01 2011 Brutman SAP Share Point

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FeatureStory On-Device

by David Brutman, SAP

SAP orBusiness UsersBringing SaP applictions to Microsoft ShrPoint usrs with Dt entrpris

How do we help business users be more produc-

tive and efective, and even make them smile?

IT organizations have long been challenged

to ensure that their business users are engagedand satised. Yet, managing the complexity,

cost, and risk associated with running mission-

critical systems does not necessarily go hand-

in-hand with meeting end users and business

units expectations.

End users are ocused on business perormance.

They need to adjust quickly to market dynamics.

This immediacy requires easy-to-use, scalable,

and exible enterprise systems that users can

access rom their preerred work environments

and devices.

IT departments constantly need to balance

competing interests and manage the gap between

business and IT. On one hand, they need to main-

tain secure, highly available systems with strict

cost awareness. On the other hand, they must

deliver an excellent experience and high value to

business stakeholders. The key to this balancing

act is to deliver business solutions that are:

Relevant: Personalized or a users role, posi-

tion, and task

Convenient: Able to run on a users desired

device or environment

Timely: Able to work in real time, representing

the current state o the business

SAP has been at the oreront o helping IT

departments bridge this gap to better serve the

business. Central to this eort is SAPs on-device

initiative, which enables customers to integrate

SAP sotware with many dierent devices, envi-

ronments, and tools. SAPs on-device strategy

aims to combine the experiences o the latest

devices, social networks, and oce applications

with the powerul business processes and insight

provided by SAP.

To carry out its on-device strategy, SAP ispartnering with key sotware vendors. A signi-

cant partnership in this space is with Microsot;

together, the two companies are oering their

joint customers a ramework to connect SAP

applications with Microsot SharePoint and

Microsot Oce products through Duet Enter-

prise sotware.

Delivering SAP Solutions to Microsot

SharePoint Users with Duet Enterprise

Duet Enterprise, an interoperability solution

recently released by SAP and Microsot, supports

access to SAP applications through Microsot

SharePoint and Microsot Oce products. With

Duet Enterprise, people benet rom the busi-

ness processes, data, and context o SAP

applications, combined with the productivity,

collaboration, and content management capa-

bilities o Microsot SharePoint and Microsot

Oce. The benets are clear among them,

With Duet Enterprise, people beneft

rom the business processes, data,

and context o SAP applications,

combined with the productivity,

collaboration, and content manage-

ment capabilities o Microsot

SharePoint and Microsot Ofce.

David Brutman (david.

[email protected]) is the

head o solution marketing

or Duet Enterprise at SAP.

Previously, David led the

product management team or

the Duet platorm and tools.

He has an MBA with a ocus on

strategy and entrepreneurship,

as well as a bachelors degree

in economics. He is passionate

about delivering business

applications to people in a

natural and convenient way.

This article appeared in the Jan n Feb n Mar 2011 issue ofSAPinsider(http://sapinsider.wispubs.com) and appearshere with permission from the publisher, WIS Publishing.
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a signicant increase in the productivity o

individuals and teams (see sidebar).

For example, imagine that a customer submits

a request or a price quote. An account team is

able to create a Duet Enterprise workspace in

Microsot SharePoint to respond to this request

(see Figure 1). Through the workspace, the teamcan access the quotation request document to

better understand the customers expectations,

run a win-loss report to address competition,

and approve the quote using a workow all

delivered to Microsot SharePoint sotware rom

SAP applications.

At the same time, the team can collaborate to

create a plan, use instant messaging, share docu-

ments, and co-author the quotation response

document simultaneously using Microsot Share-

Point eatures. Lets look at how Duet Enterprisemakes this possible.

Duet Enterprise: An Overview

Duet Enterprise delivers a built-in foundation

for interoperability between SAP applications

and Microsot SharePoint. The sotware oers

development tools and business content to

easily create composite solutions, and it includes

ready-to-use capabilities. These three areas

support the collaboration enabled by Microsot

SharePoint, as well as the business process unc-

tionality o SAP applications (see Figure 2 on

the next page).

