Clarity Headlines

Gary Farr wins 1st Runner Up in Microsoft's RIA Run Contest

2008-07-23T20:40:30Z

Gary Farr, a consultant at Clarity Consulting, won first runner up in the RIA Run contest with his Retro Command entry. The RIA Run contest was designed to showcase knowledge of Silverlight 2 by building the hottest, next generation game. The winners were chosen for their use of Silverlight features, originality and entertainment value. You can view Gary's winning entry at http://www.devx.com/RIA/Game/38023.

Clarity Consulting Helps Follett Higher Education Group Redefine Retail Experience With CourseTracks(TM)

2008-06-24T19:17:00Z

Solution provides real-time data, reduces costs, and improves inventory management while delivering A+ consumer experience

Clarity Consulting Inc. today announced the full deployment of the new CourseTracks(TM) course materials management
system for Follett Higher Education Group, part of Follett Corporation -- the country's largest provider of educational tools and services and the
industry's pmier wholesale book distributor.

CourseTracks is a unique solution that redefines the bookstore experience from the inside out: delivering cost savings and improved productivity while
simultaneously enhancing the consumer experience at more than 800 college bookstores operated by the Follett Higher Education Group.

Working with Follett's business and technology teams, Clarity built CourseTracks to support a diverse range of new and existing bookstore
management functions including inventory tracking, ordering, and receiving, in-store book buyback, and data and system connectivity. Leveraging Microsoft
technologies including Visual Studio .NET, SQL Server, Crystal Reports and a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Course Tracks' framework and
infrastructure integrates seamlessly with Follett's existing platforms to create a centralized information system connecting Follett's stores and Home
Office.

"Follett is singularly focused on helping our customers realize the full potential of higher education, and leveraging cutting-edge technology is a
critical part of the equation," said Doug Thompson, Sr. Vice psident, Information Technology, Follett Higher Education Group. "Working with Clarity
Consulting, we've been able to create solutions I am confident will drive business and brand benefits as well as core productivity and cost savings.
Collaborating with Clarity on CourseTracks has been a phenomenal experience. Their process and professionalism has allowed us to consider and, where
appropriate, redefine the bookstore experience."

In-store, CourseTracks uses a SmartClient model to help employees track and synchronize data such as campus course offerings and associated textbook
needs, textbook inventory levels, purchase orders, receiving information, and student buyback transactions. The system automates many functions, which
gives employees more time to spend on the sales floor focusing on customer service. In addition, the in-store application features a more intuitive,
icon-based user interface that helps reduce training time for new employees.

At the home office, CourseTracks provides greater visibility and control. The customized store-to-office architecture allows Follett to maintain
"perpetual inventory mode" -- processing up to 2.8 million records on an average day and providing up-to-the-minute information on which books are
in-stock or out, where they're located, and what's "hot" vs. not. All of which helps improve management efficiency, pricing, and trending insight,
which in turn saves time and money.

And for Follett's customers -- pdominantly college students -- the CourseTracks solution makes it easier to find what they're looking for,
faster.

"Clarity believes there is a huge opportunity for retailers to not only improve operations but differentiate their brand through smart technology,"
said Don Peterson, Principal, Clarity Consulting. "Savvy partners like Follett have recognized this early and we're thrilled to have supported them
in the creation of CourseTracks. We believe CourseTracks is a great example of the value of custom software as a practical and strategic business tool."

About Clarity Consulting Inc.
Clarity Consulting Inc. designs, develops, and implements custom software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business
results. Clarity's versatile and talented consulting teams specialize in experience design, application development, business intelligence, legacy
integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc.
is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. For more information about our company, our people, and our solutions, please visit www.claritycon.com.

About Follett Higher Education Group
Follett Higher Education Group of Oak Brook, IL, is the leading provider of bookstore services and the foremost supplier of used books in North
America. Follett services four million students and over 375,000 faculty through more than 800 stores. Follett also services more than 1,600
independent campus stores with its wholesale services, and has the most visited e-commerce collegiate Web site, efollett.com, that provides services
and products through a network of more than 900 campus stores. For additional information about Follett, please visit www.fheg.follett.com.

Clarity Consulting Turns Unified Communications Promise Into Real-World Benefits at Microsoft Developer Conference

2008-02-13T18:26:13Z

Clarity Consulting Inc. today demonstrated a new Unified Communications (UC) retail solution at Microsoft's Office System Developer Conference in San Jose, California. The innovative solution -- highlighted in today's keynote and at Microsoft booth 129-4 -- was created to increase productivity and reduce costs for retailers while improving the shopping experience for consumers and showcasing business opportunities for developers.

