Spiceworks Claims World's Largest MSP Community - Defending the Spiceworks Claim
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Hallberg defends the claims about the size of the Spiceworks community,
stating that the users are mostly small MSPs and IT consultants that cannot
afford the licensing fees of the Kaseyas and Level Platforms of the world.
While some Spiceworks users are companies with as many 50 or more employees, he
says most of the Spiceworks’ base comprises one- to three-employee companies.
“These aren’t the guys that will show up on the VAR
500 or the MSP 250,” Hallberg says. “You’ve got a lot of people flying under
the radar that don’t go to the Gartner or InterOp events.”
By some estimates, less than 10 percent of the deployed devices in the
market are under MSP management. According to the Channel Insider
2009 Market Pulse Report, 48 percent of solution providers are
delivering some form of managed service. Analyst estimates put managed services
penetration in the channel between 40 percent and 60 percent.
A free, advertising-supported tool set for MSPs is a relatively unique
offering, and conceivably appealing to small VARs and solution providers trying
to break into the managed services market. In the general MSP community lingers
a debate over what actually constitutes a managed service. Some people say
solution providers that enhance their break/fix business with rudimentary
remote maintenance tools, such as PC Anyware and Citrix’s GoToMyPC, are not
true managed services. Detractors of the Spiceworks claims say many of its
users could fall into this category.
Hallberg says Spiceworks’ founding principle of helping IT professionals
simplify their lives through applications that provide “just enough”
functionality is very appealing to the small MSP. In many cases, he says, the
tools marketed by RMM and PSA vendors have
features and capabilities that the average MSP will never use, but are forced
to pay for. With Spiceworks, he says, MSPs won’t get everything possible, but
will get enough to run a managed services practice.
“You go broad and offer enough across each category that you’re going to
satisfy most of the market,” Hallberg says.
The Spiceworks platform provides functions such as network discovery and
inventory management, utilization monitory, Microsoft Exchange Server health
monitoring, help desk ticketing and job tracking, and other features.
Spiceworks also boasts that MSPs are able to market their services to the
general end-user community, making it easier for MSPs to grow their businesses.
“One of the best things about the Spiceworks IT Desktop is it doesn’t
require a lot of convincing to get an MSP or their clients to adopt it,” said
Mike Mullen, president of Premier Technology Services, in a statement. “It’s a
powerful IT management tool and it’s free—no matter how many companies or
devices you want to manage. With the added benefit of the Spiceworks community,
we can collaborate and partner with other service providers and market our
offerings to a greater number of small businesses worldwide.”
Free software for business-to-business use is a growing concept. AOL
was among the first in the late 1990s to support services and applications for
users with Web advertising revenue. Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have provided
end users with free applications and e-mail supported by commercial ads. And a
number of vendors are now exploring free business-class services that are
supported by advertising.
Spiceworks sports display ads by Zenith InfoTech, IBM,
eSET, CDW and VeriSign.
Free is a great selling point, especially to cash-strapped businesses. But
the advertising-based application does have its shortcomings, detractors say. Setting
up an MSP business on tools provided by a company that’s totally dependent upon
the marketing dollars of other companies is risky. MSPs signing up with
Spiceworks could find themselves trapped if the advertising dollars dry up and
the company is forced to start charging for the tools.
“I’d be wary of any model that’s based on an advertising model. People are
pulling back on advertising, not adding more,” says Jim Alves, executive vice
president of product marketing at Kaseya.
Managed Services 
