Source: Lab49
Lab49, a consulting firm that specializes in building advanced applications for global financial institutions, today announced it has formed a practice dedicated to developing Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications for the financial services industry.
WPF provides a next-generation development platform for graphical user interfaces that incorporates two and three dimensional graphics and animations, real-time data feeds, and rich user interaction. It enables smooth and scalable rendering at a fraction of the effort required by previous platforms.
"Current user interfaces, such as trade blotters and pricing screens, tend to pack traders' monitors with dense, inflexible grids of numbers with little enrichment or visualization. They tend to present data, not information. WPF, a cornerstone of Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, lowers the entry barrier for rich, attractive, visual, and interactive GUIs. The technology harnesses the full power of today's graphics hardware to provide a fast and responsive visualization of data," said Daniel Chait, founder and director, Lab49.
As an early adopter of WPF, the consultancy has been prototyping and applying WPF to financial applications since its introduction. Lab49 is the first to create a dedicated WPF practice within the financial services industry. Initial client projects include developing a prototype for a buy-side order management system and an algorithmic trading workstation for a top investment bank.
Consolidating this experience enables the consultancy to respond to the market's need for software applications that can work effectively with vast volumes of data and complex business events.
"The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and Windows Presentation Foundation represent a powerful new toolset for creating better, more innovative applications. Lab49 combines deep knowledge of the industry with hands-on experience in this new technology," said Stevan Vidich, Industry Architect with Microsoft Financial Services.
"We are leveraging WPF to bring our financial clients a richer, more sophisticated user experience than previously possible, and in a shorter time frame. With WPF it is simpler and more cost-effective to create visual user interfaces that are flexible, configurable and responsive. As an integral part of Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, WPF applications can be deployed on a wide variety of workstation configurations and leverage Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to interoperate with new and existing line-of-business applications on practically any operating system or application platform. This deep integration enables applications to be richly connected to changing data and sensitive business processes," said Matt Davey, director of technology, Lab49.