Clarity's UC system features Microsoft's Office Communications Server and a combination of hardware and software components that let retail sales associates "go mobile." Using table PCs, the solution lets associates get away from the counter and get onto the floor, where they can provide better service to customers and increase sales. Each tablet PC features UC software that enables:

    -- Product Lookup:  find key items, pricing information and images --
       using the SKU or a bar code scan -- from the retailer's product catalog
       or database.  Monitor start of day (SOD) inventory status in-store and
       at participating stores on-network.
    -- Inventory Check:  initiate Inventory Check requests to any sales
       associate "online" -- whether around the corner or around the country.
       If accepted, the recipient sees the product look-up info for the item
       and is connected to the originating sales associate via voice or IM to
       answer questions.
    -- Checkout:  complete sales on-the-spot.  The tablet PC displays a simple
       tender screen with payment type and details -- the customer can
       complete the transaction and take the receipt or fill in his/her email
       address and have it emailed to them.
    -- Customer Callback Request:  answer customer inquiries real-time.
       Receive a request notification -- along with details about the
       transaction including a copy of the receipt -- on the tablet PC then
       initiate a callback to the customer immediately. (Note: the customer's
       phone number is embedded vs. displayed, thereby protecting privacy).

For shoppers, all of this means near-instant access to information, personalized service, a more efficient shopping experience and, ultimately, a higher level of satisfaction.

For the retailer, it means increased efficiency and productivity of sales teams, improved knowledge sharing, and happier, more loyal customers. The solution is also flexible and cost-effective: by leveraging Microsoft technology it can be integrated into a retailer's existing Windows-based infrastructure. In addition, the components can be customized to serve a variety of industries by adding key features including: universal access to voice mail, instant messaging, text messaging, presence tracking, individual and group calendaring and address book synchronization.

"The key benefit of Unified Communications is in its ability to help companies increase efficiency by integrating communication functions into applications," said Jon Rauschenberger, Chief Technology Officer, Clarity Consulting. "By creating 'communication-enabled' applications like the ones we're demonstrating with Microsoft here today, we can illustrate how UC can significantly improve the way businesses perform. And for developers, we can open up new channels for innovation and revenue generation."

For more information on Unified Communications solutions, please contact Clarity Consulting at http://www.claritycon.com.

About Clarity Consulting Inc.

Clarity Consulting Inc. develops, customizes and implements software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business results. Clarity's versatile and talented consultants specialize in application development, business intelligence, legacy integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. For more information about our company, our people, and our solutions, please visit http://www.claritycon.com.

Clarity Consulting Unveils Point of Sale (POS) System of the Future at National Retail Federation Convention

2008-01-14T18:47:49Z

Built in collaboration with Microsoft, solution increases productivity, reduces costs and provides custom, one-of-a-kind consumer experience at final point of sale

Clarity Consulting Inc. today announced its new POS system of the future, on display in Booth 818 at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention and Expo (Retail’s BIG Show) in New York City, January 13-16. Built in conjunction with Microsoft, the unique system is designed to significantly impact retail’s last three feet by delivering an improved consumer experience while reducing checkout times, shrinkage and training costs.

Leveraging Microsoft’s Windows platform, the new POS System is a combination of hardware and software that can be integrated into a retailer’s existing Windows-based infrastructure to ultimately help redefine the checkout experience from start to finish.

For shoppers, the new system creates opportunity for interaction – something that many traditional systems currently do not allow. The POS System of the Future features a 15-inch touch screen facing the customer that shows images of everything scanned and purchased. The screen also gives the user a one-touch menu for viewing items, taking away items and paying for their items. In addition, the system features a marketing cube displaying current store promotions so consumers can stay up-to-date.

For the retailer, the new system helps save time and money -- as much as 10 seconds per transaction which, in turn, can equate to millions of dollars based on the number of transactions a store logs.

A redesigned check-out lane puts everything within arms reach for cashiers, making it faster and more ergonomically efficient to handle each transaction.
The system also includes a fingerprint reader for touch access to the register.
In addition, it includes a “smart scale” that captures the weight and price of any food items with a single touch.

The new POS System also tackles the problem of product shrinkage – which can cost a retailer as much as $50 per lane, per week in lost revenue. Using an image recognition camera placed at the bottom of each cashier lane, the new system captures images of any items found on the bottom of a cart and automatically adds them to the transaction for the cashier. Lastly, the system can also reduce training costs because it uses pictures vs. words or phrases in many cases to make learning functions quicker and easier.

