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So... You Want To Learn About Duet Enterprise?Let Matt Passannante, Global Offering Manager for Duet Enterprise at Fujitsu explain it to you in one page.
SAP and Microsoft got a divorce. ... Kidding. Both companies went back to the drawing board and in January of 2011, they released an integration framework by the name of Duet Enterprise®.
The Duet product got a bad rap back then and never really took off. In a time when Information Managers were becoming “knowledge workers” and everything was about portals, collaboration and business intelligence, Duet® needed to be much more extensible if it were to ever be adopted by the masses.
Let’s jump in the way-back machine. Microsoft® and SAP® have a 20 year partnership and, in that time, they’ve worked diligently to integrate their respective platforms.
Ah! I’m glad you brought that up. Let me explain. “Duet” was a joint product released by both companies in 2005. It provided point-solutions from SAP into Microsoft Office.
Legos! I mean, a box of Legos. With Duet, you were given a small set of point solutions to deploy. With Duet Enterprise, you now get an extensible set of integration framework components that you can use to assemble into your own solutions.
An important note indeed! Duet Enterprise connects SAP’s NetWeaver Gateway® 7.02 to Microsoft SharePoint’s Business Connectivity Service (BCS) Application.
LOL! No worries. All you need to know is that Duet Enterprise connects NetWeaver Gateway to SharePoint®; and nothing else.
Sort of. Everyone you talk to will ask the question, “What is Duet Enterprise?” Unfortunately, most people will find difficulty in truly grasping the purpose, value and benefit of Duet Enterprise.
Positioning a “framework” is very difficult and not many people can do it well.
Ha ha... very funny! Positioning? Comfortable? Get it? Ahem... moving on.
I thought you’d never ask. Duet Enterprise was designed to solve the problem of poor visibility into SAP data. This is due to the fact that every company running SAP unintentionally ends up segmenting their user-base into two distinct factions. On one side, there is a small minority ( 15% ) of SAP Power users, who are proficient in the SAP screens. On the other end of the spectrum lies an overwhelming majority ( 85% ) of Knowledge Workers, who ( to put it politely ) ...do not connect well with the SAP user interface at all.
Nope! Those numbers belong to Microsoft and SAP and have been tabulated over many years.
That would be sort of like me asking you to start doing your job in French or German. SAP interaction often requires a hefty learning curve, and for most newbies, the experience can be way too overwhelming.
Duet Enterprise leverages NetWeaver Gateway’s built-in Single Sign-On authentication mechanism and connected it with Microsoft’s Active Directory. This way, when an SAP user logs into SharePoint and tries to access data in SAP, Duet Enterprise automatically checks the user’s credentials in SAP and accesses the data via their SAP credentials. SAP provides the authorization, while Duet Enterprise provides the authentication.
This is another area where people have a tough time grasping the role of Duet Enterprise. If you ll remember from above, Duet Enterprise is a framework that connects SAP Netweaver Gateway with Microsoft SharePoint s BCS. Once the data gets exposed into SharePoint, it is completely up to you as to how you want to expose that data to the user. Duet Enterprise has little to no impact on the user interface as it only supplies the data to be viewed. You can begin to see that Duet Enterprise will never BE the solution? Rather, it will always drive or empower the solution.
Massive gains in Information Worker productivity, empowering the majority of your user base to interact with critical SAP business data, and leveraging it all over a standardized, secure and extensible integration framework-supported by both Microsoft and SAP. THAT... my friend, is the purpose of Duet Enterprise!
I thought you’d never ask. Let’s tear open the cereal box, dump out the contents onto the table and sift through to see what we find. Currently, there are two viable releases of Duet Enterprise; 1.5 and 2.0
No catch, just different flavors for different client environments. Duet Enterprise 2.0 was released in November of 2012, and integrates with SharePoint 2013. However, the incumbent, Duet Enterprise 1.5, is just now hitting its stride with SharePoint 2010 implementations. I’ll make sure to explain the value of both. Just remember that 2.0 is inclusive of all 1.5 functionality.
1.5 is implemented on-premise and provides native support and monitoring for all solutions. It includes some templates to get you going. Duet Enterprise 2.0 is cloud-enabled and supports the OData architecture.
