

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

I am writing a book on how to find business problems and turn them into SaaS applications.<p>Would like to hear what kinds of problems HNers are facing in their companies.
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GFischer
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
This is an interesting book about how to effect change in organizations:
[http://www.hackingwork.com/](http://www.hackingwork.com/)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H07pbDhBgXg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H07pbDhBgXg)

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

~~~
GFischer
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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forte_4GL)

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

~~~
zura
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.

~~~
skarmklart
Have you considered Bitcoin for your payments?

~~~
zura
Actually no. Is it a common practice?

~~~
skarmklart
I doubt it. At least not yet :)

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

~~~
skarmklart
I'm kind of trying to teach the reader to become patio11 (and focusing on the
initial stages of that).

So, yes :)

I'm still curious about tech companies run by HNers though. I mean there are
plenty of SaaSes targeting those too (Github for instance).

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pestaa
"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
_On a side note, I think most business problems go unnoticed._

Interesting. Got any examples? :)

~~~
kevinrpope
Not an example, but possibly the basis for the opinion:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html)

------
porter
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
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
Here is the book for anyone wondering:
[http://howtofindsaasideas.com/](http://howtofindsaasideas.com/)

~~~
thesmileyone
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.

