CCF 2009 (Available from MSDN Subscriber downloads) introduces several enhancements to quickly compose UI components and services spanning multiple interaction channels.

CCF particularly fits to the following scenarios:

• Delivery of composite applications such as the teller desktop in banking or Customer Service Representatives (CSR) desktop in contact centers. This scenario is also appropriate to extend legacy applications by adding new features or to adapt existing processes into a new technology.
  
• Multi-channel infrastructures to support:
  • Cross-Channel business processes
  • Unified access to customer information spread across different systems
    
• Development of new multi-channel front-end obeying an IT strategy heading towards a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

More details from

CCF 2009 Brochure

CCF 2009 Datasheet for Banking

CCF 2009 Datasheet for Service Providers

For the developers, new blogs are coming

• http://blogs.msdn.com/arkum will help you to understand the key concepts for our Multi Channel Engine component (MCE)
• http://blogs.msdn.com/benlau/ still empty :-) But promising :-)

Also I really recommend the Architectural Patterns for Distributed Computing from the Architecture Journal. It helps to understand the pattern addressed by the DCS component provided by CCF...

PT/EXPO COMM CHINA is the largest telecommunications/IT industry event ever held in the world's fastest growing telecom sector.

Microsoft is of course at the show with a nice booth and CCF team is part of it :-)

For those interested to know how to write CCF in Chinese (sorry for the poor camera quality of my mobile)

Bennet (left side) from China Technology Center and Erqiang (right side) in charge of selling CCF...

The booth..

CCF 2008 is now RTM!

To summarize, CCF in three words is:

1. AGGREGATION
2. AUTOMATION
3. ACCELERATE

Let's elaborate on each one.

AGGREGATION

From a business perspective, it's: " I need a 360° view of my customer"

From a technical perspective, it's: I need to gather and monitor events from

• Front end applications. “If I click on this button, then take the value from this textbox and update the CCF Context."
• Backend applications. “When a call is coming, I need to call a web service and populate the context with the response”
• Channels (CTI, Email, Chat...). “I want my CCF Hosted application to subscribe to new call event”

Aggregation of data requires asynchronous capabilities. What’s new with CCF 2008?

1. New Messaging and Loading patterns based on the patterns & practices Composite UI Application Block (CAB)
2. CCF integrates the Windows Workflow runtime engine, library, graphical designer, and other capabilities (see later for Automation)
3. CCF is built upon Windows Communication Fundation (WCF) for Multi Channel capabilities but also all CCF Web Services.
4. New flexible Multi Channel Architecture (MCH) that allows any hosted application to subscribe to events coming from a Channel ( A channel is a communication from the server to the client. It can be a voice call, an email, or a custom application you might develop in order to push information from server to clients...)

Aggregation means controlling the performance and the security. What’s new with CCF 2008?

1. Throttled Sessions. CCF 2008 enables you to set a limit on the number of sessions an agent can participant in.
2. Dynamic applications. Allows an agent to manually select an application from a list. Then CCF loads the application and attaches it in the CCF Session.
3. Enterprise Single Sign On (ESSO). Embedded with CCF. Allows agents to sign in to all communication channels and applications providing their credentials only once

(I will publish later a demo showing all these capabilities)

Aggregation means that you need to have a flexible UI is order to decide where to display the data (Composite application block concept)

• CCF2008 allows a user to choose dynamically whether to start in Desktop or Toolbar mode.
• UI code is public and supports ClickOnce deployment (as well as CCF logic)

AUTOMATION

From a business perspective, it's:

• “I need customer centric processes not system centric”
• “I want to be sure that my advisers follow the 5 steps to success. If they do it, we’ll improve First Contact Resolution rate by 2% (i.e. Better customer satisfaction)”

From a technical perspective, it's: "I need a tool to orchestrate activities but I don’t want to focus on the connectivity of the front end applications"

What's new with CCF2008?

• Hosted Application Toolkit (HAT)
• New sub-system in CCF 2008 based on Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)
• Extensible application user interface integration framework to provide CCF application automation
• CCF Workflow panel implemented with HAT. This allows many new scenarios like scripting or human workflow

ACCELERATE

From a business perspective, it's:

• “I need to reduce Average Handling Time”
• “I need to improve productivity”
• “I need to reduce time to integration”
• “I need a ROI in less than one year”

I will not details these one as it's already described in all posts, however these benefits are much more important that any others

From a technical perspective (focus of this post)

• “I need to reduce code”
• “I need to decouple the logic from the implementation, so that I can easily migrate my LOB applications”
• "I need to reduce the time to Integration, the maintenance and the deployment effort"

What's new with CCF2008?

• Data Driven adapters
• Extensible framework components that encapsulate the details of user interface interaction (the UI is described in a XML document)
• Allow separation of logic (automation piece or flow of information) and implementation (how do I find this textbox? How do I click this button?)

• ClickOnce support (no deployment issues)

Seems that it's quite difficult to find the Virtual labs links.

Here is the list of labs:

• Hosting Win32 Applications: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6973289
• Hosting Windows Forms Applications: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6973290
• CCF-Hosting Web Applications Virtual Lab: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6949284
• CCF-Using Single Sign-On: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6949285

Just finished the publication of CCF 2005 virtual labs. 