All traffic is SSL-encrypted. Solutions can be secured via role-based access, and profiles can be integrated as well. 2.0 adds two-way sync for profiles and the ability to secure SharePoint solutions via SAP roles.
Think C.R.U.D. But when reading data, Duet Enterprise never persists or copies data outside of SAP. It simply shows you a synchronous view of the data in SAP at that point in time. 2.0 enhances this by streamlining the development process for data-driven solutions.
With Duet Enterprise, you can expose, personalize, schedule and run SAP reports from SharePoint. Reports are stored in SharePoint document libraries and viewable in Excel. Currently, you can integrate ECC and BW reports. Duet Enterprise 2.0 makes this whole process easier with OData.
Tell them to “put the fruit down!” You can let them know that most organizations running SAP use it to house their business data, processes and rules. Duet Enterprise doesn t want to change that - just make it more accessible. With Duet Enterprise, you can expose SAP process decision activities into SharePoint to comment, re-route, or action them. You CANNOT use Duet Enterprise to expose an SAP workflow activity into SharePoint for the purposes of workflow process extension into another workflow framework. Same in 2.0.
Yes. SAP content exposed into SharePoint lists from the BCS can be extended into the Office Productivity Suite via the pre-existing SharePoint to Office integration that you probably use every day. For example, approval notifications appear in Outlook. Again, OData makes this extensibility easier in 2.0.
Duet Enterprise provides the plumbing between SAP and SharePoint, so no mobility there. However, you can always mobile-enable a Duet Enterprise driven solution. Just enable a Duet Enterprise driven solution. Just make sure that it is HTML5 compatible so you can bring your own device.
You can learn about existing partner solutions and client experiences by visiting www.duet.com. To learn more about the strategic You can learn about existing partner solutions and client experiences by visiting www.duet.com. To learn more about the strategic benefits of implementing Duet Enterprise, you can always contact your Microsoft Application Specialist or your SAP Solutions Director and place an inquiry there. Of course, since Matt Passannante of Fujitsu authored this document, you can contact him directly. Just send an email to [email protected], and he will respond to you personally. Have a nice day!
Every SAP customer agrees with your statement. Microsoft and SAP knew that in order to reduce the security risk, they would have to ensure that all communication between SAP and Microsoft were secure.
So... You Want To Learn About Duet Enterprise?
Let Matt Passannante, Global Offering Manager for Duet Enterprise at Fujitsu explain it to you in one page.
OK, I don’t have much time. Where do we begin?
Yes, I’ve heard about something called “Duet.”
Can you explain why my Boss just threw this orange at my head?
OK, so what happened next? By “framework” you mean... ...and the integration piece? Maybe we got off
on the wrong foot. I’m not technical.
Apparently, that is important. Did I touch a nerve?
...and this is because?
Let me get comfortable.
What business problem was Duet Enterprise designed to solve?
Did you just make up those percentages?
OK, so why don’t the Knowledge Workers just suck it up and use the SAP screens?
...but what if I’m not comfortable opening up my SAP system to everyone?
...and they accomplished this how?
What about the user interface problems?
So, the Purpose of Duet Enterprise is?
Now that I understand the purpose of Duet Enterprise, what is the value?
Hmmm... this sounds complicated. I knew there was a catch!
Can we begin with the Framework?
What else do I need to know about security?
...and my data?What about my reports?
My boss is – ahem – “encouraging” me to ask you about workfl ow.
Can I integrate with Microsoft Offi ce as well?
OK... last question. What about mobile solutions? Wow, I actually learned a lot about Duet Enterprise, and it only took one page!
Hey, if my boss or I want to learn more about how Duet Enterprise could benefi t our organization, where do you recommend that I go to next?
Fujitsu and the Fujitsu logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fujitsu Limited in the United States and other countries. SAP, Duet, and NetWeaver are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and SharePoint are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.
The statements provided herein are for informational purposes only and may be amended or altered by Fujitsu America, Inc. without notice or liability.
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About Fujitsu AmericaFujitsu America, Inc. is a leading ICT solutions provider for organizations in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Fujitsu enables clients to meet their business objectives through integrated offerings including consulting, systems integration, managed services and outsourcing for enterprise applications, data center and field services operations, based on server, software, storage and mobile technologies. Fujitsu provides industry-oriented solutions for manufacturing, retail, healthcare, government, education, financial services and communications sectors.
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