Ask HN: what problems do you have in your company?

10 points by skarmklart 12 years ago | 20 comments

I am writing a book on how to find business problems and turn them into SaaS applications.

Would like to hear what kinds of problems HNers are facing in their companies.

GFischer 12 years ago |

Sorry, the biggest problems I face at the company I work for are bad management, cronyism, disfunctional leadership... mostly organizational problems that can't be solved by a SaaS.

Even worse, there are a LOT of improvements that could be made but management DOESN'T CARE. It's an oligopoly with huge barriers of entry (an insurance company), so as long as they're not worse than the competition and external factors stay the same, money will still come in.

BTW there's money to be made for software companies... selling bad, overpriced software, as long as the appropriate kickbacks and buddy-ism is followed.

skarmklart 12 years ago | |

This is an interesting book about how to effect change in organizations: http://www.hackingwork.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H07pbDhBgXg

Btw, what are some of those potential improvements that you have identified? :)

GFischer 12 years ago | | |

There's a lot of low hanging fruit :P for example the webpage is awful, something out of the early 2000's, the main system is made on Forte4GL and doesn't support 64 bits so we're having huge problems with scaling.. and the list goes on and on and on..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forte_4GL

zura 12 years ago |

Unable to publish paid apps (including in-app purchases) neither in Apple Appstore nor in Google Play.

Unable to receive funds through Paypal (only sending is supported).

Living in Georgia, Europe.

EDIT: I read the title as "in your country". Anyway, problems are real and can be useful for your needs.

digitalWestie 12 years ago | |

how are you getting round this, have you partnered up with companies in other countries?

zura 12 years ago | | |

I don't :)

I have yet to find a good reliable publishing company.

I guess this is a nice business idea for ones that live in supported countries. There are many unsupported countries, be it in Europe or other places, with a vibrant developer communities.

wslh 12 years ago |

I see your goals difficult to accomplish. If a business problem can be solved with an application that will be an easy one.

In general key business problems are really difficult to solve in the context of a particular problem. For example, I can't find employees in a specific niche because there are not enough in the market. How can I solve it? I can train people but that training would take a long time and I can't afford that risk.

skarmklart 12 years ago | |

I see where you're coming from. Maybe you are not typical of business as a whole since you are (I assume) a tech person and thus very capable of solving your own problems (if they can be solved with tech at all) :)

wslh 12 years ago | | |

Ah ok! so, you are looking to things that can be automatized with a web service oriented to companies or people without IT expertise.

pestaa 12 years ago |

"How to find business problems: ask on HN"?

I hope this does not get across as pure negativity, but I thought this is the exact question your book would answer.

On a side note, I think most business problems go unnoticed.

skarmklart 12 years ago | |

On a side note, I think most business problems go unnoticed.

Interesting. Got any examples? :)

kevinrpope 12 years ago | | |

Not an example, but possibly the basis for the opinion: http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html

porter 12 years ago |

Here are hard problems all businesses face: making something people want, finding customers, keeping customers, growing customers.

If you can solve these problems for me, I'll pay you a lot of money for your book.

skarmklart 12 years ago | |

How about reducing pain/headaches? Is that also a valid concern? :)

Mind telling me a bit about how you do those 4 things you mentioned right now?

skarmklart 12 years ago |

Here is the book for anyone wondering: http://howtofindsaasideas.com/

thesmileyone 12 years ago | |

I like the idea of your book but you seem to be spamming HN for free ideas that you can use to capitalise on. Unless your book will be totally free? I like HN because people can talk about tech without having to feel like you have to pay for it... most of us I believe use HN outside of work or on our downtimes.

Please don't let HN become another internet marketing forum.