An Interoperability Foundation

Duet Enterprise oers partners and customers

a oundation to compose, develop, and use

solutions that leverage Microsot SharePoint and

SAP applications. The oundation supports key

technology areas that enable SAP applications

to interoperate with Microsot SharePoint. For

example, it covers end-to-end security, securing

the messages between the SAP and Microsot

technology stacks, mapping user names to

enable single sign-on, and applying the SAP

authorization structure to the Microsot Share-

Point user interace.

The oundation also covers the areas o

monitoring and supportability, application lie-

cycle management, administration, and ofine

support. An early Duet Enterprise customer

clearly articulated the value o the oundation:

It enables us to move up the stack and ocus

on solution development rather than on the

plumbing that used to consume so many o our

resources in the past.

Duet Enterprise is designed to leverage and

build on the core platorms o SAP and Microsot,

enabling an organization to install the product

in its existing landscape without disruption

3 Key Benefts o Duet Enterprise

1. Boost the productivity o individuals and teams. Duet Enterprise can

deliver business inormation to teams o users, enabling them to jointly

address issues or collaborate around business tasks.

2. Gain more value rom existing investments in SAP sotware, as well as

Microsot SharePoint. Duet Enterprise brings SAP applications to more

users in various lines o business, including users who dont usually work

with SAP sotware. And, by making more business inormation available to

Microsot SharePoint users, Duet Enterprise helps IT teams increase the busi-

ness value o their investment in this product. Because Duet Enterprise builds

on the core SAP NetWeaver and Microsot SharePoint platorms and lever-

ages existing skill sets, it minimizes the impact on system landscape and

project requirements.

3. Quickly compose solutions that address changing business needs. IT can

address business needs more switly and eectively, and business users can

easily work with Microsot SharePoint without assistance rom IT. Consider

a sales team that is using Microsot SharePoint to work on a new promo-

tion. Rather than calling IT, the team can use Microsot SharePoint Designer

to access new SAP data sets and confgure a user interace suited to how

the team wants to work.

Figure 1p A user can access SAP applications through his or her Duet Enterprise workspace

in Microsot SharePoint
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or the need to upgrade any component in that

landscape. For example, it enables connection

to any existing SAP Business Suite version.

Whats more, the IT teams knowledge o both

SAP NetWeaver ABAP and Microsot SharePoint

can be ully leveraged, decreasing the need

or training.Building on the Microsot SharePoint 2010

platorm, Duet Enterprise connects to SAP

applications through a Microsot SharePoint

component called Business Connectivity Ser-

vices. Duet Enterprise also oers an add-on

module to SAP NetWeaver called the Service

Consumption Layer, which enables simplied

access to SAP sotware rom any device or

environment using standard protocols. This

layer provides robust data aggregation and a

simplied view o SAP data objects, as well

as the connectivity to Microsot SharePoint. It

is the rst version o Project Gateway

that will extend the ability to consume SAP

sotware to other environments, platorms,

and devices.

Development Tools and Business Content

With Duet Enterprise development tools, compa-

nies can create a range o solutions such as

simple solutions that surace data sets rom SAP

applications in Microsot SharePoint web parts,

or intermediate-level ones that require urther

data or user interace customization. Advanced

solutions may require custom aggregation and

logic; an example is a solution or suppliers that

aggregates data rom multiple SAP systems and

uses a unique presentation o the data.Business users can create and congure simple

scenarios no coding required using tools

such as the Microsot SharePoint Designer;

advanced solutions would require a proessional

ABAP developer using the ABAP Workbench

or a .NET developer using Visual Studio (see

Figure 3). Standard SAP and Microsot tools are

used to minimize the learning requirements and

IT resources needed. The general steps involved

in composing a solution are three-old:

1. Expose the SAP unctionality as a web serviceto Microsot SharePoint.

2. Create a Microsot SharePoint External Con-

tent type.1

Note that Content type is a term specifc to Microsot

SharePoint. It is equivalent to an SAP data object.

