NEW YORK - Microsoft has released a new Financial Services Office Business Applications Component Library.
At the sixth annual Microsoft Financial Services Developer
Conference, here, Microsoft released its new OBA (Office Business
Applications) component library to help financial services
organizations build applications on the 2007 Microsoft Office System.
Microsoft's last major update of its OBA platform was at its Microsoft Office System Developer Conference in
San Jose, Calif., in February, where the company announced a new OBA
sample application kit and an OBA composition tool kit. At that
February conference, Microsoft also announced new OBA library
components for financial systems.
However, at the financial services conference here on March 12,
Microsoft released new components and delivered new functionality with
the Financial Services OBA Component Library. The library consists of
more than 90 components that serve as common financial methodologies
and standard Web service protocols.
Chris Bryant, senior product manager of Office Platform Strategy at
Microsoft has described OBAs as composite applications, built on the
2007 Microsoft Office system, that use the interfaces of Microsoft
Office products and connect to other Microsoft technologies like
Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
In the case of financial systems, OBA solutions model how people
work day-to-day within financial services firms by integrating
components with existing workflows, said Mike Walker, architecture
strategist for the Worldwide Financial Services Group at Microsoft. The
OBAs are also aimed at reducing training efforts and at trimming
development time, he said.
"The Financial Services OBA Component Library is a comprehensive set
of OBA components that span across key areas in the banking, insurance
and capital markets industries," Walker said. "The components are built
in a composite way. This enables customers to assemble OBA components
into existing or new business processes."
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