Spiceworks has developed social
networking into its free IT management application, including a
feature that works like Facebook news-feeds to help users track
changes to the hardware and software in their networks.
The product also offers Twitter-like messaging for users, which
the company said can help IT staff keep informed on what is
happening in their networks.
Jay Hallberg, co-founder and CMO of Spiceworks, said, "By
borrowing ideas from consumer and social media applications we are
making managing your network truly collaborative. We have already
seen how this approach makes it easier for our users to connect
with the people, products and services they need on a daily
basis."
The IT Activity Timelines function allows users to view changes,
updates and alerts for hardware devices and software in a similar
way that popular social networking applications allow people to
track the activity feeds of their friends. The company said this
tool can be used to help IT managers. It makes complicated IT
change management as easy as keeping up with your friends on
Facebook.
Twitter-like Micro-Messages can be used by IT staff to share
status updates about themselves with thousands of other IT pros and
groups in the Spiceworks user community, the company said. These
include updates on managing their networks, attending a
professional conference, or negotiating with an IT supplier. IT
pros can also use it to quickly and efficiently get the information
they need to do their jobs, such as researching a storage-area
network to solve a backup problem.