IBM is offering SAP business software integration for
two of its main collaboration products.
Both IBM’s Workplace and Notes systems can now work with SAP
applications without any major upgrades to the core systems.
The integration offered by IBM’s Notes system with SAP follows
Microsoft’s recent move to offer greater integration with SAP
through its own Office collaboration suite.
Microsoft and SAP will ship their Duet integration system from
next month. The product was formerly codenamed “Mendocino”. IBM’s
Notes integration system will be available from this month, along
with the Workplace solution.
Both IBM and Microsoft are seeking to give users familiar
applications to work with when using SAP data. Microsoft’s Outlook
e-mail client is expected to be widely used with Duet.
IBM Workplace for SAP functions include scorecards, dashboards,
alerts, document and content management, e-forms, instant
messaging, and user presence awareness. Planned future enhancements
include employee and manager self-service functions and contractor
management.
IBM Lotus Notes access for SAP helps customers integrate SAP
data and business processes with Lotus Notes tasks. The processes
include holiday workflow, time reporting, contact management, and
report generation. All these tasks are performed through the Notes
client.
Workplace for SAP costs from £87 per user. IBM Lotus Notes
access for SAP is free to Notes users.
