Microsoft features Piryx in their Partner Solution MarketPlace

We have been fortunate to work closely with the Microsoft team since the launch of their Bizspark program. Microsoft wrote a Case Study on how Piryx has utilized their services to save money, and be more effective; please read it below:

Piryx

Startup Shaves Two Months, $20,000 Off Development

Posted: 6/11/2009

New company Piryx wanted to change the way political campaigns are managed in the United States—but first it had to change the minds of investors who said Microsoft® software was too expensive for a startup. It did so with the help of Microsoft BizSpark™ technology, which provides access to Microsoft development tools, key parts of the Microsoft application platform, and production use rights to Microsoft servers. Piryx saved two months and U.S.$20,000 on development—“huge for a startup,” according to its CEO.

Business Needs

Among the lessons of the last U.S. presidential campaign was the importance of the Internet to the electoral process. That lesson was nothing new to Tom Serres, CEO of Piryx. His startup company was created precisely to bring technology tools to campaigns at all levels of American politics, tools that formerly would have cost campaigns tens of thousands of dollars or more in consulting fees.

The first tools that Serres and his co-founders envisioned were those for reporting contributions and expenditures, and for fundraising.

“We started with the most difficult things that campaigns struggle with,” says Serres. “Compliance reports are lengthy, painful processes that can take two to three staffers at least a week to prepare—and that’s for smaller campaigns. And the importance of Internet fundraising is now obvious—which makes it crucial for campaigns to make it easy for their supporters to make contributions.”

Piryx began to create demonstration versions of its software using Microsoft® technologies including the Windows Server® operating system and the Microsoft .NET Framework. “We wanted to use the .NET Framework rather than open source alternatives like PHP or Ruby because we think the quality of the development tools available is better.”

Piryx spent about U.S.$8,000 in Windows licenses—a lot of money for a startup having to watch every dollar. “We couldn’t afford as many licenses as we wanted,” acknowledges Serres. “It definitely slowed our development effort.”

And that was of great concern to potential funders. “When we went to potential investors, we got a backlash because they said we were using expensive software, expensive developers,” recalls Serres. “The investors definitely wanted us to shift to open source to bring down the development cost. But moving to open source would have lengthened our time to market. We were getting worried.”

Solution

Then Serres attended a Silicon Valley conference at which Microsoft executives announced a new initiative: Microsoft BizSpark™ technology. The program is designed to give startup companies access to software, support, and a rich, vibrant ecosystem of peers, partners, and support resources around the globe.

We shaved at least two months and $20,000 off of our development time and budget because of… BizSpark. To a startup company trying to get to market before the competition, that’s huge. Tom Serres CEO, Piryx

Instead of the standard licensing rates for Microsoft software, BizSpark provides licenses at no charge—a $100 program fee is assessed after three years—to all Microsoft Visual Studio® Team System 2008 Team Suite development system software, with MSDN® Premium subscription. Startups also receive production use rights to host a “software as a service” solution over the Internet, using many of the latest Microsoft application platform technologies. They even become eligible for offerings such as the Microsoft Azure™ Services Platform, a Microsoft solution for scalable, highly secure cloud computing.

On the support side, BizSpark participants receive the expert information resources that accompany MSDN subscriptions, as well as technical support and customer support assistance. Startups are connected to a global community of network partners who are actively engaged with high-potential, early-stage startups. The program even offers visibility, through Microsoft conferences, MicrosoftStartupZone.com, and other resources, to boost a startup’s profile.

“When I learned about BizSpark, I realized it was exactly the solution we were looking for,” says Serres. “With one move, we would address the development challenges we faced with a limited budget for Windows licenses, we would expand our pool of potential partners and investors, and we would create a close relationship with Microsoft—definitely something that can be invaluable to a startup company like ours.”

Benefits

Piryx was one of the first companies to join BizSpark, and it came to market with its first products five months later. In addition to enabling the company to develop in the Microsoft environment, as Piryx preferred, BizSpark sped time to market and cut development costs, according to Serres.

“We shaved at least two months and $20,000 off of our development time and budget because of the benefits we gained through BizSpark,” he says. “To a startup company trying to get to market before the competition, that’s huge.”

Part of the faster time to market came from being able to upgrade all of its developers to Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite. “Open source tools for C# are okay, but nothing compares to the full Visual Studio environment,” Serres says. “It makes it easier to debug, to do unit testing, to do everything we need to get a quality product out as quickly as possible.”

The licensing support from Microsoft also made it possible for Piryx to run Windows Server 2008 for production deployment of their application and, now, to consider using Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 data management software and the Azure Services Platform. “We’re looking at hosting this solution for our customers. Scalability to support millions of transactions per day is essential,” says Serres. “We’ll get that from SQL Server and Azure. And we’ll get SQL Server and Azure from BizSpark.”

As important as the licensing support, is the relationship that Piryx now has with Microsoft, according to Serres. “One of the great things about working with Microsoft is the support we get from the people at BizSpark,” he says. “We have a close relationship with the BizSpark team. They give us encouragement, feedback, ask how they can help us grow the company. They’ve joined us for meetings with venture capitalists, involved us in Microsoft events, even just taken us out for informal gatherings to discuss our business and how they can help.”