requirements, and enables better decision making. Duet has already developed solutions to meet key business needs in 11 discrete scenarios including Leave Management, Time Management, Reports and Analytics, and Sales Management, among others and more are on the way.

This paper will describe how organizations can realize significant business value by unlocking the power of SAP ERP on the information workers’ desktop through Microsoft Office. [Benefits of $$$$$ from improved compliance, increased compliance and better decision making are being realized. – placeholder for quantifiable examples from existing customers.]

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Challenges for Information Workers in the Enterprise

In the past, information workers were those individuals inside the organization responsible for the production, analysis and distribution of information: the writers, editors, financial analysts, planners and facilitators who were the first adopters of technology such as the word processor, the spreadsheet, email, and presentation software. They performed tasks individually in environments where information was created, stored, shared, and analyzed primarily within functional units. Employees within a functional group sat in relative proximity to one another and accessed applications and data from their desktops. Because of the way they worked, information workers of the past were primarily internally focused in their work process.

The information workers of the past existed in a world of paper and many manual processes and standalone systems. They did not operate in settings where they were required to pull information and work with data from multiple databases and systems nor did they have access to such vast pools of information or data that exist today. If data was required from unfamiliar applications or databases, IT resources or other “power users” would be called upon to run ad hoc data enquiries or reports. The results of these queries would then be cut and paste or manually keyed by the requestor into their own applications. Sharing of information and collaboration on work product was usually limited to other members of their functional group. Feedback from other stakeholders was usually in the form of markups on a paper document or comments in an email or delivered verbally.

Today, information pervades every aspect of an organization, making the majority of workers from executive decision-makers to customer-service representatives, and skilled professionals, all information workers. Unlike their counterparts in the past, information workers now work in cross-functional teams spanning organizational and geographic boundaries. They must collaborate on an ongoing basis with internal and external team members, partners, customers and suppliers. Information workers must have access to information anywhere and anytime. They are working in mobile, globally dispersed, always on workplaces. Employees are faced with working with rapidly growing volumes of unstructured data and content in increasingly fluid environments. However, demands for speed of execution and worker productivity, as well as requirements imposed by external partners, customers, and regulators, underline the need for highly structured business processes. Organizations that cannot provide their employees with instant access to critical enterprise system information in a familiar, user-friendly interface can be adversely impacted by noncompliance with company policies and external regulations, not fulfilling requirements of partners/suppliers/customers, decreased employee productivity, inefficient workflow and poor use of knowledge.

Although the characteristics of information workers have changed markedly, the computing environment has remained virtually the same. The user must adapt to the needs of the computer and work in a computing environment that is still largely composed of standalone, enterprise applications and systems, in which structured and unstructured data is often spread between multiple applications.

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Applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), HR management, supply chain management (SCM), and content management are separate packaged applications. Each provides its own user experience or user interface, its own business logic and rules, and its own application infrastructure. To access information in these enterprise applications, comply with automated processes, and complete tasks, information workers must use many different applications, ranging from desktop productivity tools to business systems. Information workers must routinely manually and mentally integrate stand alone applications and data into their work environment to complete their tasks. Interfaces with back-end applications are commonly provided with a Web based user experience and accessed through a portal. While a big improvement from the old ‘green screen’ application interface of the past, these still lack business process context for information workers and suffer from user experience variations because the underlying applications remain stand alone with their own command structure, logic, and data stores.

The multitude of interfaces, formats, compatibility issues, logins, and passwords across the numerous applications that an information worker may have to navigate to complete their daily tasks is daunting. Some of the primary reasons organizations deploy enterprise applications are to improve productivity and to ensure effective decision making and compliance. However, if all employees are not accessing these applications and the automated processes enabled by them, the intended benefits are not realized and best practices encompassed in enterprise application investments are not utilized. Today's workplace is an interactive, process-driven environment that requires enterprise applications and an application infrastructure that is natural and adaptive and that aggregates the different enterprise applications information workers must access during the workday.

