Hello my name is Howard Beader and I am a Group Product Manager with Microsoft responsible for Duet Enterprise. I am very pleased to announce that the Duet Enterprise Rapid Deployment Program (“Duet Enterprise RDP”) has begun with the launch of the first phase of the program – Call for Nominations. This first phase will run for four weeks, concluding on Friday May 14th, 2010. Howard

The Duet Enterprise Rapid Deployment Program (“Duet Enterprise RDP”) provides selected participants with a unique opportunity to work closely with Microsoft and SAP on the initial release of Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP software. The key goals of the program are:

• Drive customer production deployments for launch

• Support Development of Duet Enterprise partner solutions

• Gather customer and partner evidence

The Duet Enterprise RDP Program is following a two-phased approach. Starting now customers and partners can initiate their nominations for the RDP program through their Microsoft representative. After customers and partners are selected for the RDP program, the typical legal documents will need to be signed, resources need to be identified, and a solution proposal design document will also have to be created. The selected customer’s and partner’s project team members will have the option to participate in our Duet Enterprise class room trainings in the US, EMEA and APAC.

The Deployment and Development phase follows a two phase approach:

Phase 1: The pilot version of Duet Enterprise will be deployed and the development of Duet Enterprise partner and customer solutions will be kicked-off.

Phase 2: Duet Enterprise will be deployed in a production environment on-site at the customer, or partner solutions will be ready for customer deployment.

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Beginning in Calendar year Q4 customer and partner evidence activities will be initiated including the creation of case studies, success stories and other marketing opportunities.

As a next step for those customers and partners interested in participating in the program please contact your Microsoft representative for more information. Further information can be found online at www.Microsoft.com/duet