Unofficial Spiceworks

Most of you have probably got or will be getting the latest newsletter from Spiceworks in which announces that Spiceworks 5.0 is set to be released in less than a week.

A lot of people are already excited about the new features they will be able to use and some have even ditched the wait and started using the release candidate in production.

Checkout more in the 5.0 Features News Beta Testing group.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on a couple of projects which have now been released for your eyes…

New Pages/Sections

• Version History – We have started to build up a database of the version history of Spiceworks. At the moment some of the pages are a little bare but over time more information will be added and future versions will get a more in-depth information page.
• Spiceworlds and BootCamps – This area will slowly be built up to contain information about the Spiceworlds and BootCamps that have happened and happening.

These new “areas” can be access on the right hand side where it says pages and we will also be linking though to the appropriate areas in future blog posts. Both are still a bit of work in progress but are slowly getting there.

Unofficial SpiceRex

As some of you may have noticed SpiceRex recently attacked my car by attaching him self to my boot.

Recently I took this a step further and added the text “SpiceRex.co.uk” just under him to try to help explain what this orange T-Rex is about.

The reason for this is after driving around with him on the back for a while I often see people pointing it out to passengers while driving along and thought hay why not, if 1 or 2 people find Spiceworks by checking it out its worth it?

So go checkout SpiceRex.co.uk now

If you have any comments leave them on this post or use the contact page.

For this month’s Spiceworks employee interview I have picked on Kenny Madden who is the director of business development.

What do you do at the "director of business development"?

I kinda made up the title myself because sales/inside sales as such a stigma attached to it. (Ideally I would be Chief Smarketing Officer) My role at Spiceworks is to essentially to bring new advertisers on board. In my 2 years so far ,  I have brought on Microsoft, SAP, CA Technologies & EMC to name a few. Quite proud of that

What is the most enjoyable part Of working for Spiceworks?

The people are great, I worked for the founders at a previous company in Austin. (A couple of the founders actually gave me my first job when I was fresh of the boat. Something I will not forget, I really needed a job back then) Also, I get to talk about sales and marketing all  day long and be part of a mission to change the way IT products and services are advertised, marketed and sold. (I am a bit of a sales/marketing geek)

Read More…

Last nights community update was a success with all the mentioned updates being rolled out including the brand new look to go inside with the Spiceworks 5.0 release happening soon (more on the Release Candidate in a bit)

This new layout is also designed to provide

• Faster Loading – Using better styling and design the site should load better
• No widescreen support – Due to how we read on a screen the community will not stretch to the full width of your screen, there will be more room at the navigation has been moved to the top but as long stings of text are harder to read it will keep the original max width.
• Larger Search – Like the the application the search bar is HUGE this is designed to help you remember it’s there and find answers quicker.
• More features coming to the footer bar – We have already started to see more things added to the bar in 5.0 and we are expecting to see more added to the community, things like group updates or the facebook like links etc.
• Better mobile support – The community already works well on a mobile but the new design will enhance the mobile experience even more.

Spiceworks 5.0 RC

Last night we also saw the release of the 5.0 release candidate:

To all the SpiceHeads who have helped test 5.0 and give feedback – thank you! Because of it, the Release Candidate build of Spiceworks 5.0 is now ready for final testing. Remember to still install this in a test environment and retest any issues that you’ve found in previous builds.

The 5.0 RC build is available here.

This version contains over 200 bug fixes and no new features. Which all means the final version is on it’s way soon. It’s still suggested you don’t use this version in production as it may still contain a serious bug but its stable enough to be classed as RC what’s the worst that could happen?

Last night the eighth Spiceworks 5.0 beta was release:

The eighth build of the Spiceworks 5.0 beta is now available for you to try out. Testing and feedback from you is an integral part of every release cycle and we appreciate the time and effort you put into giving us the feedback. In addition, you’ll be sure that the final release is a seamless upgrade for you.

This build isn’t as fully packed as previous beta’s have been with most of the work being done of bug fixing to help ensure that when Spiceworks is release (according to Jay should be soon) everything is working and user’s can drive straight in without worry.

They have however managed to slide in a new first time user flow for the network backup configuration. This is designed to help user’s get started with the part of Spiceworks they want.

Read More…

Ted (Spiceworks) recently announced Spiceworks’ new and exciting in application advertising.

This is no normal advertisement. Heck, it is barely an advertisement; it’s like a mini application. InFlow is edutainment, better yet appucation (yes I just invented that word). InFlow is completely interactive. InFlow has information, community content, calculators and more – all built, well “in flow”. Yep, all this exists on the same page you have been working in within Spiceworks. You never have to leave or click through to anywhere. When done simply click the ‘X’ button and, wah-la, you are right back in your workflow.

Read more: Beta Launch: Spiceworks InFlow – Advertising and Information… well “in flow”

This new feature is very exciting as it will start to bring vendors new ways of promoting their products without distracting IT Pro’s. As the feature grows more interactive adverts as well as more detailed adverts will start to show. At the moment this new feature is only being used for Rackspace on the “Microsoft Exchange Health Widget” built into Spiceworks.

You will start to see the little showing up in other places over time. If you have a chance do checkout the information on this first interactive InFlow advert.

Make sure you read Ted’s news article on this exciting new feature and leave your feedback: Beta Launch: Spiceworks InFlow – Advertising and Information… well “in flow”.

Last night Nic announced the release of the seventh Spiceworks 5.0 beta.

The seventh build of the Spiceworks 5.0 beta is now available for you to try out. Testing and feedback from you is an integral part of every release cycle and we appreciate the time and effort you put into giving us the feedback. In addition, you’ll be sure that the final release is a seamless upgrade for you.

As always this build is full of cool new stuff as well as loads of bug fixes:

People View

The cool new people view feature has some cool new updates in which make it even easier to manage your IT:

• Welcome popup – There is a new popup when you first go into the people view in which explains what its about and how to get the most out of it. Of course SpiceRex is the keeper of this new feature and couldn’t wait to shout about it.
• Updated Search – The search included in Spiceworks will now also bring in the results from the people view. This makes it a lot easier to track down a user to help them fix their problems.
• Multiple devices to one person – If you have user’s in which have more than one device maybe a phone and laptop or even a custom device you can now link them all back to the user. This is all designed to help you get the most out of Spiceworks and make your day easier.
• Perform AD actions – Finally the people view is a true management system you can now reset passwords, unlock, enable and disable accounts directly from within the user interface.

Click a image to enlarge

Read More…

Yesterday Jay Hallberg and the “european team” came over to the UK for 360IT (The IT Infrastructure Event) to do a talk on “The Future of IT is Social: How Spiceworks is Revolutionizing the Way IT Works” in which was a very interesting talk about where Spiceworks is at the moment and where its going. As well as how Spiceworks is going to help shape the way IT managers work aiming to make their day easier.

The night out

Well… As always when SpiceHeads clash with the SpiceLords people get a little drunk and have a cracking great time… 360IT London was no different.

Read More…