Lacking a unified link between a company’s structured business processes and accurate information can lead to reduced worker productivity, unsound decision making and non-compliance with company policies. Industry analysts estimate that information workers spend up to 30% of their working day looking for data they need. This time spent searching for data could be spent doing tasks with specific value to the organization, such as personnel reviews, sales analysis, budgeting, forecasting, project planning, or interacting with customers. Information workers’ tools need to evolve to meet the emerging challenges of information overload. Any solution that is developed to increase information worker productivity should avoid multiple system, interfaces and features for accessing data and address prioritization, context, and intuitive ways to visualize and manage volumes of complex data. The solution should improve interactions across applications and between workers while hiding complexity

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Drive and enforce business processesStructuredPredictableHighly enforceable

Drive individual and group productivityUnstructuredUn-predictableNot easily enforceable

from users – allowing information workers to focus on their tasks rather than manipulation of multiple applications to find and make use of data.

Duet brings enterprise data and processes to the IW desktop

A jointly developed and designed product from Microsoft and SAP—Duet for Microsoft Office and SAP software—delivers information workers productivity by uniting the ease of use of Microsoft Office with the organizational, process-driven power of the mySAP™ ERP application. While many information workers conduct a large percentage of their work within the Microsoft Office environment, enterprise applications, such as mySAP, have historically been accessed through a separate interface, requiring users to transition back and forth between Office and SAP in order to perform enterprise tasks. Duet is designed to resolve these issues by enabling users to easily and quickly interact with SAP business processes and data via Office.

Duet enables the information worker to think about what tasks and processes need to be completed, rather than which applications and information sources need to be accessed, to support task completion. Reducing the multitude of applications to a smaller number of tasks that are executed through one interface of interoperable applications and information sources greatly reduces the complexity to the information worker. This solution masks the back-end processes from information workers, allowing them to focus on their core tasks and to be less distracted by toggling between multiple applications, searching through mountains of data, and cutting and pasting information. The user experience can be personalized in Duet; it can be customized to the role of information workers, and the relevant contextual security and access controls can be enforced, and it can be designed to support a specific task, process, or workflow.

The interface and user experience through Duet are not specific to each application. This means that the information worker can perform a variety of tasks seamlessly, without having to switch from one context to another. Today, information workers often must perform a single task using several applications. The commands and interface changes as users switch from one application to another, cutting and pasting, reformatting, and conforming to the demands of the application. In contrast, through Duet a single familiar Office Outlook® messaging and collaboration client environment allows information workers to eliminate many unproductive, repetitive efforts.

With Duet, information workers have all their task-based data – project notifications, meetings, line-of-business applications, contacts and schedule – accessible within a single view, whether they’re at their desk, using a PDA, travelling or telecommuting. Duet allows information workers to use a familiar Microsoft Office environment to access selected SAP business processes and data. This improved and

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flexible access to dedicated SAP application functionality will help companies who use Duet to save time and money, increase process compliance, and improve decision making.

Duet simplifies employees’ ability to interact with business processes and data which enables consistent and proper use of corporate policies. By bringing together the worlds of business productivity applications and enterprise applications, Duet provides employees and managers with simple and timely access to relevant, contextual business information. Duet also increases the return on investment (ROI) of enterprise software implementations by reducing employee training costs and accelerating user adoption.

Duet is deployed with familiar user interfaces that require minimal training and allow information workers to do their jobs more quickly and efficiently. Information workers will be empowered with timely access to relevant, contextual business information that is not dependent upon manual processes and multiple, complex systems. Through Duet, information workers have immediate access to the right information at the right time using preferred interfaces. Duet provides value to the organization because Duet improves productivity by utilizing software that allows employees to execute their own business transactions, inquiries, reports, and data entry, allowing members of the IT and line of business departments (e.g. HR, Sales, Purchasing) to focus on meaningful tasks.

The following Table 1 highlights the Duet scenarios identified to date. More scenarios, languages, and enhanced capabilities will be developed based on customer input.

Table 1: Summary of Duet Scenarios Defined to Date

Leave Management Using Duet, employees can add and process leave requests as calendar items that comply with the approval guidelines and enterprise-defined processes.

Time Management Duet lets information workers use the Outlook calendar to report time which is recorded in the mySAP ERP application, streamlining time entry while ensuring time-reporting compliance.

Organization Management Duet organization management enables employees and managers to use the Microsoft Outlook Contacts interface to access to up-to-date human resource information such as compensation, organizational structure, open positions and training opportunities. Access to specific information is managed and controlled to by the SAP standard security and authentication privileges.