“This new POS System combines Microsoft’s innovative technology and vision with Clarity’s development, design and integration expertise to deliver a full-featured business solution,” said Geoff Thomas, general manager of Microsoft’s U.S. Retail and Hospitality Group. “The result empowers both the consumer and retailer – and redefines the shopping experience in the process.”

The POS System is based on emerging tools from Microsoft’s software platform, including Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, Windows Presentation Foundation, the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and Microsoft Expression Design Tools. Clarity worked with Microsoft and 16 other vendors to develop and integrate the software in six weeks.

“This POS System is a true demonstration of the value of collaboration,” said Gary Gilmer, Principal, Clarity Consulting. “For retailers using Microsoft software or considering a switch to Microsoft, we hope it illustrates just how much innovation they can expect. We also hope it shows how Clarity can help them get the most from their software investment.”

About Clarity Consulting Inc.
Clarity Consulting Inc. develops, customizes and implements software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business results. Clarity’s versatile and talented consultants specialize in application development, business intelligence, legacy integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. For more information about our company, our people, and our solutions, please visit www.claritycon.com.

# # #

Media Contact:
Sharen Santoski
Signal Rock Communications
+1 847-312-0806
Sharen@Signalrockcomm.com

Clarity Consulting and K2 collaborate to enhance development process

2008-01-07T22:10:13Z

Clarity Consulting today announced their collaboration with K2 – one of the world’s leading process management, application and workflow specialists -- to further streamline software development processes, improve efficiencies and deliver even greater results for clients.
Over the years, Clarity has built their business around the smart design, development and management of software solutions, based predominantly on Microsoft technologies. K2 specializes in productivity and process management and has created the K2 platform to help automate and manage people, services, information and systems into a single application -- eliminating redundancies and dramatically increasing efficiencies.

Both companies serve as strategic technology partners for their clients, but by combining efforts, they can further increase productivity, reduce costs and deliver “right in time” solutions to meet unique customer needs.

“At Clarity, our number one goal is to create software solutions that meet customer requirements the first time, every time,” said Jeff Smith, CEO, Clarity Consulting. “K2 shares a similar vision and commitment to putting the best foundation in place to deliver results. By working with K2 and their platform, we can ensure our processes are beyond best-in-class, which means we can create even greater value for our customers.”

Information regarding Clarity and K2 joint projects will be available upon their completion, based on customer consent. For immediate questions, please contact Clarity or K2 at info@claritycon.com or www.k2.com.

# # #

Media Contact:
Monica Rohleder
Signal Rock Communications
+1 847-606-1973
monica@signalrockcomm.com

Clarity Consulting Simplifies Web 2.0 Development With New Windows Live Controls for Microsoft

2007-12-20T06:45:07Z

Combined with their Facebook Developer Toolkit for Microsoft, Clarity seeks to accelerate development of media-rich, social networking applications.

Clarity Consulting Inc. today announced the availability of a new Windows Live control set for Microsoft. The combination of tools will help make it faster and easier for developers to start building applications on the Windows Live platform.

Debuted at Microsoft's DevConnections event, the set of reusable controls is part of the Windows Live Toolkit for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 supporting ASP.NET Server Controls (including Contacts, Silverlight streaming media, ID authentication and Login View) as well as Visual Studio Project Template (including ASP.NET Windows Live website).

In addition to the new Windows Live controls, Clarity also built Microsoft's Facebook Developer Toolkit, which allows developers to quickly build Facebook applications using Microsoft tools. These combined efforts support Clarity's overall goal of making it easier and more rewarding for developers to drive Web 2.0 innovation through the creation of compelling, revenue-generating applications.

According to Gartner, Inc. -- one of the world's leading analyst firms-- while most business can readily add specific Web 2.0 technologies to their products and platforms, they find it much more challenging to add the social dimension. "At Clarity, we believe this is where developers can take a lead," said Jon Rauschenberger, Chief Technology Officer, Clarity Consulting. "By creating applications that help balance technology and social attributes while driving innovation, developers can make it simpler for businesses to get the most from their Web 2.0 strategies."

Developers using the new Windows Live controls will be able to add Windows Live authentication to their websites with minimal coding and no additional cost. In addition, they can embed streaming media into their web pages without writing more code. Control specifics and key benefits include:

-- Contacts control -- allows users to include Windows Live Contacts in their web pages, raise client and server events for sign-in/sign-out, data transfer activities and increase word of mouth viral traffic for their websites.

