SAP and Microsoft have vowed to enhance their Duet software, which allows information workers to interact with SAP business processes and data through Microsoft Office applications.

The companies will enhance Duet with additional business scenarios, platform capabilities and development tools.

The upcoming Duet 2.0 is planned for the end of 2008 and Duet 3.0 will be released soon after the next generation of SAP Business Suite applications and Microsoft Office software, including Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

Leo Apotheker, president of customer solutions and operations, and deputy chief executive at SAP, said: "Duet started out as a revolutionary combination of two industry leaders and continues as the only commercially available product jointly developed and supported by Microsoft and SAP."

Duet is a collaboration which extends the functionality of SAP to information workers through the Microsoft Office environment. Duet makes SAP applications useable without the need for training on a new user interface, the companies said.