Spiceworks is releasing 3.0 soon, and they’ve put out this funny video as part of a series they say “explores what the world might be like if it was ruled by IT professionals…”

I just found this interesting story on C|net today claiming that:

After years of exploring the matter, Microsoft has finally started offering an ad-funded version of Microsoft Works in some countries. Users who run the software see a small ad as they are writing their document or editing their spreadsheet.

This looks interesting, and I hope that it’s a successful pilot for Microsoft. What do you think about ad-supported software? I’m a big fan when it’s a good product. Spiceworks is my favorite in that category - that’s one piece of software that I consider priceless.

So, I’ve used Jott for a while, and I like it. However, the little notes e-mailed to my inbox aren’t too helpful to me as my inbox gets quite full and it makes the notes easy to miss.

Well, Jott got me real excited when they introduced their Jott Links. Now you can call in and Jott a Twitter update, post to your blog, add an event to your Google Calendar, or even get Sandy to do something for you (I think I’ll start using Sandy soon!).

One of my biggest difficulties is remembering to do things that fellow staff ask of me in the hall. I usually encourage them to fill out a HelpDesk to ensure it gets done, but we all know that doesn’t always happen. It’s in my evening walk that I remember these things, the only time in my day that I have no computer to take action. Tonight, I got to thinking, “I wish they would add a Jott Link for Spiceworks, our awesome (and free) network inventory and HelpDesk software.”  This would allow me to pick up my cell phone and begin a ticket about the problem that came to memory.

Eureka! It doesn’t need a Jott Link - I just need to add the HelpDesk e-mail to my Jott contacts. Doing so allows me to call Jott, announce that I want to Jott “HelpDesk,” and begin spelling out the problem that needs solving. In doing so, I create a workflow on the Spiceworks HelpDesk that gets recorded for history and can be attributed to an individual machine at a later time.  Then, the problem gets solved faster, and you get applauded for your good memory (well, maybe not that far).

This would work on any HelpDesk software that checks an e-mail account. Give it a try - it could help you out as well.

Spiceworks released their new version late last night. I got a personal message from my friend Jen on Saturday to let me know it was coming. Now, I call that service.

I haven’t had a chance to fully experience all the new functionality, but so far I’m very impressed. I’ll give you a little run down on some of the new and definitely improved functions of the software:

• The Spiceworks HelpDesk was always pretty basic. It’s all I needed, but there was no way to place a bulletin on the HelpDesk page to let users know that we are already aware of the problem they’re reporting. So, you’d get a dozen tickets for the same outage. Bingo, the new release gives me two editable areas on the HelpDesk page!
• More HelpDesk goodness… Users can attach files now! Cool deal - they can put a screen shot of the error up there or a PDF thank you card to their IT technician. Possibilities are numerous, and I’m so glad to see this new functionality. By the way, you can also attach files back to the user.
• Another cool addition to the software is the “My Spiceworks” page. Just like Google’s personalized home, you can edit everything on the page, put up your favorite RSS feeds, and get a general view of your inventory and helpdesk from one area.
• They’ve also created a link to most popular remote control titles, like TightVNC. Click the device, and click “Remote Control,” and bad-a-bing, you’re in action - controlling the machine in question. It seems like it’s still two clicks away from HelpDesk tickets, requiring you to click on the device listed on the ticket to launch you into the inventory view before getting to Remote Control. It’d be great if there was a button right on the ticket. Still, great added functionality.

All in all, I’m thrilled about the new release, and I’m still thrilled about the price. I love that they’re able to stay in business relying only on ad support. I’m happy to click here and there to keep Jen employed.

A couple of weeks ago at the Shelby conference, I mentioned Spiceworks to the group that I was in, and one of the guys in the class said that “Spiceworks is basically spyware.” He continued to say that they capture your hardware information and target ads based on that information. So, I did a little reading on the Spiceworks privacy policy, and I was delighted with what I found… I’ll quote the important bits.

[Spiceworks Desktop] does not gather any non-systems related information such as personal files and content… The information gathered is limited to configuration information about hardware devices and software applications… All of this configuration information is stored locally… None of this configuration information is sent to, or stored at, Spiceworks…

Good news for me. Read the whole thing for yourself as they do collect some anonymous information from you that you may want to know about. Still, nothing identifiable goes to Spiceworks or to third parties.

Go ahead and download it, you know you want to.

I recently read David Szpunar’s post about Inventory management, and I’ve gotta tell you that his post was downright timely. I had been banging my head against a wall. How do I track all these computers? I started doing it with Excel manually, then realizing that I needed more dynamic information, I started playing with VB Scripts. There’s a lot you can do with VB Scripts, and Microsoft’s Script Center is a tremendously valuable resource.

David mentioned that he was experimenting with Spiceworks. I had never heard of their product before, but “free” always gets my attention. The product requires about 50 Mb of RAM from my server, a little more than I wanted to give up, but it requires no client software. Plus, the functionality it offers me is worth the price.

So, Spiceworks runs twice a day on my server polling each and every computer on the network. It picks up lots of useful information like the computer manufacturer, serial number, specs, and installed software. It even tells me when anti-virus definitions are not current.

The fun doesn’t stop there. Not only does it inventory computers, it also picks up printers, switches, wireless access points, servers, NAS devices, Linux boxes, and anything else plugged in to your network. It alerts you to problems like low toner in the copy machine, or low disk space on workstation hard drives. I have an alert set up to notify me when any user installs any software, and I can’t tell you how helpful that has been.

So, if you are a small to mid-sized church, I suggest Spiceworks to keep track of your computer inventory. I also suggest them as your HelpDesk software.

My first month at the church resulted in a $90 cell phone bill. Why? Because I’m never in the office, so people just call my cell phone. Well, the church reimburses $50 of my bill, but I still don’t like the idea of using all my minutes for computer support questions. I installed Spiceworks, and now I insist on every user entering support requests into the HelpDesk. It automagically sends me a text message (which is cheaper than minutes), so that I can quickly respond to the request. It has resulted in a lower cell phone bill and quicker response time. Plus, Spiceworks helps me track which users are needy and which machines are busted.

So, go over to Spiceworks.com and grab up the free download. I bet you’ll like it too.