-- Silverlight StreamingMedia control -- gives users the ability to play their videos from their Silverlight Streaming account, specify account credentials and choose the video they want to display on their web page.

-- ID Authentication control -- provides for quick Windows Live ID authentication provisioning for applications. Users drag and drop the control on their web page, provision the application ID and compile/run the project. By using the ID Authentication control, developers can quickly add the Windows Live authentication experience to their web site.

-- IDLoginView control -- extends the functionality of ASP.NET Login View control by adding support for Windows Live ID authentication, providing a single sign on experience for web site users, and adding new templates for providing richness in the developers website.

To check out the Windows Live controls go to: http://dev.live.com/. For the Facebook Toolkit, visit http://www.codeplex.com/FacebookToolkit

Clarity Consulting Wins Microsoft's PhizzPop Design Challenge in Chicago; Advances to National Competition

2007-12-20T06:37:41Z

Local firm beat top Interactive, Web, and design agencies with solution that pushed limits of technology and creativity in problem-solving.

Clarity Consulting Inc. announced today their win at Microsoft's innovative design challenge -- PhizzPop -- in Chicago. PhizzPop challenges software developers and designers to push the limits of creativity by developing unique consumer experiences using Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight technologies. Clarity's winning solution, which leveraged Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation, offered airline passengers a simplified reservation and check-in process on the Web and personalized entertainment within the aircraft.

Built using a combination of tools from Microsoft including Visual Studio 2008, Expression Blend, and Expression Media Encoder, Clarity's solution was judged the best out of 5 other regional entries. While all entries succeeded in creating applications that were visually impressive, Clarity's stood out based on their ability to bring innovative thinking to their solution --delivering an interactive, personalized, and connected experience for passengers on any device, even their iPhones.

"At Clarity, we pride ourselves on always 'getting it right the first time' and we're thrilled to have proven that again at this week's Chicago PhizzPop challenge," said Jon Rauschenberger, CTO of Clarity Consulting. "The competition is a great affirmation of the power of development and design, personal commitment and innovative thinking -- things that Clarity believes in strongly. We were honored to compete with so many innovators in the industries of design, web and interactive and excited to be able to highlight the benefits of extending our own user experience innovation capabilities -- something we know is becoming more and more important to our clients."

The Chicago contest was judged by an esteemed group of individuals including Jeremy Alexis -- assistant professor at IIT's Institue of Design, Scott Kinkaid -- Vice President of Usability Practices at Usability Sciences and Carlos Segura -- one of the most revered graphic designers of our generation.

"We are very excited about the new Microsoft Expression suite of tools that support the designer -- developer workflow," said Kevin Marshall, Clarity's Director of Product Management and leader of the winning team." With only two days to implement a solution, we were able to quickly create and integrate design assets into our solution with each team member using a different application in the process."

The series of regional PhizzPop contests culminates in a battle against the regional winners at the 2008 South By Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin. Participating regions include New York, Boston, Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles and San Francisco winner AKQA.

Clarity Consulting Joins Microsoft Silverlight Partner Initiative; Advances Web 2.0 Offerings for Developers

2007-12-17T06:47:00Z

Supports company focus on simplifying and accelerating development of media-rich, social networking applications

Clarity Consulting Inc. today announced its membership in the Silverlight Partner Initiative, a technology and marketing program supporting Microsoft's Silverlight software platform. Clarity joined the Initiative to further its efforts in developing tools and solutions that make it easier and faster for developers and clients to create media-rich, Web 2.0 applications.

Microsoft Silverlight is a platform specially designed to deliver rich interactive applications for the Web that incorporate video and animation into an engaging user experience. Silverlight also reduces development and deployment costs and provides enhanced Web audio and video streaming and playback using industry-leading Windows Media technologies.

A long-time advocate of Microsoft technology, Clarity believes Silverlight is a key to helping bridge the gap between designers and developers by making it easier to generate design assets and code.

"By creating a universal language for media applications, Silverlight helps developers and designers speak the same language," said Kevin Marshall, Director of Product Management, Clarity Consulting. "In turn, that helps save time and money while creating more opportunity for innovation. Clarity is excited to be a member of the Silverlight Partner Initiative and an active participant in shaping the next generation of rich interactive applications."

