

Ask HN: Name an established product that is begging to be disrupted - dangero

I&#x27;m asking for a specific product that currently has marketshare, not an industry. Begging for disruption could be any number of reasons like outdated software, high cost, poor customer service, etc.
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callmeed
I have two based on my own experience:

1\. ROES

Roes is used/offered by many large photo and digital press printing companies.
Almost every pro wedding and portrait photographer I know uses it to submit
print orders. It is, believe it or not, a _desktop Java app_. It lets labs
define their own products/prices and have orders queued into their printing
systems. It's a gigantic PITA to use, has no sort of modern API and is part of
the reason many of these print companies can't innovate with "Stripe for
printing X" type features.
[http://www.softworkssystems.com/roes_pro/index.php](http://www.softworkssystems.com/roes_pro/index.php)

2\. Plesk/cPanel

Pick either one. Combined, the 2 have probably 90% of the server/hosting
control panel market. Yes, I know on-demand cloud computing is all the rage
with us hackers but I don't see the need to manage traditional hosting and
email going away anytime soon. Considering a) free google apps going away, b)
Wordpress not slowing down, c) static sites/blogs like Jekyll gaining
popularity, d) rising popularity of nginx and PostgreSQL, etc, I think there's
several angles you could choose from as an initial wedge into this space. We
use Pesk on our dedicated servers and its a nightmare. It infects a server,
it's bloated, it's slow, and it has a horrible API/command line interface. If
you doubt me, ask anyone who's ever worked for Rackspace support how much they
love handling Plesk tickets.

If you built a simple rails/Sinatra based panel that did about 6 core features
and didn't hijack a system, I'd write you a check right now.
[http://www.parallels.com/products/plesk/](http://www.parallels.com/products/plesk/)

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dangero
cPanel is a good one. I cringe anytime I have to use it, but I understand why
it's there... It has a ton of features that the hosting company can advertise.
That's probably what would make it hard to disrupt because while a new
interface could look cleaner, the hosting company could lose some marketing
appeal.

I'd be interested to hear you elaboration on how you would create an initial
wedge in that market.

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rfnslyr
Honestly I have never had any problem with cPanel. Does exactly what I need it
to do. What problems did you run into with cPanel?

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dangero
For one, I think the cPanel interface is very out of date graphic design wise.
Secondly, it's your typical last decade software that has a million features.
I think it's also probably too technical for the average shared hosting user.
Defeating cPanel probably is a lot like defeating craigslist. I think like
callmeed is saying, you're not going to do it by creating a cPanel competitor,
but rather making replacements for specific features of cPanel that can stand
on their own.

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lsiebert
How about medication management for senior citizens/those with chronic
diseases using call centers to remind them to take their medications?

How about disrupting corporate computer training for older office workers with
short videos/tips on an advertising supported platform.

How about a furniture leasing agency targeting international workers in the US
on a temp visa.

Or disrupt scheduling doctor's appointments. Please.

advertising supported forum with sub forums for different rare disease
sufferers, and either automatically generated or curated postings about drug
trails, research papers, etc.

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LarryMade2
the Print Shop/Print Master

With today's technology such programs an be almost entirely on the cloud.
Printable output being received back in PDF.

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dangero
Interesting. I haven't really used Print Shop in more than 10 years and I see
it hasn't changed much. I wonder how big that market is now and how print
capabilities on tablets will affect its market size. Thinking of my corporate
office: somebody is definitely generating a large number of Print Shop type
materials to stick on the cork board for birth announcements, etc.

~~~
LarryMade2
There are times when I want to whip out a quick set of labels, sign or
business card... My options are in Linux to work it together with libreoffice
or inkscape (a bit more time finding fonts and elements as well as
layout/alignment.) or fire up the Mac and use Print Shop there - you know that
program still lists for 50-80 bucks (at least the Mac versions)!?!

I figure a lot of the patents have/will soon expire for the technology Print
Shop Deluxe which most of what's out there is still based on, came out in
1993.

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dangero
I'll go first on my own question: Microsoft Outlook. While products like
Google Apps for your domain have somewhat penetrated, Microsoft Outlook still
has a strong corporate foothold while having super clunky software. It's
expensive, and it requires infrastructure to use in most cases. Also, a lot of
clients still want a native solution which things like Google Apps for domain
don't provide.

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georgemcbay
Not to be too wet of a noodle (and I'd certainly like Outlook to go away), but
replacing Outlook at places where it is currently entrenched will require an
absolutely Herculean effort. Not so much because Outlook the mail client or
mail server is so great, but because of everything it ties into: calendaring,
sharepoint, lync, custom LOB apps programmed to the Outlook APIs, etc.

When trying to talk people away from Outlook that entire secondary ecosystem
has always been a much bigger roadblock than the lack of a native client or
even the idea of storing corporate data in "the cloud" in my experience.

~~~
dangero
"When trying to talk people away from Outlook that entire secondary ecosystem
has always been a much bigger roadblock than the lack of a native client or
even the idea of storing corporate data in "the cloud" in my experience."

Wow, that is surprising to me. I wonder if there's an opportunity to provide a
replacement for people who are just getting to the point of needing something
like Outlook, but aren't entrenched yet.

~~~
georgemcbay
To be perfectly clear, when I mention trying to talk people away from Outlook
and them being resistant, I'm talking about IT people and management, not the
common workers, who mostly all hate Outlook.

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dgunn
Agreed. Those who would love a replacement really have very little say in the
matter. That's what anyone selling enterprise-y software has to deal with.
You're usually selling to the people who won't be using it. This changes the
conversation quite a bit regarding the benefits you emphasize about your
offering. For instance, you may have to show a higher-up that they can save
time/money by using your software rather than telling them they're employees
will enjoy using it more because that high-up won't rightfully care.

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jmsbrwr
All joking aside, the term "disrupted" needs to be disrupted.

~~~
lsiebert
superseded, ousted, supplanted or usurped?

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jmsbrwr
Ousted it is!

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vajrapani666
Western Union

There is no excuse for this company to exist.

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fwdbureau
Gmail :)

