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Rank: Freeware user
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/29/2008
Posts: 3
Location: Dallas, TX
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Perhaps have a working demo online where users can access and play around with the website.
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Rank: Administration
Groups: Administration
Joined: 2/10/2005
Posts: 1,560
Location: Hamme Belgium
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manit wrote:Perhaps have a working demo online where users can access and play around with the website. This is on my planning, but it's hard to remove all privacy data from real company data (user names, telephone numbers, descriptions, serials, mac addresses, asset tags, ...)
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Rank: Freeware user
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/13/2008
Posts: 4
Location: California
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The current issue of PC Magazine (May 08) in the US has an article on networking tools for small and midsize companies (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2274955,00.asp).
They reviewed pt3600 and Spiceworks 2.0 and write "We'll cover more management tools going forward". You might want to make sure that they know about and review LanSweeper 3.0. It would definitely give you some exposure.
Keep up the good work.
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Rank: Freeware Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/13/2008
Posts: 15
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Well after trying a bunch of free inventory software there is only 2 that still comes to my mind. Lansweeper and Spiceworks. Now you wanna know how to make Lansweeper popular?? Don't tell people it's free if you are going to sell premium tools to go with it. This is not FREE. Free is from A to Z. Take spiceworks into account, i know there are ads.....but no fee, not even for ondemand scan. You need to get a userbase and then maybe opt for an ad version or something. Or companys that use Lansweeper could pay for an exchange program so they get advertised in the program.
Startups always like seing their banners in software . I don't mind the ads.
Also. Ondemand scanning is the big thing missing with Lansweeper, but if you just think a little there is no need to buy lstrigger, lsclient is all that is needed. I can do ondemand scanning without the lstrigger file. I know it's a lot to think about, one man ventures are projects that not every person as the courage to start. So i think that if you want to make lansweeper biggter and better, ask the community to give back, i'll gladly translate Lansweeper to french for no fees.
Lansweeper as already a lot going for IT. It's faster than spiceworks, uses SQL, a clean web interface. It is so customisable that I now uninstall software on remote machine straight from the computer page :) I can force patch detection on remote PCs, install anti virus clients. Being able to see what is missing on a PC and fix it from the console is just awesome!!
You want to make it popular, it needs to be pushed to the masses, and it's community needs to be spreading the word :) Then you'll have to much on your hand to keep going alone....but that's another story :)
/signed
one satisfied user
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Rank: Freeware user
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/7/2008
Posts: 6
Location: Montrose, CO
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I would disagree with kaarde, your product is free - premium tools are just that - additional tools that can be used with the product. They do not limit the use of the core product at all. If you wanted to split hairs, you could call it LansweeperBasic and LansweeperPro, with Pro giving you the additional add-ins. If SpiceWorks has ads, then it's not free - It's free to use, but not free to own.
I would like to recommend Lansweeper for a Microsoft TechNet Magazine Column called Toolbox. It lists tools that cover the entire gambit. I have found many tools there, some are free, some are not. Your product would be a shoe in for this column, especially with the release of the automated install and setup. I think Lansweeper is a great product. I had a budget for purchasing Auditing Software for my company, and still found Lansweeper to be one of the top products as far as flexibility and power - the fact that it is free was simply a bonus. With the release of 3.1, I think it is really coming into it's own. I have already recommended it to many of my IT associates. Let me know if you would like me to recommend Lansweeper for the TechNet Column.
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Rank: Freeware Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/13/2008
Posts: 15
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Yeah we could split hair, but there is only a part of the software that is free. Yah i know premium are only tools, exactly what microsoft tells me when i want to do something with my SMS server "ho that tool is not free, you gotta buy that and this to make it work". When you're as big as microsoft you can do that. But it ain't microsoft here. The ad gave the spicework team the 8 milion bucks budget(quoting lansweeper here) they now have :) I'm not paying for the ads....so free to use....free to own. Spicework is heavy, network intensive and never as fast as lansweeper but they used a proven market model. Free software paid from advertisement. You place an ad, you get a little more known, you sell some space you get your investment back so you invest it again. You can say what ever you want, even crap gets to make money with that business model.
I love lansweeper, it's the model used to market it that, to my opinion, needs some rework. The model "See what you can do for free? Now buy the bigger badder better version to see more" as been pushed on us for a while now and frankly as prove wrong 95% of the time. If spiceworks can do milions lansweeper can do twice as much but not using that model. You have to take 2 things into account, your userbase and your reputation and for a 3 year old proggie there is some work to be done on that level.
You wan't to know how to make Lansweeper popular?? Ask people to translate it, mirror it, advertise it. That product is a gold mine waiting to happen, let company buy into your product and user use it :)
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Rank: Administration
Groups: Administration
Joined: 2/10/2005
Posts: 1,560
Location: Hamme Belgium
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kaarde wrote:You wan't to know how to make Lansweeper popular?? Ask people to translate it, mirror it, advertise it. That product is a gold mine waiting to happen, let company buy into your product and user use it :) You can start with advertising it if you want ;)
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Rank: Freeware Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/13/2008
Posts: 15
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Lansweeper wrote:You can start with advertising it if you want ;) Already spreading the word, and got mine in french too :)
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Rank: Freeware user
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/25/2008
Posts: 6
Location: Kansas
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Lansweeper wrote:Any suggestions? I think it depends upon your goals for LanSweeper and the market niche you target. In my market, small business technology consulting, LanSweeper is a good fit due to its lightweight implementation and simplicity. IMO, marketing among consultants and small computer service firms is the best way to reach this market. In the SMB market, LanSweepers benefit is about easing system management vs dealing with large computing systems. To this end, integrating common solution scripts (actions), offering GPOs to configure the domain for LanSweeper compatibility, adding scheduled actions, and change notification/logging are key areas that Lansweeper could be enhanced to increase its value for SMB. The keys to the SMB market are simplicity, real-world focus, and low management solutions. Free software is great, but I actually prefer moderately priced software. The reasons are to reward the developer for a good product, but more importantly to have ongoing support and maintenance for a product that I have invested time to master and have commited to using. FWIW, I have added the premium version of LanSweeper to my software purchase list as software budget allows. While Lansweeper has a free and premium version, the premium version does not introduce a 'key' feature that compels purchase of the premium package. Premium has some nice features, but nothing that I can't live without. The items I listed above could be examples of key features added to the premium version that would drive premium sales in the SMB market. Regardless of your approach, you should consider how you would handle exponential growth that would occur if LanSweeper was better known. Software has a way of collapsing under the weight of too many diverse users with unfullfilled wishlist items. It is best to be polished and bulletproof before mass adoption. IMO, your best bet is continual improvement (increasing value) of LanSweeper targeted to a specific market niche. Your users will be sure to share the word with their peers regarding the extreme value of LanSweeper in their environments. Regards, Rodd
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Rank: Freeware user
Groups: Member
Joined: 8/29/2008
Posts: 1
Location: Russia
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What about donation? I'm going to deploy lansweeper in any organizations and ready to donate this project.
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