Microsoft’s Legacy
Recently Microsoft let everyone know that the company is celebrating their 50th anniversary. We here at Sperry Software congratulate Microsoft on this amazing achievement, especially when you consider that 85% of all businesses fail in the first 3 years and 95% fail in the first five years.
Sperry Software’s Journey
While Sperry Software is not (yet) celebrating 50 years, in June we will be celebrating 26 years of being incorporated and 23 years since our first sale (which was Attachment Save, a product we still sell today). Now, Sperry Software sells over 30 Outlook add-ins along with our flagship product, Safeguard Send for Microsoft 365 (which helps prevent outgoing email mistakes).
This is a picture of me, Mike Sperry, the president of Sperry Software in my home office. In the background you can see several sets of CDs and DVDs and these were part of a Microsoft program called MSDN. Once I learned that Microsoft was embracing developers to develop and extend their products (in particular Microsoft Outlook) I decided to “hitch my wagon to that train”.
In the image you can see above my head is a sampling of the 2007/2008 Enterprise Server series of MSDN, and in the upper right you can see my favorite release, the platinum Office 2003 and Windows XP release (which was Microsoft’s best release for several years IMHO). And finally, below that in mid right you can see the MSDN library from 1998 and 1999. The MSDN library was so valuable because it was the critical information that developers needed to succeed. I often like to say to any office visitors “You see kids, back in the day the internet used to arrive by mail.”
The best part of being a Microsoft Partner is the support from Microsoft for developers. From the 1998/1999 MSDN library CDs to the ISV Success program (Sperry Software was a beta member of ISV Success and is still in that excellent program) to what is now known as the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program (MAICPP), we enjoy top-tier development environments, accurate documentation through their Learn series, and resources developers need to help us create outstanding products and services.
Looking Ahead With AI
We already have developed several modern Outlook add-ins that work with new Outlook, and we plan on adding more. In particular, we are planning on adding AI capabilities into both Safeguard Send for Microsoft 365 and Send Individually for Microsoft 365.
As we move into the age of AI, we look forward to continuing our relationship in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program!