Duet Enterprise Makes Its Debut

Duet Enterprise, a product jointly developed by SAP and Microsoft, enables users to operate SAP applications together with Microsoft SharePoint 2010. Launched today, the product further supports SAP’s overall co-innovation strategy.

In enterprise business systems, the fundamental goals of business units and IT organizations are often disparate. Business units are focused on driving growth and accelerating access to and the flow of information. IT organizations’ first priority, on the other hand, is to maintain efficient and secure business systems.

But in order to achieve business growth, greater integration between the two areas is required. Technology solutions must be able to support increased agility in business and enable timely access to information. That is where Duet Enterprise comes in. The product is intended for customers who use both SAP applications and Microsoft SharePoint and it aims to help business units and IT organization address their goals in an integrated, collaborative way. Duet Enterprise helps customers bridge the gap between the requirements of business users and the functionality that IT can deliver.

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SAP's Hana Speeds the Database Race

The German company's new software takes aim at the emerging market for pre-integrated hardware-software "appliances"

When SAP's co-chief executives, Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, took over in February, they promised a nimbler company that would deliver compelling software faster. On Dec. 1, the German company will announce one of the first fruits of that effort, a new set of programs for analyzing sales and workforce data that can yield answers to complicated questions in seconds.

SAP (SAP) Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka, at a conference in Bangalore, India, will unveil software that can hold hundreds of millions of database records—say, 10 years' worth of sales data—in a computer's memory instead of retrieving them from disk drives. In some cases, the software has been able to analyze hundreds of billions of records within seconds, SAP said.

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Understanding Marin County's $30 million ERP failure

The Board of Supervisors in California’s Marin County voted to stop an ongoing SAP project and seek a replacement solution, implicitly accepting that it wasted over $30 million on software and related implementation services from Deloitte Consulting.

The dramatic decision to replace SAP comes after relations between Marin and Deloitte Consulting, the implementation consultant on this project, deteriorated to the breaking point. Marin filed a lawsuit against Deloitte “seeking actual and compensatory damages of at least $30 million, along with unspecified punitive and, or exemplary damages and interest.” Deloitte has countersued Marin for approximately $550,000 in unpaid fees and late charges. SAP remains convinced that the software is working perfectly, and any issues in this implementation in no way reflect on SAP. So who's to blame?

The following article is a valuable lesson learned through another's failure. The lack of organizational preparation for a transformational event such as an ERP system implementation, as well as the lack of governance and the inability to manage the business changes required played key roles.

Read more about this learning opportunity here: Understanding Marin County's $30 million ERP failure