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New SolarWinds Initiative Offers Free Software to Local Governments and Schools

Goodwill comes back in tangible ways,” insists Kenny Van Zant, senior vice president and chief product strategist at SolarWinds Inc. (SWI). Recognizing that times are tough, the Austin-based network-management softwaremaker, which was the fifth IPO on the U.S. markets this year, implemented a program called SLED, which stands for “state, local, education,” to give away 10,000 copies of the company’s Standard Toolset specifically for government and educational agencies. “We saw economic pressure on the public sector and felt we could help our customers — engineers at these organizations,” Van Zant says.

The Toolset, a $199 retail value, allows an individual engineer working at a desktop computer to monitor the health of a small network. Between March and late summer, SolarWinds had given away thousands of copies after alerting would-be users via e-mail, Webcasts and resellers who passed the word along. “The communication campaign was relatively cheap,” notes Van Zant. “The bigger price was opportunity costs — the value of the software that we plan to give away.” Van Zant says the marketing approach introduces new users to the company and ties in existing ones, some 85,000 customers in more than 170 countries who rely on the company’s software. SolarWinds says it hopes that SLED will provide a customer connection that money can’t buy. Numerous engineers have signed on from various state and local agencies, and Van Zant says he hopes they will remember SolarWinds when they want to upgrade or have a need for the company’s other products. “When their budgets are restored,” he says, “we hope they remember us.”

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