Clarity has created several software solutions based on Silverlight and the Microsoft.NET Framework including a streaming media control for Silverlight Streaming accounts and the winning entry for Chicago's PhizzPop competition. They have also organized SilverlightDevCamp, a Silverlight developer community event, in San Francisco and Chicago. The company will continue to explore new applications and business oppotunities for the Web while delivering advanced tools, content and solutions for its customers.

Andrew Karcher Presents "Delivering Data using Reporting Services" at ASP.NET SIG

2007-08-21T18:22:00Z

SAN DIEGO, 08/21/2007 – Clarity's Andrew Karcher will present to the San Diego ASP.NET Sig on Tuesday 8/21/2007. Andrew's talk will cover "Delivering Data Using Reporting Services". Andrew is a Board Member of the San Diego .Net User Group and has presented to multiple user groups and code camps in the Southern California area on topics such as SQL Server 2005, .Net Development, and SharePoint Server 2007.

In this presentation, Andrew will discuss how Reporting Services can be used to present data in easy to use formats. Andrew will demonstrate how Reporting Services 2005 provides an easy way to build reports and disseminate needed information to all areas of your organization. This session will go over the basics of how to develop Reporting Services reports along with how to integrate those reports into your applications. The session will also cover some of the features of Reporting Services that make it an enterprise level reporting platform. For more information on this session, or to register visit the ASP.NET Sig web site. http://asp.sig.webpublishing.com/meeting.htm

About Clarity Consulting Inc.
Clarity Consulting Inc. develops, customizes and implements software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business results. Clarity’s versatile and talented consultants specialize in application development, business intelligence, legacy integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Additional information can be found at www.claritycon.com

Clarity CTO is Featured Speaker at Midwest ArcReady Tour on Web 2.0

2007-08-21T18:14:00Z

CHICAGO, 08/21/2007 – Jon Rauschenberger, CTO for Clarity Consulting together with Microsoft's Central Region Architect Evangelists will discuss lessons learned and best practices around collaboration, rich user experiences, and data syndication from existing Web 2.0 application architectures. The session will provide guidance on how current Microsoft platform technologies like AJAX for ASP.NET, SharePoint Server 2007, and WCF can be used to turn those lessons into a practical corporate Web 2.0 architecture. Jon's talk will also look at the next generation of Microsoft technologies like Silverlight and Visual Studio 2008 and discuss how architects can design and deploy applications beyond the current Web 2.0 experience.

ArcReady is a Microsoft sponsored presentation and panel discussion tour of the Midwest. This edition will begin in Detroit on 8/21 and end in Nashville on 9/28 and make stops in 13 other cities throughout the Midwest. The sessions will feature technologies and architecture around Web 2.0 and Jon Rauschenberger, CTO for Clarity Consulting. For more information on ArcReady and for a schedule of events, visit www.arcready.com.

About Clarity Consulting Inc.
Clarity Consulting Inc. develops, customizes and implements software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business results. Clarity’s versatile and talented consultants specialize in application development, business intelligence, legacy integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Additional information can be found at www.claritycon.com

Ryan Powers and Justin Petersen Present "Silverlight In-Depth" for August DevCares

2007-08-14T18:05:00Z

CHICAGO, 08/14/2007 – 2 Principals from Clarity presented the DevCares content on Silverlight for August. DevCares is a Microsoft sponsored Monthly half-day developer training session. Ryan Powers and Justin Petersen, Principals with Clarity Consulting, presented the downtown session at Clarity's office on 8/14/2007 and will be presenting the same content and demos to the suburban audience at Microsoft's office in Downer's Grove. For more information on DevCares or to sign up for the suburban session, visit www.devcares.com.

Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. The sessions covered different approaches to programming Silverlight and also showed how Silverlight can be integrated with ASP.NET and AJAX. The last session explored integrating media into Silverlight.

A video of the each session with a download for the session materials (slide deck and code samples) are available at www.claritycon.com/claritytv.

About Clarity Consulting Inc.
Clarity Consulting Inc. develops, customizes and implements software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business results. Clarity’s versatile and talented consultants specialize in application development, business intelligence, legacy integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Additional information can be found at www.claritycon.com

Clarity Presents an Introduction to Microsoft Silverlight at Chicago .NET User Group

2007-06-06T18:45:00Z

CHICAGO, 06/07/2007 – The June meeting of the Chicago .NET User Group (www.cnug.org) took place downtown on Wednesday night. Jon Rauschenberger, CTO at Clarity Consulting (www.claritycon.com), presented content covering an Introduction to Microsoft Silverlight. The session included the Silverlight Roadmap, Silverlight media capabilities, developing Silverlight applications using .NET and guidance on where Silverlight fits in the Microsoft development stack. Ryan Powers, a Principal with Clarity, joined Jon to show two technical demos. The first showed leveraging media from Silverlight using Microsoft Expression. The second demo included Silverlight HTML integration, and adding web service calls to Silverlight applications and using LINQ within a Silverlight application.