Budget Monitoring Duet budget monitoring provides a wealth of tools and information for tracking, analyzing, and acting on individual and group budgeting data all from within Microsoft Office. Users can receive scheduled and event driven reports from mySAP

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ERP in their Outlook Inbox.Reports and Analytics Duet Reports and Analytics allows users to access scheduled

and ad hoc reports through Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Excel, and drill down to key performance metrics through personalized views.

Travel Management Duet travel management allows users to research and book travel that complies with corporate policies as well as facilitate obtaining travel approval.

Sales Management Duet sales management allows sales resources to use Microsoft Outlook to manage accounts and contacts, record sales activities, obtain price approvals, and access sales analytics information from the mySAP Customer Relationship Management application.

Demand Planning Access demand plans from Microsoft Excel, analyze plans offline, and upload revised plans from Microsoft Excel into the mySAP SCM demand planning module.

Purchasing Management Duet purchasing management provides users with the ability to use Microsoft Office to approve purchase requests, understand spending patterns, and analyze supplier performance contained in the mySAP Supplier Relationship Management application in a rapid and cost-efficient manner.

Recruitment Management Duet recruitment management allows users to schedule interviews and follow up actions through Microsoft Office. Hiring Managers can view all candidate information and feedback directly through Outlook.

Legal Contract Authoring Duet legal contract authoring provides a simplified way to create dynamic contracts in Microsoft Word and ensures compliance through operational and legal synchronization and automated workflow.

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Business value enabled by Duet

Information workers are increasingly caught in the contradictory situation of working in less structured ways but with more structure being demanded form internal processes and external requirements and regulations. When these employees can access enterprise applications and data from within the familiar environment of Microsoft Office applications, organizations can realize business value thru:

Improved compliance

Increased productivity

Better decision making

Table 2 below summarizes the benefits of Duet and how they can improve business key performance indicators (KPIs).

Table 2: Summary of Key Duet Business Benefits

Duet enables information workers to access enterprise information and adhere to processes and policies while working the way that is most natural and productive for them.

Current Information Worker Issue Duet Benefit Key Performance Indicator

Increasingly unstructured work environment with increasing internal and external demands for adherence to process and policy

Automated workflow from within Outlook ensures process compliance

Duet provides access to up-to-date company policies through Outlook interface

Reduce audit costs

Increase gross margin

Improve performance to budget

Avoid cost of non-compliance

Accessing enterprise data requires employees to leave productivity applications and access multiple back-end applications

Enterprise data is available through Outlook and can be downloaded directly into Excel®

Reduce training costs

Reduce time spent searching for information

Reduce time spent switching between multiple back-end applications

Reduce time spent waiting for power users to fulfill information requests

Comprehensive and up-to-date enterprise information is not available whenever and wherever required hampering decision making

Up-to-date enterprise data delivered to Outlook through Duet is available to users on-line and off-line

Reduce sales cycle

Increase productivity

Reduce purchasing cycle

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Examples of Duet creating value in business scenarios

SAP and Microsoft have developed and packaged a number of pre-built scenarios representing typical business processes. These scenarios consist of key business processes leveraging ERP, SCM and CRM to deliver broad analytics and easy-to-use reports to Microsoft Outlook, thereby providing in-context data to information workers. This paper will illustrate how Duet can enable significant business value in the following scenarios: Calendar Management (Leave and Time Management); Reports and Analytics; and, Sales Management.

Duet Simplifies Calendar Management

The Outlook Calendar has become a sort of touchstone for many information workers. They begin and conclude their days viewing their time commitments and planning their workdays in the Calendar. Activities such as setting meeting times, scheduling phone calls, and planning annual leave are all performed through the Calendar. Duet enables workers to leverage the information recorded as a natural part of the information worker’s day in the Calendar to simplify and improve processes such as leave management and recording and managing time for project tracking and billing purposes. Two scenarios, Leave Management and Time Management, have been developed to improve compliance, increase productivity and enable better decision making by leveraging the Outlook Calendar to interface with back-end ERP applications and business processes.

Leave Management

Many companies and their employees have difficulties managing annual leave and other types of paid time off (PTO). Employees often do not know the amount of paid time off they have accrued to date and may not be able to access this information in the ERP HR application. This lack of visibility and access can lead to employees requesting and taking time off that they have not yet earned, or alternatively, spending unproductive time requesting HR personnel to look up their accrued leave information. Managers responsible for approving the employee requests for paid time off have similar difficulties determining whether or not the employee is entitled to the leave. In addition, it can be very difficult for

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Example of business benefit for a company using Duet Leave Management to reduce overtime costs due to improved decision making with better access to information.

