Here is my new set of predictions of where Spiceworks is headed and if some of them come true I really think it will change the way the IT vendors conduct business with new and exsisting customers.
Ever since the Points System launched this year SpiceHeads have really been more active in the community. Don't believe me? According to compete in the past year community.spiceworks.com has seen a 109.65% increase!
BTW that is all organic traffic, because the only domain they advertise (PPC) is www.Spiceworks.com which leads you to a well crafted Landing Page.
Prediction Time:
- 1. Virtual Currency. Spiceworks has always been about one word: FREE. Yes I know the have a program called "MyWay" but in order to keep the community growing they have to offer companies an option that can't display ads do to whatever reason (please comment below if you know why). Anyway, ever since the Points System was put in place SpiceHeads have been doing anything they can for these Points. The more Points you have the more respect, exposure & ego boost you get from the community. Scott Alan Miller & Andrew (akp982) are "Mace" 1 away from "Pure Capsaicin" the last and highest achievement you can get (as of today). What happens when they reach that level? Will they loose interest in contributing since they reached their goal? Probably not because those two are psychos (kidding!) But with that said, what will make the other 750,000+ memebers active and keep & bring more value to advertisers (how Spiceworks probably makes 90+ % of their money).
The answer: VIRTUAL CURRANCY! Imagine this: what if you could trade your points for lets say copies of Windows 7 or Eset Nod 32 or $100 gift certificate to CDW?
- 2. The iTunes of IT. I attended Spiceworld Las Vegas & Greg Kattawar (VP of Dev & Co-Founder & Author of a very popular Plugin: License Manager) was speaking and kept referring to Spiceworks as "The iTunes of IT". Basically the goal is to keep you, the IT Professional in Spiceworks as long as they can.
The Microsoft License Manager Plugin has been downloaded over 5,000 times! You might say "So what? That is less than 1% of the entire community!" Well yeah but what if Spiceworks 4.5 came with that plugin pre-installed? Also what if Microsoft and Spiceworks partnered up and created a program that would allow you to buy extra licenses at a discount on the fly using your "Spiceworks Points" or a Credit Card on file? You know sort of like how iTunes has a digital music, TV, Movies, & App store? Get it?
- 3. Exit Strategy. When you write a business plan, you usually include a section called "Exit Strategy." It is pretty much required if you want to raise capital to start your business. According to their website, so far Spiceworks has raised a little over $13 million from Venture Capitalist (Austin Ventures & Shasta Ventures). Many of you might not know that the CEO of Spiceworks, Scott Abel is a serial entrepreneur. He has started and sold many successful companies one of which, Motive a company that created automation software for the a wide range of service providers (such as Verizon, T-Mobile, VodaPhone etc.) So the big question is: "What is Spiceworks Exit Strategy?" Choose one of the following:
- - Acquired by either CDW, Microsoft, Dell or Symantec (Why? Ask in the comments and I will answer)
- - IPO (highly unlikely but defiantly a possibility)
- - Stay Private and Expand their product line, monetize their API
