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Welcome to the Microsoft Financial Services Newsletter for Developers. At Microsoft, we’re committed to serving the needs of developers and architects in the financial services industry. This newsletter will give you links to the latest resources, tools and technologies to help build fast, scaleable, secure enterprise level solutions in Financial Services.
Letter from the Editor
Greetings:
Welcome to the spring edition of the Microsoft Financial Services Newsletter for Developers. Over the last few months we’ve seen some great updates for developers, including the release of Microsoft Visual Studio SP1 for Windows Vista as well as the release of ASP.NET AJAX. These releases highlight the theme of building highly productive and attractive user experiences (UX) -- a topic that is getting increasing focus in the industry as businesses seek to deliver competitive value to their customers.
To that end, we have some very exciting developments in the “user experience” space, including the release of the Office for Business Application (OBA) Reference Application Pack for Loan Origination Systems on the Financial Services MSDN architecture center (OR-LOS). OR-LOS provides architectural guidance, application building blocks, and webcasts that support business decision makers and architects in their planning and implementation processes -- and you can find more information about it in this newsletter. Also, MIX ’07, Microsoft’s conference for Web designers, developers, and decision makers who make their living at the forefront of the consumer Web, is being held from April 30 to May 2 in Las Vegas. It is already sold out but you can check out the content delivered at MIX07 after the event at www.visitmix.com. Anyone looking to really get a handle on how to take advantage of the latest technologies and concepts for Web design should check it out.
Finally, we are hosting some of our premier annual events in April:
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Unwrapped for Financial Services IV webcast series (which ran April 2 - 6). The sessions are a great mix of technology and solutions for the Financial Services industry. If you missed it, don’t worry. The content will all be posted on the Financial Developers Web site.
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The 5th Annual Financial Services Developer Conference, which is being held in New York on April 25 - 26. For those who have been to the previous events, you already know that this is a superb way to get some solid, industry-centric technology sessions while networking with your peers. For those who haven’t been to one in the past -- don’t miss out yet again. This year’s theme is “User Experience.” The keynote speaker will be distinguished author and professor David Platt, Rolling Thunder Computing, who will discuss, “Why User Experience Matters? When Functional Isn't Enough.” The rest of the conference is full of some of the best content you’ll find anywhere.
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Moving forward, Brian Jackson will be taking the editorial reins for this newsletter. Brian is an Industry Solutions Architect in the Microsoft Worldwide Financial Services group, so I leave you in excellent hands as I make more time to dig into the world of UX development. Thanks and I look forward to seeing you at the Developer Conference!
-Dan
Daniel Kasun, Technology Evangelism Manager, Microsoft Corporation
What’s New
Financial Services Developer Awards
Joe Rubino, Architect Evangelist -- Financial Services Evangelism
Innovation and development excellence in Financial Services is nothing new. One of the major challenges is adopting the latest technology, and developing and deploying a solution on it that meets or, more importantly, exceeds the business need that it was to originally address. Windows in Financial Services magazine, in conjunction with Microsoft, is proud to honor five Financial Services software solutions developed by customers and partners using Microsoft technology. For their outstanding efforts, they are going to be recognized with a Windows in Financial Services Developer Award at the Microsoft Financial Services Developer Conference on April 25 - 26 in New York City. The solutions, customers, and partners can be found below. For more detailed descriptions, please see the spring 2007 and summer 2007 editions of Windows in Financial Services.
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Data Service Framework: Merrill Lynch, with assistance from Advantage Professionals
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Quote Estimator: Allstate Insurance Company, with assistance from Microsoft Consulting Services
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Alternative Investments Technology Platform: Credit Suisse
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Information Reporting: Wachovia, with assistance from Microsoft Consulting Services
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Hedge Fund Servicing System: JP Morgan Chase, with assistance from Advantage Professionals
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Congratulations to all of our winners, and we hope to see everyone at the Developer Conference!