A video of the session with a download for the session materials (slide deck and code samples) are available here www.claritycon.com/claritytv.

About Clarity Consulting Inc.
Clarity Consulting Inc. develops, customizes and implements software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business results. Clarity’s versatile and talented consultants specialize in application development, business intelligence, legacy integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Additional information can be found at www.claritycon.com

Jon Rauschenberger presents on Windows Embedded at TechEd

2007-06-04T18:31:00Z

ORLANDO, 06/04/2007 – Jon Rauschenberger, Chief Technical Officer for Clarity Consulting and Ilya Bukshteyn, Director of Marketing at Microsoft for the Windows Embedded Platform, presented "The Windows Embedded Opportunity" breakout session at Microsoft's TechEd conference in Orlande. This session provided information users need about the features, latest versions and upcoming roadmaps for the Windows Embedded CE, Windows XP Embedded, and Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS) and Windows Vista for Embedded Systems platforms. The Microsoft Windows Embedded platform creates opportunities to save time and deliver more value for IT organizations that need to manage embedded devices such as ATMs, thin clients, point of service terminals, industrial controllers, medical devices, or GPS devices.

Jon presented a prototype gift registry embedded kiosk application developed for Crate and Barrel. This prototype showed how a Crate and Barrel customer could use an embedded application to visualize the products they are registering for together on a Virtual Table. The demo highlighted Windows Presentation Foundation, the new graphical subsystem of .net framework 3.0. In addition, the demo showed Visual Studio 2005, Expression Blend and the XP Embedded Studio tools used to develop, package and deploy the gift registry application as an embedded application to the kiosk hardware.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About Clarity Consulting Inc.
Clarity Consulting Inc. develops, customizes and implements software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business results. Clarity’s versatile and talented consultants specialize in application development, business intelligence, legacy integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Additional information can be found at www.claritycon.com

Clarity Developed Facebook Developer Toolkit Released

2007-05-24T05:36:00Z

CHICAGO, 05/24/2007 – The Facebook Developer Toolkit was released on http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/showcase/. This toolkit was developed by Clarity Consulting for Microsoft and is intended to simplify the experience of developers interacting with the Facebook API from .NET code. The Toolkit includes, a Facebook Rolodex written usinh Windows Presentation Foundatoin (WPF), a client wrapper to the Facebook API, a Friend Finder demonstrating LINQ and some sample windows and web controls.

This release coincides with the release of Facebook Platform 8 (F8). This Platform release is a major upgrade to the Facebook platform and enables developers to better write application that have deep integration with the Facebook site itself. Microsoft worked closely with Facebook on this platform launch to help enable developers to leverage the power of the improved platform.

About Clarity Consulting Inc.
Clarity Consulting Inc. develops, customizes and implements software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business results. Clarity’s versatile and talented consultants specialize in application development, business intelligence, legacy integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Additional information can be found at www.claritycon.com

Jon Rauschenberger and Jerry Brunning present on Orcas and LINQ at DevCares

2007-05-08T05:27:00Z

CHICAGO, 05/8/2007 – The May edition of Dev Cares took place in Chicago, IL on 5/8/2007 and in Downers Grove, IL on 5/24/2007. These sessions covered the next release of Visual Studio (codename "Orcas") and a significant new .net language feature LINQ (Language Integrated Query). The first session was presented by Jon Rauschenberger, the CTO of Clarity Consulting. That session, "A Lap Around Visual Studio Orcas" covered the new languague features in .net 3.5 and the improvements that are available in Orcas. The second session, "Practical LINQ" was presented by Jerry Brunning, a Partner with Clarity Consulting, and took a look at how to use LINQ and other important new language features in .net 3.5.

About Clarity Consulting Inc.
Clarity Consulting Inc. develops, customizes and implements software solutions to help clients achieve their unique visions and drive business results. Clarity’s versatile and talented consultants specialize in application development, business intelligence, legacy integration and e-commerce websites for a range of clients, from retail and manufacturing industries to financial institutions. Clarity Consulting Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Additional information can be found at www.claritycon.com