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Weekly News Digest

July 23, 2013 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.

Spiceworks Program Supports Technology Startups

“Spiceworks is in a unique position to help startups accelerate their product and marketing efforts by connecting them directly with their future customers,” says Jay Hallberg, co-founder and vice president of marketing. Spiceworks has 2.5 million members who visit the site to network, discuss technology, and collaborate on IT projects. The site also aggregates 2,300 vendors that IT professionals can speak with when making purchasing decisions. Groups of Spiceworks members are assigned to serve as mentors to Built in Spiceworks startups.

Research shows that “companies harnessing the crowd for ideation, development, support and other business functions can be more resilient and efficient than those who do not,” says Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group analyst and partner. “This is especially true for technology startups who are typically more socially savvy and nimble, lack burdensome processes, and are more inclined to approach challenges in new ways.”

Built in Spiceworks helps startups with market validation and research, product beta testing and trials, positioning and price testing, public launch promotions, and marketing. Startups have the option to do large-scale custom research projects, polls and surveys, or focus groups. They have access to the Spiceworks Community and to the SpicePanel, a 500,000-member community within Spiceworks created specifically to give feedback to fellow IT professionals. Spiceworks also offers use of its marketing tools and services for research, advertising, content marketing, and social engagement.

Technology startups such as Pertino, Exablox, Workspot, and PLUMgrid have already signed up. “The path to launching an enterprise technology startup is well understood; however, the game changes when targeting the $875 billion small-to-medium business IT market,” says Todd Krautkremer, Pertino’s vice president of marketing. “The ‘Built in Spiceworks’ program addresses these issues by providing a community-powered lab environment for gathering hands-on product and go-to-market testing, feedback and insights.”

Built in Spiceworks was designed for venture-backed startups, but the company says that the program can be modified for boot-strapped or angel-funded companies.

Source: Spiceworks