Announcements
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In the loan orientation business, there are many business drivers for banks: process consolidation, regulatory compliance, and faster product (loan completion). Loan products change frequently and are usually dynamic depending on location (regional or state). Developing and modifying products in an agile manner enables banks to be highly competitive and adaptable in key markets. Also, compiling and staying on top of regulatory laws is always a challenge given the turbulent changes happening in the industry today. Banks are now trying to consolidate processes to reduce this complexity and maximize value. For more information on Microsoft Office Business Applications (OBAs), visit the Web site.
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What Is an Office Business Application?
Mike Walker, Architecture Strategist -- Global Financial Services
OBAs are a new breed of composite applications that bring together the front office and back office. They do so by unlocking the value assets in the enterprise. These consist of line-of-business systems built by developers and Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) solutions. OBAs offer this valuable functionality through familiar interfaces, making them more accessible and actionable to information workers.
The 2007 Microsoft Office system provides a powerful and ubiquitous platform to build next-generation business applications.
Okay, so what are they really? Well, very simply, OBAs use the common 2007 Office system components in a service-oriented way. The most common way to expose this functionality is through 2007 Office system clients such as Word, Excel, or Outlook. Below is an illustration of the OBA Reference Application Pack for Loan Origination Systems (OR-LOS) that uses the 2007 Office system clients in the loan origination and lending underwriting processes.
Communication is archived through standardized XML Web services, so clients could also consist of other applications as well. For example, smart clients could be used for loan officers at a bank instead of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server user interface. Or, if your organization uses other technologies such as Java, since the OBA architecture of OR-LOS uses Web services endpoints throughout, exposing workflow's interoperability is easily achieved.
OBAs are also a big part of the overall Service-Oriented Architecture strategy. OBAs are not just the 2007 Office system client applications; they are much more. You can use OBAs enterprise services that are hosted in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS). Through the Reference Application Packs and the guidance provided, we show developers how to expose these enterprise services. Additionally, exposing enterprise Web mash-up capabilities can be achieved through the robust portal architecture.
So, what assets can be exposed as enterprise mash-ups?
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Excel via Excel Services.
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Word documents, which are all Open XML so they can be consumed easily on the Web.
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MOSS, which provides a rich portal environment for hosting enterprise mash-ups.
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MOSS components, such Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation, which are all extendable through Web Services.
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So whether you are looking for a mash-up, Office client, or a smart client, there are endless possibilities to take advantage of the Office Business Applications Technologies.
What Is ASP.NET AJAX?
ASP.NET AJAX provides a thin client approach to building rich interactive Web sites that go beyond the traditional boxy interfaces of static Web pages to give you rich client side behavior that you generally expect from a desktop application. An AJAX-enabled site looks more appealing and really envelops your user. Studies indicate that AJAX-enabled sites have a higher degree of stickiness (meaning the time that a user spends on the pages).
AJAX isn’t a new technology, and its components have been used by Microsoft for more than 10 years. You’ve probably seen the enhanced browser experience in action if you’ve worked with Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access. In ASP.NET 2.0, we have added support for AJAX style functionality, making it easy to write applications and use these client-side controls in an object-oriented fashion.
Keep in mind -- you don’t have to use ASP.NET to build AJAX-enabled applications. You certainly can use the Microsoft AJAX Library on its own without using ASP.NET. The Microsoft AJAX library contains all the JavaScript client side libraries that are included in the full ASP.NET AJAX installation.
WHAT TO INSTALL
There are several free downloads available for you. These integrate nicely with Visual Studio 2005. At the very least, you should install the first two:
ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0
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This contains both the server-centric and client-centric development models.
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You must install this first: the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Futures January CTP or the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit.
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ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit
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The toolkit is a shared-source initiative founded by Microsoft. There are fantastic examples on the sample Web site that also installs with this download.
