Following the introduction of Spiceworks 7 in September 2013, the company today released version 7.1 of its free IT management application, and announced a series of updates that simplify how the platform’s users manage their technology environments.
The company also debuted four new help desk plugins that give IT professionals the ability to customize their Spiceworks help desk system to suit their needs.
The features are designed to give IT professionals access to the security and help desk tools they need to get their jobs done more efficiently from a single management interface.
The update includes performance enhancements to its IT inventory, help desk and mobile device management capabilities, as well as new ways for technology vendors to more seamlessly integrate their offerings with Spiceworks.
“More than 4 million IT professionals rely on Spiceworks for the tools, information and connections they need to do their jobs,” Jay Hallberg, co-founder and chief operating officer of Spiceworks, said in a statement. “As the platform expands, Spiceworks is reshaping how IT professionals research, purchase and use technologies from their favorite brands.”
The integrations include AlienVault Threat Alerts in Spiceworks, which helps users identify and mitigate security threats on their network for free. Based on AlienVault’s Open Threat Exchange database, the integration allows IT professionals to scan network assets for connections with known malicious hosts, trigger alerts within Spiceworks for any issues that are found, and provide remediation advice.
The integration of Webroot’s SecureAnywhere endpoint protection with Spiceworks’ IT management platform is designed to help IT professionals receive real-time threat alerts, and view and manage endpoint security directly from Spiceworks.
Finally, built exclusively for Spiceworks, NetClarity’s Network Access Control enables Spiceworks users to block and/or take action against unwanted devices attempting to access their networks, including rogue wireless access points, hackers, and employee-owned devices entering the corporate network.
Spiceworks’ plugin library consists of more than 300 plugins. The latest include the Help Desk Responses plugin, which allows IT professionals to add a series of auto-responses to their ticketing system so they can better respond to support requests from end users, and the Remove Ticket Comment plugin, which gives IT pro the ability to edit or remove comments from a help desk ticket.
The other two plugins are the Custom Time for Tickets plugin, so service providers can customize the time spent field within a help desk ticket to detail at a more granular level how long they spent addressing a support issue, and Ticket Check Lists. This plugin gives Spiceworks users the ability to add to-do lists and checklists to individual help desk tickets.