Microsoft Financial Services Developer Conference 2008 Recap
March 12 - 13: New York, New York

Thank you to the more than 600 financial services developers, architects, BDMs, TDMs, partners, and Microsoft attendees who made the 6th Annual Microsoft Financial Developers Conference held at the Marriot Marquis in New York a great success!

This year’s main theme was high-performance computing, and attendees heard from presenters across a wide spectrum of organizations -- including key partners and industry peers -- about how to harness the power of high-performance computing to drive competitive advantage and time-to-market in financial services.

Around the secondary theme of Software + Services (S+S), attendees heard how financial services organizations can create a shared architecture, programming model and skill set that helps shape and deliver consistent experiences throughout the enterprise, and across the Web, to PCs and other devices.

A more ubiquitous example of Software + Services (S+S) was on display in the 2009 Ford Lincoln MKS featured at the conference. Attendees were able to experience firsthand the suite of features that will make their lives more convenient -- all powered by Sync, the voice-activated, in-car communication system powered by Microsoft technology.

As in past years, we strongly emphasized the voice of the customer with presentations by Wachovia, Milliman, UNUM, and Merrill Lynch, among others. This ensured that these technologies were presented from a variety of perspectives, not just from that of Microsoft product managers from Redmond, WA.

Download presentations from the conference

WFS Innovation Awards
Windows in Financial Services, the magazine for Microsoft intelligence in the financial enterprise, announced its 2008 Developer Awards at Microsoft’s Sixth Annual Financial Services Developer Conference on March 13th, 2008.

The five 2008 award winners were selected by clearly demonstrating the advantage each solution provides its firm at a time when gaining an advantage in the financial sector has increasingly become dependent on developing innovative technology. The winning solutions exhibit advanced application of Microsoft technology to solve practical business problems, streamline efficiency, and increase productivity in banking, investment management and compliance functions within the firms.

The five winners were:

• Chicago Mercantile Exchange for its Auditing and Compliance Application
• Bank Of America for its Global Underwriting Solution
• Merrill Lynch for its Application Lifecycle Framework
• Piraeus Bank for its International eBanking Platform
• MAAKL MUTUAL Berhad for its Home Office Application

Download the Silverlight 2 (Beta 1) Retail Financial Services Demonstrator!
The Silverlight 2 Retail Financial Services Demonstrator provides essential resources to help customers and ISVs to create their own demo or proof of concept based on the Silverlight 2 platform. Included in the kit are:

• Functional Silverlight 2 Website (Woodgrove Financial)
• Installation, customization and demo script that provides step by step instructions for installing the demo, customizing the data shown in the demo as well has how to step through the site with talking points.
• Source Code – that is right, you also get to see and use the source code to see what is going on under the covers and use as a foundation for your own POC!

• Immersive, cross-platform/cross-browser user experience
• Insightful visualizations, improved end user experience that can be personalized and branded
• Great performance, reuse of .NET code on the web (cross platform!!)
• Great examples of using visualizations to help sell and service financial products including cause and effect, multiple scenarios, unified communications, etc…

Developing Managed Applications for Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Training
This three-day instructor-led course teaches experienced developers the skills required to successfully develop managed (Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0) applications on the Windows Mobile 6.0 platform.

Developing Native Applications for Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Training
This two-day instructor-led course teaches experienced Visual C++ and Win32 developers the skills required to successfully develop native (Visual C++/Win32 API) applications on the Windows Mobile 6 platform.

Become a Microsoft Certified Professional!
By passing these exams, you’ll also be eligible for the Mobility Solutions Competency within the Microsoft Partner Program!

Exam 70-500: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 - Administering & Managing
Exam 70-540: TS: Microsoft Windows Mobile - Application Development

Microsoft Financial Services Developer Newsletter – Spring Edition
The spring edition of the Microsoft Financial Services Developer Newsletter has been published! This quarterly newsletter offers subscribers information about how Microsoft and its partners are helping the financial services industry deliver high-impact business solutions and provides access to the latest resources, tools and technologies to help build fast, deployable web solutions. The newsletter is available in text and HTML formats and is sent right into your inbox! If you would like to receive this free quarterly newsletter, all you have to do is register: Subscribe now.

UX in the Enterprise
By David Isbitski, Developer Evangelist
IT Departments in today’s enterprise are consistently being asked to do more with less. But how do you accomplish such a feat? One of the often overlooked areas is that of user experience. Bad user experience can cause employee frustration and it costs money in ways not initially thought of. Lost employee productivity hours, increased helpdesk calls, cost of typo mistakes in financials. Microsoft’s platform today offers both designers and developers a chance to speak the same language. The result is increased end user satisfaction, loyalty, and cost savings to IT.