Company Variables Calculation of Business BenefitAverage IW annual salary 75,000$ Curent cost of overtime due to poor vacation scheduling 625,000$ Overtime premium 50% Hours of overtime due to poor vacation scheduling 32,000 Number of projects completed annually 5,000 Overtime salary premium per hour 20$ Average number of hours per project 800Percent of project hours paid at overtime rate 8% Percent reduction in overtime with better information access 50%Percent of overtime due to shortage of staff from poor vacation scheduling 10%

Savings in overtime with better information about vacation scheduling 312,500$

the manager to make an informed decision about granting a leave request versus meeting resource demands of the business. Without timely information about future resource requirements at hand, a manager is likely to acquiesce to a leave request in order to maintain the morale and good will of the employee. If resource constraints are discovered later, the manager will typically have to enlist other employees to work overtime to meet delivery deadlines or risk losing customer goodwill, or even incurring financial penalties, for late completion.

Using Duet, employees can add and process leave requests as Outlook Calendar items that comply with the approval guidelines and enterprise-defined processes. Duet gives the enterprise an array of leave types to choose from, each reflecting the same definitions that exist in the human resource policies implemented in the mySAP ERP HR application. All leave parameters, such as vacation allowances or sick days, can be configured to align with a company’s individual policy.

An employee requests leave by selecting the desired time in the Outlook Calendar. The leave management functionality then triggers a workflow that automates the approval process. For example, the workflow sends an alert to the employee’s manager, along with links to contextual information both on the employee and relevant company policy, giving the manager all information necessary to make the decision. The manager can view leave plans for all employees in the work group in order to proactively manage adequate resource availability. Once the request is approved, Duet automatically sends the response to the employee's Inbox, updates all related calendars and submits the data to the mySAP ERP application. Table 3 below summarizes how Duet can enable business benefits in Leave Management.

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“12,500 holiday days to manage per year-- Potentially up to £8 - £10m consulting fees could be inaccurately forecast. Duet can help with accurate forecast, resource visibility”

Global Consulting Company

Employee calls HR to get leave balance and then fills out leave request form

Approver calls HR to confirm leave availability and check leave plans for other employees

Employee submits request form to approver

Employee checks leave balance and submits request through Outlook

Approver receives leave request in Outlook. Confirms employee leave availability and checks leave plans for all employees through Outlook.

Approver gives approval, email sent to employee with approval, HR system updated with leave information

Previous Leave Request Process

New Process with Duet

Approver gives approval, sends copy of form to employee and a copy to HR to update HR system

Table 3: Duet Simplifies Leave Management

Duet makes it easier for employees and managers to plan and manage leave and other types of paid time off. Access to information through the familiar Outlook interface increases productivity, improves compliance with leave policies, and enables managers to meet resource demands for the business.

Employee Issue Duet Benefit Key Performance Indicator

Lack of access to up-to-date leave accrual information results in employees taking paid time off for which they are not entitled

Improved visibility and access to up-to-date information through Outlook

Automated workflow enforces the approval process

Reduce cost of pto/leave abuse

Avoid cost of restating financial statements

Managers and other leave approvers lack access to information required to make timely decisions

Access to employee leave information from familiar Outlook interface

Automated, Outlook enabled workflow simplifies approval process

Reduced training costs

Reduced time spent searching for information

Reduced HR time spent answering leave enquiries

Difficult for managers to compare employee leave requests against resource requirements

Ability to view up-to-date organization level leave information through Outlook

Reduce overtime cost

Improve performance to schedule and budget

Reduce penalties for late delivery or project completion

Time Management

Many companies that bill customers based upon hours worked struggle to ensure their employees record their time correctly. Entering the wrong billing code can result in penalties or tarnished reputation for over-charging, while conversely, not capturing a billing code for time worked can result in revenue leakage. Employee productivity can be diminished trying to find the correct billing code to use. Staff may wait to enter project billing codes days or even weeks after the work was performed, potentially compromising billing accuracy as well as making it difficult for management to have up-to-date visibility of performance versus budget. Internal auditing of billing can be costly and unproductive.

Some companies have also tried to make it simpler for employees to record their time in timesheet applications like the mySAP Cross Application Time Sheet (CATS) system by adding a web-based front end interface. Unfortunately, many companies lack confidence in these interfaces and require employees to spend unproductive time checking the accuracy of the time that has been recorded in CATS.