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There’s no installer for it, so after extracting the content, you’ll need to build the solution and reference the Visual Studio Installer file. There’s a great How Do I video on the AJAX.ASP.NET site that shows you exactly how to configure Visual Studio 2005 for the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit install, so I encourage you to watch it before you install.
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There are three other downloads that may also be of interest to you:
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Microsoft AJAX Library 1.0. This is geared for AJAX development on non-Windows systems. This package contains the complete set of client JavaScript components that are included in the full ASP.NET AJAX installation.
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ASP.NET AJAX Futures CTP. This has some interesting client-side functionality, such as Web parts and ADO.NET data converters, that warrant a good look.
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Lastly, you can view all the source code by downloading the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX extensions source code.
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All five components can be downloaded from the Web site. This site also contains a rich bevy of How Do I videos covering topics from installation to development. Please watch the installation videos on the site before you install the components.
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Visual Studio 2005 is one of the most significant developer tools releases since the introduction of Visual Studio nearly a decade ago. It offers all types of developers a wider spectrum of development possibilities and a greatly advanced design experience. By expanding the Visual Studio product line to include the Visual Studio Team System and the Visual Studio Express Editions, Visual Studio 2005 delivers a compelling toolset for everyone, from hobbyists to enterprise developer teams.
Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 continues Microsoft’s investment in market leading development tools. Service Pack 1 (SP1) addresses issues that were found through a combination of customers and partner feedback, as well as internal testing. The issues addressed range in severity from places where the syntax coloring was incorrect to customer-reported crashes in various scenarios. In some areas, more than 50 percent of the bugs addressed were reported by customers through the MSDN Product Feedback Center and Microsoft Connect. Overall, Service Pack 1 offers customers improvements in responsiveness, stability, and performance for Visual Studio 2005. It also addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by Windows Vista enhancements.
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Events
The 5th annual Financial Services Developer Conference is taking place at the end of this month, April 25 - 26, in New York at the Grand Hyatt Hotel!
For this year’s conference, we are highlighting your voice. In addition to sessions by key product managers and industry leaders within Microsoft, we have half a dozen leading architects from enterprise financial institutions presenting their own mission-critical solutions built on Microsoft technologies. Our main event keynote sessions will set a powerful pace, with presentations by Microsoft Worldwide Financial Services strategist Brian Jackson along with Citigroup and by David Platt, a distinguished industry specialist and author. In addition, we will have presentations given by your peers in each of the vertical keynotes as well as in the breakout sessions including Allstate, Bank of America, Prudential, and Wachovia. Topping it all off will be the first ever Windows in Financial Services Developer Innovator Awards, which will be presented to five of our key customers during the first night of the conference!
There’s still time to join us -- registration closes Wednesday, April 18. To view the agenda, visit the Financial Developers Web site. To register, go to the event Web site.
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The popular webcast series for Financial Services took place the week of April 2. Sessions covered the newest Microsoft solutions for Capital Markets, Retail Banking, and Insurance firms including Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Vista, Windows Communication Foundation, and Windows Presentation Framework.
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MIX ’07, Microsoft’s conference for Web designers, developers, and decision makers who make their living at the forefront of the consumer Web, is being held from April 30 to May 2 in Las Vegas. It is already sold out but you can check out the content delivered at MIX07 after the event at www.visitmix.com. Anyone looking to really get a handle on how to take advantage of the latest technologies and concepts for Web design should check it out.
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Resources
Mohammad Akif is a Senior Architect who blogs frequently about Web 2.0, ESB, SOA, AJAX, interoperability, and other topics in the context of financial services. Prior to joining Microsoft, he worked as a Senior Java Architect at Sun Microsystems. Mohammad is the co-author of several publications, including “Java and XML Programmer's Reference,” ”Developing Next-Generation Web Applications through AJAX/Atlas,” and “Web Services Certification Exam,” and he also contributed to the development of J2EE core patterns.
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View the most recent and previous editions of the Financial Services Developer Connection Newsletter here!
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