A virtual lab is a way to try out products in a virtual online environment. In 90 minutes or less, you evaluate and test some of Microsoft's newest products through a series of guided, hands-on labs.

Go here: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/default.aspx?culture=en-US

Search for CCF, you should get 4 online labs:

Win32 automation

Web Automation

Winform automation

SSO

Enjoy!

You can now get online training for CCF 2005 .NET 2.0 Edition: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1a4c0014-3593-4457-9494-3c37aba01581&DisplayLang=en

To come soon: Online Virtual Labs (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/default.aspx)

Some press annoucements:

T-Com Puts Customers First With Microsoft Customer Care Framework

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-22TCOMCCFPR.mspx

Microsoft Helps TE Data Improve Customer Service

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=199064

New Podcasts & Video Streams

CTO Super Panel: Harnessing Innovation: http://www.telecomtv.com/lilly.asp?url=http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=157123544&action=nav

Michel Burger, CTO, Microsoft Communication Sector about TELCO 2.0

http://www.telecomtv.com/lilly.asp?url=videoview.asp?ttv_id=812&action=video&bit=hi&cp=view

Managing the Customer Experience

http://www.telecomtv.com/lilly.asp?url=videoview.asp?ttv_id=897&action=video&bit=hi&cp=view

New approaches to customer care

http://www.telecomtv.com/lilly.asp?url=themainagenda/index.asp?inkyina=770&campchaz=od&action=video

eTOM & NGOSS: the model for the future?

http://www.telecomtv.com/lilly.asp?url=themainagenda/index.asp?inkyina=1181&campchaz=od&action=video

Microsoft BI capabilities

Revenue Insurance Standard KPIs (RASK)

http://www.tmforum.org/browse.aspx?articleID=26366

Microsoft and SITRONICS Telecom Solutions Collaborate to Deliver End-to-End Billing Services to Operators

Vodafone Czech Republic selected the SITRONICS TS/Microsoft solution for its focus on business processes and for its inherent scalability and flexibility in defining service bundles. In addition, it is based on industry standards. The solution is designed to help Vodafone retain its leadership position among enterprise customers by facilitating the effective creation of tailor-made fixed and mobile convergent offerings. The implementation will also include IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform integration. Customer Care Framework will help Vodafone’s customer care processes by simplifying and speeding up the time taken to fulfill complex orders from its corporate subscribers. Call center agents, through a single sign-on and a user-friendly interface, will get a 360-degree view of the person they are speaking to and, as a result, can help reduce call handling times. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, a powerful marketing and sales tool, is also providing users with customer intelligence, within a familiar Microsoft Office environment.

 http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/feb07/02-12MSSITRONICSPR.mspx

TMW 2007 (www.tmforum.org)

Join the Microsoft Stand: Hall 2, Stand no. 74 and discover CCF 2008 coming later this year!

Our CTO will present  a session about "Managing your network mash-ups: Leveraging Web 2.0 for a Service Advantage"

We are also involved in a Catalyst project: RASK

"The RASK Project simulates a working environment in a telco organization and provides analysis, reporting and integration of Revenue Assurance KPIs, regardless of how or where the information originated from.  The project consists of several systems that monitor different aspects of Revenue Assurance, an end-to-end dashboard, and a reporting and business intelligence application. Working in conjunction with Tata Consulting Services, Subex Azure, Datamat, cVidya, Microsoft is providing Microsoft Performance Suite and BizTalk Server to deliver the analysis and messaging infrastructure.  The Catalyst Project has been designed using NGOSS principles and the KPIs are based on the Revenue Assurance KPI concept, taxonomy and structure inspired by the Revenue Assurance Modeling team’s guidelines."

Find here some presentations we did:

Managing the converged world – Telecom TV 16/05/2006

http://www.telecomtv.com/tmw06/convergedworld.asp

New Approaches to Customer Care – Telecom TV 17/05/2006

http://www.telecomtv.com/tmw06/customercare.asp

CTO Interview, Michel Burger – Telecom TV 18/05/2006

http://www.telecomtv.com/vzine/may06/page09.asp

Also TMF is launching a new project charter called ICM: Integrated Customer Centric Management. This project has the following scope:

• using the customer (consumer and corporate, initially) as a starting point, it will consider processes, systems, blueprints, and standards whose existence or absence are a contributing factor to current state
• Factors that impede or assist in the delivery of excellent customer and network service levels
• Identification of how e-TOM and SID can be augmented to deliver appropriate customer experiences
• Identification of meaningful measures that will differentiate customer and service level’s by market segment, whilst identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) specific to ICCM.
• Identify the associated issues with systems integration for commercial off the shelf (COTS) and legacy systems

Of course I will join in order to contribute to add this "Customer Experience" missing layer in eTOM :-)

Microsoft is launching a community called Skyscrapr that is geared toward four types of architects: solutions architects, infrastructure architects, strategic architects, and industry architects.

Of course CCF is one of these solutions.

Just realized that there is a CCF Webcast for developers (from February 18th) available from here:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032289120&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US