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Duet enables information workers to use the Outlook Calendar to report time which is then automatically recorded in CATS, streamlining time entry while ensuring time-reporting compliance. Using Duet, service corporations, departments or any organizations where time and project accounting is important can benefit from personal calendars integrated with enterprise project, program management and accounting systems.

Duet allows end users who track time in Outlook to also get a detailed overview and analytics on how they have allocated their time including their current time balance, weekly allocation and total time assigned per project code. Managers can access up to date information on time billed against project codes enabling better, proactive resource and budget. Table 4 below highlights the business benefits enabled by Duet Time Management.

Table 4: Benefits Enabled by Duet Time Management

Employees can use Duet to capture and record time spent on specific projects while working naturally within the Outlook Calendar.

Employee Issue Duet Benefit Key Performance Indicator

Time consuming to keep track of project costs and record time for multiple projects

Record project code when entering meeting in Outlook calendar

Up-to-date project codes available through Outlook

Reduce audit costs

Eliminate penalties for improper billing

Reduce revenue leakage

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Example of business benefit for a company using Duet Time Management to increase IW productivity by reducing the need for workers to confirm reported hours in back-end Time Sheet application and simplifying managing their time recording.

Company Variables Calculation of Business BenefitAverage IW annual salary 75,000$ Curent cost of IW employees confirming time allocation 338,542$ Number of IW employees 2,500 Percent reduction expected with Duet 90%

Time spent per employee per week (in minutes) confirming proper allocation of reported hours in back-end Time Sheet application 4 Current cost of IW wmployees managing calendr and recording time 1,015,625$ Time spent per employee per week (in minutes) managing calendar and recording time 12 Percent reduction expected with Duet 25%

Benefit of improved IW productivity due to reduced need for workers to check back-end Time Sheet application with Duet 558,594$

Employee performs work for multiple projects over the course of a week

Employee later accounts for time for the week by reviewing his calendar, phoning colleagues, and reviewing documents for appropriate charge codes and enters in front end interface

Employee puts appointments in Outlook calendar, selects project code from Outlook Duet Pane, automatically updating mySAP Cross Application Timesheet (CATS) System

Previous Time Recording Process

New Process with Duet

Employee then checks back-end system to confirm hours are posted correctly

Employee performs work for multiple projects over the course of a week

SAP CATS system

SAP CATS system

Time consuming to check CATS to ensure time was recorded accurately from add-on front end interface

Time recorded in Duet through Outlook calendar is entered directly into CATS

Reduce unproductive staff time spent checking system accuracy

Out of date project billing reports make it difficult to manage resource allocation to stay within budget

Access to up to date project billing and analytics through Outlook

Reduce time spent searching for information

Reduce project overages

Reports & Analytics

Information workers can spend a large portion of their day searching for the information they require in order to perform their jobs and to make key business decisions. The data that information workers rely on has historically been kept in enterprise applications such as Business Intelligence (BI), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), or other transactional applications which were not typically used in the information worker’s normal work flow. Workers often find themselves having to leave their productivity applications such as Word or Excel® and log into ERP applications or the enterprise data warehouse to search for required data out of the context of their process. If the employee is away from the wired office environment they may have to do without critical information or rely upon potentially outdated printed reports. In many cases information workers rely upon IT specialists or other SAP power users to perform ad hoc queries to retrieve data, reducing productivity and adding time to the business process. After finding, or being provided, the needed data, the information worker typically cuts and pastes or manually re-keys the data into a Word document, PowerPoint® presentation, or Excel spreadsheet for further manipulation and analysis.

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Example of business benefit for a company using Duet Reports and Analytics to increase SAP Power User productivity by reducing the need to run ad-hoc data queries for Information Workers due to access to enterprise data through Duet’s Outlook interface.

Company Variables Calculation of Business Benefit

Average SAP Power User annual salary 75,000$ Current cost of SAP Power Users running ad hoc data queries for Information Workers 1,875,000$

Number of SAP Power Users 100 Percent reduction expected with Duet 75%

Percent of SAP Power User time spent running ad hoc data queries for Information Workers 25%

Benefit of improved SAP Power User productivity due to reduced need for running ad hoc data queries due to IW self-service enabled by Duet 1,406,250$

Duet provides extensive reporting and analytics capabilities for accessing up-to-date enterprise information contained in mySAP applications and making it available within the Microsoft Office environment.

