Once the tool was installed, the company streamlined a few of its management functions. The product's core management features automatically track configurations and report any changes, so technicians no longer had to manually enter that information. A network monitoring feature correlated network activity so the staff had more insight into any performance issues.
While some companies may view the ads as annoying, Davison has found them helpful. His company has purchased more than half a dozen products after seeing various ads.
Another benefit from the freeware is its substantial use of social networking to encourage users to interact with one another. "The Spiceworks community gives me a million people I can reach out to and ask for and share advice," says Davison. The community has become an ad hoc extension to the firm's IT department, offering advice that has remedied a handful of problems that the staff could not figure out on its own.
In the spring of 2010, RJ Lee augmented its use of the system through Spiceworks' Reach program, which enables cloud services vendors to create custom plug-ins so customers can add, manage and monitor cloud services within its software. Hundreds of management plug-ins are available from vendors such as HP, LogMeIn, Rackspace and Symantec. "With Spiceworks, we don't have to work with different Web-based portals to monitor and provision any of our cloud resources," Davison says.
Next on the agenda is to create a portal so employees can submit trouble requests. Spiceworks IT Help Desk Portal's trouble ticket module organizes and prioritizes tickets based on customized criteria, such as due dates. A project management function will enable RJ Lee to delegate, prioritize and track time spent on various initiatives.
To date, the management tool has been a good fit for the company. One potential concern is the possible lack of the scalability and features midsize and large companies want in a management tool. Also, as a relatively new player in the management space, Spiceworks may encounter skepticism about its long term viability, especially since it has a non-traditional business model.
However, RJ Lee has no qualms about the vendor or its product. "Companies do not need to be scared off from free software," says Davison. "We have found one that meets our needs."
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