Spiceworks 3.0 gets SaaS-y

Ad-supported management tools add SaaS tracking functions

IT management software vendor Spiceworks has updated its free ad-supported desktop application. Spiceworks 3.0 has a new user interface, called Network Glide and helps IT managers to monitor their software-as-a-service implementations.

Spiceworks 3.0 allows users to track SaaS activity, such as service costs, helpdesk tickets and outages.

"We continue to take the best ideas from the consumer web – like free ad-supported business models, Web 2.0 collaboration, ease-of-use, and bring them to business applications,” Spiceworks chief executive Scott Abel said.

Primarily Spiceworks is aimed at small and medium firms with under 250 devices. But Spiceworks has some customers with over 1,000 devices deployed and say that 325,000 users have accessed the application.

Also included in version 3.0 is support for Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, which allows IT managers to check their Exchange Server status, load and mailbox capacity usage. Spiceworks helpdesk email functions have also been integrated with Exchange.