Duet users receive in their Outlook Inbox both scheduled reports and requested ad hoc reports populated with data from the mySAP application or SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW). All reports are available for offline use, yet users can still drill into the analytic and source data behind the numbers and distribute reports to other individuals. Duet provides options to preformat and customize analytics and transactional reports as well as dashboards and also populating reports into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for further analysis.

The Reports and Analytics capabilities of Duet leverage SAP Netweaver Business Intelligence. Pre-built, optimized queries for transactional and analytic data stores deliver information in the context in which employees naturally work. The BEx Broadcaster publishes pre-defined reports to user Outlook mailboxes based on a set schedule or events. BEx Analyzer is utilized to generate multiple data views with the capability to connect to backend OLAP. User access is simplified with Single Sign On (SSO) for multiple systems through the Duet Outlook interface. Table 5 below presents examples of how Duet Reports and Analytics can enable business benefits.

Table 5: Duet Reports and Analytics Enables Business Benefits

Employees can use Duet Reports and Analytics to access enterprise data through Outlook and to receive up-to-date scheduled and ad hoc reports including alerts based on pre-defined parameters.

Employee Issue Duet Benefit Key Performance Indicator

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Information worker is preparing a report in Word and needs data from the BI application.

Emails a data request to a SAP power user.

SAP power user receives request for data. When they have available time they process request and email results to requestor.

Information Worker is preparing a report in Word and needs data from the BI application.

Accesses the BI application through the Duet Outlook interface. Downloads required data automatically into Excel spreadsheet for further analysis. Completes report.

Previous Information Worker Information Access Process

New Process with Duet

Information worker receives data. Cuts and pastes relevant data into Excel for further analysis. Finds they need additional data, creates new request for SAP power user.

Employees must be trained to create queries and reports from data warehouse or rely upon power users

Access to up-to-date enterprise data through Outlook

Users can define standard and ad hoc reports and download them from Outlook into Excel for further analysis

Improve productivity

Reduce training costs

Decision makers often rely upon out of date printed reports or have to wait for power users to generate additional data when making decisions

Up-to-date user defined reports delivered through Outlook can be analyzed in Excel, on-line or off-line

Improve decision making with more timely and complete information

Increase productivity

Sales Management

Communications between sales staff and customers are typically unstructured: phone calls, emails, letters, or face to face conversation. The sales staff use Microsoft Word and Powerpoint to create proposals and presentations. The Enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications have comprehensive information resources to help the sales staff, but accessing this data from the application does not fit well into the context in which the sales team works. In addition, for the CRM system to be of value, it requires information to be entered on a timely basis, which can be seen as a non-value added activity by the sales personnel because it entails logging into a system that is not naturally part of their work flow. Furthermore, access to the CRM application is usually limited to those connected to the network and not accessible while on the road or in the customer’s premises. The burden of accessing the CRM out of context to how they naturally work and the potential time requirement of entering source data, and later logging in to the CRM to access it, can diminish the use of the CRM by sales staff and thereby potentially limit the effectiveness of the powerful CRM resource to help increase sales and profitability.

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Duet Sales Management allows sales resources to use Microsoft Outlook to manage accounts and contacts, record sales activities, obtain price approvals, and access sales analytics information from the mySAP Customer Relationship Management application. Information can be downloaded from Outlook directly to Excel for additional analysis. Sales staff productivity on the road is greatly enhanced since Duet makes the CRM data available off-line as well.

Duet enables users to access a customer fact sheet which contains a brief description of the customer including: company locations, business overview, financial summary and industry trends. Key account information from the mySAP CRM system is available including the customer contacts, recent activities, sales orders and quotes. Workflow capabilities support common sales activities include request for pricing approvals. Duet provides sales staff with the power of the CRM application in the seamless context of how they naturally work. Table 6 below describes how Duet Sales Management scenario enables business benefits.

Table 6: Benefits Enabled by Duet Sales Management

Sales staff can use Duet Sales Management to have key customer information delivered to their Outlook Inbox and manipulate and analyze data while off-line.