Author Bio:
David is a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft working on the Industry Platform Team covering both Financial Services and Health/Life Sciences Industries. He has over 12 years total IT experience and has been creating enterprise solutions with Microsoft Products since Visual Basic 5. He enjoys talking about technology and has taught full day courses on various Microsoft topics as well as being a presenter at both MSDN Events and Microsoft DevDays.

.NET StockTrader Sample Application - An End-to-End Sample Application Illustrating Windows Communication Foundation and .NET Enterprise Technologies
This application is an end-to-end sample application for .NET Enterprise Application Server technologies. It is a service-oriented application based on Windows Communication Foundation (.NET 3.0) and ASP.NET, and illustrates many of the .NET enterprise development technologies for building highly scalable, rich "enterprise-connected" applications. It is designed as a benchmark kit to illustrate alternative technologies within .NET and their relative performance.

The application offers full interoperability with J2EE and IBM WebSphere's Trade 6.1 sample application. As such, the application offers an excellent opportunity for developers to learn about .NET and building interoperable, service-oriented applications.

.NET in the Fast Lane - Developers Find Ways to Open Windows to Business-Critical Applications
As momentum from Microsoft's 2007 Financial Services Developer conference, yet another article truly encapsulates the power of our platform in fueling industry-relevant, business-critical applications. Read full story on the Redmond Developer website or click here.

Excel Services: Develop A Calculation Engine For Your Apps
Organizations use Microsoft Excel to perform complex calculations and to visualize information using charts, pivot tables, and the like, and to perform many other custom tasks. But in the past, if you wanted to implement a calculation engine, you needed to enlist the services of a developer who would use algorithms provided by your business analysts to design the code. Now with Excel Services technology in Office SharePoint Server 2007, business analysts themselves can implement the calculation engine formulas they need, reducing cost of implementation and making maintenance of the calculation algorithms easier than before.

Microsoft "Acropolis"
The Microsoft code name “Acropolis” Community Technology Preview 1 is a set of components and tools that make it easier for developers to build and manage modular, business focused, client .NET applications. Acropolis is part of the “.NET Client Futures” wave releases, our preview of upcoming technologies for Windows client development.

Silverlight
Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of Microsoft .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the WEB.

• Install Silverlight Beta from Microsoft
• Getting started whitepaper
• Silverlight Architecture Overview

Visibility and Control in a Service Oriented Architecture
Services alone do not constitute a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Capabilities must be acquired that provide visibility and control into service development and service execution. Without these capabilities, IT offerings will become fragile as the number of services in the data center grows. This article investigates capabilities that provide visibility and control for the services that make up a SOA. (21 printed pages)

Read more news here.

Capital Markets Architecture Center - Now Available!
We launched the Capital Markets Architecture Center with loads of great articles. Many thanks to Stevan Vidich, Capital Markets Industry Architect, in helping get this site launched!

Enterprise Architecture Website
Enterprise Architecture has become a common practice for large IT organizations. For the first time there is a methodology to encompass all of the various IT aspects and processes into a single practice. Visit the Enterprise Architecture site on MSDN for more information plus great articles, webcasts, blogs, and architecture guidance!

MSDN Insurance Industry Center
This site is designed to provide both Developers and Architects in the Insurance industry with technical content focused on Microsoft's Insurance Value Chain industry initiative, as well as links to valuable technical content on the Microsoft platform technologies that enable best-in-class industry partner solutions. You can count on regular updates from Mike Walker, Microsoft's Financial Services Industry Architect, as well as more content from Microsoft's customers and partners as we build out the Insurance Value Chain technology strategy.

Windows Mobile for Developers
Learn how the Windows Mobile developer platform and tools help developers build innovative applications and solutions for Windows Mobile powered devices. Mobility Touchdown

Reference Application Pack for Loan Origination Systems
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.

MSDN Subscriptions – How to get one?
MSDN Subscriptions are the best way to get the latest developer tools and technologies, including Visual Studio .NET, with continuous, priority access to product updates and new releases. A Subscription also offers information and technical support resources needed to design, build, and test XML Web services and applications using Microsoft technologies. MSDN Subscriptions are offered in five different subscription editions to meet your requirements.

If you are interested in getting an individual subscription you can do so through our many resellers. Please visit the How to Buy section of the MSDN website.

If you are interested in getting a subscription or multiple subscriptions for your development group through your company and not sure who to talk to internally? Feel free to contact us at fsmkt@microsoft.com and we can talk to you about your options and try to put you in touch with the right person at your company.

Read these new case studies, and learn how leading organizations in the financial services industry are using Microsoft technology to improve the way they do business.

• Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company: Regional insurance company decreases risk, improves service with mobile technology
• Sasfin Bank: Bank improves risk analysis and efficiency with an intelligent single view of customer
• Banco de Venezuela: Venezuelan bank saves $3 million per year with a more efficient claims management process

Read more case studies here.

Learn more about the value we provide to financial institutions at http://www.microsoft.com/industry/financialservices/default.mspx