Spiceworks announces a passel of goodies from across the pond

It's always a lot of fun to speak to the folks from Spiceworks because doing so usually means that I'm in Austin, Texas. This conversation however was by phone. It was just as fun as speaking with them by phone, without all the distractions of Austin such as frosty beverages, rooftop parties, awesome food, and great scenery. I spoke with CSO Scott Abel about what's going on at SpiceWorld London this year. As always, Spiceworks gets me excited about technology, the possibilities of what a community can do, and true industry leadership. Spiceworks doesn't follow; it leads. And that is exciting.

This year Spiceworks' SpiceWorld London has the pleasure of being the venue for some significant announcements from Abel and company.

App Center

The App Center helps Spiceworks users develop apps that increase productivity for other community members. Members can develop apps and distribute them free of charge or for a fee.

"The Spiceworks App Center is a unique opportunity for the development community to reach a professional audience with enormous purchasing power," said Michael Maw, an independent developer and creator of the Pepper Pack app. "The platform is easy to build on and gives developers a new audience to reach with premium apps that are business-focused and can help professionals simplify their days."

If you have some fear of individually developed apps, the Spiceworks community reviews them and lets you know if there's a problem with an app.

New Featured Apps

Spiceworks introduced a series of new apps developed by independent programmers. These apps require Spiceworks 7.4.

• Pepper Pack - The Pepper Pack app gives IT professionals all the information they need to troubleshoot support tickets faster. It enables Spiceworks users to instantly view all devices assigned to an end-user and link those devices to a help desk ticket in a single click. Users can also manage and assign those devices, view detailed hardware & software information, and spot potential problems before they become larger issues.
• Hatch Project Management - Hatch is a project management app designed to help IT professionals organize and collaborate with team members on IT projects across their IT department. IT professionals can create new projects and add details including specific tasks, start dates, due dates, time worked and estimates.
• linkIT - The linkIT app enables IT professionals to connect their barcoding system with Spiceworks inventory application. Users can associate barcodes to devices, view device information and last scan date, and search devices all from a single interface. With linkIT, IT professionals can say goodbye to inventory spreadsheets and manual data entry for good.
• Network Map - The Network Map app helps IT professionals better understand and visualize their network by showing connected devices that have been scanned by Spiceworks' inventory. Built-in search, device filtering and intelligent grouping helps users find the device they're looking for quickly and gives them the ability to learn more about users' individual devices including IP and MAC addresses.
• Pip-Pip - Pip-Pip is a chat app that connects to an IT department's existing XMPP chat server. With Pip-Pip, IT professionals can chat with their IT colleagues as well as end-users requesting support. Conversations with end-users can be easily added to an existing Spiceworks help desk ticket, and IT professionals can create a new support request, all from Pip-Pip.

ChallengePost

Spiceworks launched the ChallengePost competition where developers can compete for $65,000 in prizes that include a trip to SpiceWorld Austin 2015. The deadline is July 20, 2015 and the winners will be announced August 21, 2015. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the list of judges and let me know if you see a recognizable face* there.

Spiceworks, in case you don't know, is primarily a community-driven inventory management application. By community-driven, this means that the Spiceworks community has significant input as to how Spiceworks evolves. For almost ten years, IT professionals have relied on Spiceworks for the tools, resources, and community to perform their jobs more efficiently.

If you haven't used Spiceworks, I suggest you take it for a spin. It's free. Not a free trial, but free as in free beer** (as discussed in Linux circles).

I hope my Spiceworks mates have a jolly time in London. Have some fish and chips, Jaffa cakes, and pints of bitters in my absence.

About SpiceWorld

Spiceworks' SpiceWorld user conference draws attendees from businesses across the world. The event features break-out sessions, expert discussions, and topics voted on by the network of IT professionals in Spiceworks. Sessions include in-person talks with the company's founders and product developers, top technology vendors, and industry experts.

About Spiceworks

Spiceworks is the professional network millions of IT professionals use to connect with one another and thousands of technology brands. The company simplifies how IT professionals discover, buy and manage more than $650 billion in technology products and services each year. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Spiceworks is backed by Adams Street Partners, Austin Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Goldman Sachs, Shasta Ventures and Tenaya Capital. For more information visit http://www.spiceworks.com.

Follow Spiceworks on Twitter: http://twitter.com/spiceworks and connect with Spiceworks on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Spiceworks.

*It's me.

**I have yet to experience this free beer, but am told it's quite good.