Employee Issue Duet Benefit Key Performance Indicator

Difficult and time consuming to switch from desktop productivity applications to enterprise CRM application

Access to mySAP CRM application through Outlook

Increase productivity

Increase compliance with pricing process and policies

Sales representative must download and cut and paste

Up-to-date information can be downloaded directly

Increase productivity

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Sales person acesses customer information and data from CRM application. Switches back and forth between CRM and Word and Excel to write proposal

Sales person meets with customer to deliver proposal. Customer asks for revisions.

Sales person accesses CRM application through Outlook, automatically downloads data into Excel. Works within Microsoft Office interface to write proposal

Previous Sales Process

New Process with Duet

Sales person returns to office to update CRM with trip report. Accesses data in CRM and toggles between CRM and Excel. Sales person writes request for discount to sales manager.

Sales manager receives request for discount in Outlook. Reviews customer and budget data in Outlook interface, approves discount request automaticaly updating the CRM

Sales manager reviews discount request. Accesses CRM for customer history. Accessed financial application to review budget. Approves request

Sales person revises proposal and phones or emails customer. Switches to CRM to update with revised proposal info. Waits for customer response

Sales person meets with customer to deliver proposal. Customer asks for revisions.

Sales person works offline with customer data to determine a discount. Logs on to wi-fi in lobby and requests discount though Outlook interface

Sales person provides revised proposal to customer and closes the deal

Example of business benefit for a company using Duet Sales Management to increase the sales conversion rate by reducing the sales cycle.

Company Variables Calculation of Business BenefitCurrent annual revenue 192,280,000$ Average revenue per sales transaction 95,000$ Current revenue lost due to long sales cycle 41,800,000$

Number of propsals submitted per year 8,800 Percent improvement in overall conversion rate due to reduced sales cycle with Duet 2%

Percent of proposals converted to sales 23% Average profit margin 10%

Percent of proposed sales lost due to long sales cycle 5%Increased profit from improved sales conversion rate due to reduced sales cycle enabled by Duet 1,672,000$

customer information or rely upon outdated reports when going on the road

into Excel for manipulation and analysis

Customer information can be accessed off-line

Increase sales

Requests for pricing changing and discounts can be time consuming potentially lengthening the sales cycle resulting in lost sales

Duet automated workflow routs the request to approver’s Outlook inbox and then returns approval to sales representative ensuring compliance to process and reducing turnaround

Increase productivity

Reduce sales cycle

Increase sales

Conclusion

The nature of work has been changing at a frenetic pace. Information workers must perform tasks requiring anytime and anywhere access to multiple applications and disparate data sources. While the enterprise computing environment and infrastructure struggle to keep pace with the demands of the new workplace, worker productivity declines, compliance to established processes and policies suffers, and decision making is sub-optimized. SAP and Microsoft have worked together to develop Duet, a software solution that helps to bridge the gap between the way that information workers need to perform their tasks today and the limitations of stand alone, non-standard applications and data stores. By hiding the complexity and seamlessly delivering data to information worker desktops, in the context of how they naturally perform their daily tasks, Duet enables significant business value. Worker productivity is increased, compliance to processes and policies is improved, and decision making is enhanced.

To learn more about Duet and how it can enable business value for you organization, contact your SAP or Microsoft representative, or visit the Duet website at http://www.duet.com/ .

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Appendix A – Additional Resources and How to Buy

Additional Resources

For additional information about Duet Software by Microsoft and SAP including Demos, Webcasts, and the latest news about Duet, visit the Duet Website: http://www.duet.com/

How to Buy Duet

Duet can be licensed from either Microsoft or SAP, as well as implemented by associated partners and integrators. To find out more information about pricing, availability, installation, upgrades and more, contact a Microsoft or SAP Duet Expert. To find a local SAP or Microsoft contact, follow the links below for contacts in your area:

SAP Worldwide Office Directoryhttp://www.sap.com/contactsap/directory/index.epxSAP Worldwide Siteshttp://www.sap.com/contactsap/countries/index.epxMicrosoft Worldwidehttp://www.microsoft.com/worldwide/

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Appendix B – System Requirements for Duet

System Requirements—Servero Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 or highero Microsoft Windows .NET Framework 2.0 or highero Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or highero Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition or highero SAP Composite Application Framework Runtimeo mySAP™ ERP 2004 or higher

System Requirements—Cliento Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Enterprise Edition SP2 or highero Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP2 or highero Microsoft Windows .NET Framework 2.0 or highero Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition or higher (installs with Duet client MSI)

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