Mendocino gets official name "Duet for Microsoft Office and SAP"

Launch announcement is today. Also, www.duet.com is up and live.

There are a few surprises. In addition to the original 4 scenarios:

    --   Budget monitoring: Gives managers seamless access to the financial
          data they need to make better decisions.
     --   Time management: Enables employees to record work and billable hours
          using their MS Outlook calendar, and automatically synchronizes and
          updates MS Outlook appointments with mySAP(TM) ERP, the SAP
          application for enterprise resource planning (ERP).
     --   Leave management: Enables employees to submit personal leave
          requests and handle management approvals processes through MS
          Outlook, thereby enabling data synchronization and process
          compliance between the desktop and mySAP ERP.
     --   Organization management: Allows employees and managers to access
          organization information and human resources-related tasks in the
          familiar Outlook environment.

   We are announcing an expanded Product Road Map and compatibility with mySAP ERP 2005 and Office 2007:

In the second half of 2006, SAP and Microsoft plan to offer two value packs for Duet, providing additional business scenario support, enhanced platform capabilities and language support. These value packs will expose five additional scenarios in MS Office coming from mySAP ERP and mySAP(TM) Business Suite applications for customer relationship management (CRM) and supplier relationship management (SRM). The scenarios are: recruitment management, travel management, analytics, purchasing management and sales activity management. With these value packs, capabilities of Duet will go beyond self- service for employees and managers to enable line-of-business operational efficiencies and cost savings. The value packs are designed for compatibility with the next release of mySAP ERP and the 2007 release of Microsoft Office System, and will expand language support to include English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese.

Pricing is also revealed - it is $125 per desktop list.

There are a few articles out there:

Forbes

CXO