Another Framework
I was browsing around the MSDN site recently and found that there is a new framework called Information Bridge Framework. Well, what is it?? IBF (not sure if this is an official short-form yet!!) is a set of tools and technologies that allow MS Office applications to seamlessly connect to enterprise systems and integrate with them. This would be very useful in situations wherein information workers are more comfortable in using Office systems and want some information from their enterprise systems without having to leave the Office environment.
Looks very interesting and have just downloaded the SDK and all related documents. Having worked with the Research Pane, Smart Documents, Smart Tags etc, the IBF looks very similar in its feature set, but I need to dig up more. Will do so in the near future and write some articles around it.