SAP

MicrosoftSharePoint 2010

Interoperability

3 keyfunctionalityareas of DuetEnterprise

Duet

Enterp

risecompo

sites

Read

y-

to-

use capabilit

ies

Collaboration

Process

Figure 2q Duet Enterprises

three unctionality areas

support Microsot SharePoint

collaboration and

SAP business processes

Figure 3p Users can work with the Microsot SharePoint Designer (let), and developers can use the ABAP Workbench (right) to confgure SAP web services
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3. Generate or create the user interace in Micro-

sot SharePoint or Microsot Oce.

As an optional step, users can also develop

.NET code to customize the user interace.

Ready-to-Use CapabilitiesTo provide rapid time-to-value or common

usage types and accelerate the speed o solution

creation, Duet Enterprise oers a set o quick-to-

implement, ready-to-use capabilities that can be

used as building blocks within a new solution.

For example, customers are requently looking

to use a Microsot SharePoint or Microsot Oce

interace to access and approve workows rom

SAP applications. Consider that a user wants to

approve a purchase order, travel expense, or mar-

keting budget request. A ready-to-use capabilitywithin Duet Enterprise connects to SAP work-

ows and suraces those workows in Microsot

SharePoint or Microsot Oce; users can then

approve the requests rom Microsot SharePoint

or their Outlook inbox.

Additional ready-to-use capabilities allow users

to work with Duet Enterprise sites to expose data

objects rom SAP applications as Microsot Share-

Point sites and to create collaborative Microsot

SharePoint workspaces or SAP inormation on

an ad hoc basis. The sotware also allows users

to augment Microsot SharePoint user proles

with inormation rom SAP ERP Human Capital

Management (SAP ERP HCM) and to run and

personalize reports generated by SAP NetWeaver

Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) and

SAP ERP.

Bridging the Gap

Duet Enterprise connects SAP applications with

Microsot SharePoint and Microsot Oce.

Oering extensive exibility and rapid develop-

ment, the product enables IT organizations to

deliver timely solutions that address the chang-

ing business needs o a growing number o

employees and, in turn, increase the return on

IT investments.

Imagine how your end users will react when

they have seamless access to the data, documents,

and people relevant to their business tasks, all

available through the Microsot tools and envi-

ronments theyre already using. This will surely

enable them to ocus on value-added tasks; no

longer will they have to tediously search or the

right piece o inormation and make sure its

shared with the right people. Duet Enterprise

makes this level o end-user access possible.

Wouldnt that make your users smile?

Please visit www.duetenterprisesummit.com

and www.duet.com or more inormation.n

Partner Roadmap: Delivering More Targeted Solutions

Partners o SAP and Microsot plan to use Duet Enterprise to deliver

targeted solutions that address the needs o specifc unctional areas

and industries. IT departments are expected to develop solutions

that address their company-specifc business requirements. And using

the simple tools available with Duet Enterprise, even business units

can confgure non-complex solutions leveraging the Duet Enterprise

inrastructure.

On February 1, 2011, SAP and Microsot will introduce SAP-MICROSOFT

Unite Partner Connection, a new global program that will improve how

solutions are delivered to their joint customers and will create new

opportunities or their partners. Partners can now collaborate with SAP

and Microsot to expand their portolios more efciently and reach more

customers with less risk and more reward. As a result, customers will

beneft rom solutions that are more closely aligned with their needs

to address their business and IT challenges, gaining greater ROI and

lowering TCO or their Microsot and SAP investments.

To learn more about the program, visit http://ecohub.sap.com/unite.

Imagine how your

users will react when

they have seamless

access to the data,

documents, and

people relevant to

their business tasks,

all available through

the tools theyre

already using.

nThe SAPinsider IT 2011 conerence,located in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 15-18,

2011 (www.it-2011.com), eaturing a

case study session on one companys

decision to implement a hybrid corporate

portal with SAP NetWeaver Portal andMicrosot SharePoint

nDrive SAP User Productivity WhileContaining Costs: 2 Quick, Easy Ways to

Get Started by Victoria Menshchikova

(SAPinsider, April-June 2009, sapinsider.

wispubs.com)

nPractical Workfow or SAP (2nd edition)by Ginger Gatling, et al. (SAP PRESS,

www.sap-press.com)

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01 2011 Brutman SAP Share Point