Fastlane Opportunity Financial SaaS

[PopEmersen]

I've been in the corp world for a while now and I keep seeing the same challenges facing large corporations, they have a HUGE challenge with their finances. I've seen several really big corporations who actually do alot, if not all, their financial forecasting in MS Excel. This should not be the case.

Excel isn't scalable, it doesn't leverage cloud computing where several servers could do work instead of the desktop, its not that secure, .etc

I did some research and their is definitely a lot of room for growth in this space.

Why It s Time to Upgrade Your Enterprise Financial Solutions - Information Management Newsletters Article
Will Financial Apps Be Next Cloud Growth Story? - Software -

If someone was a programmer or could build a programming team to build a modular, efficient, secure, cloud based solution, they would be rich. I can't do it right now because I have too much on my plate but this is just a heads up to those that can take advantage. There is a need and a market here.

 

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[CommonCents]

I was ready to upgrade my enterprise system before I sold a company but put it on hold. The fortune 200 company forced us onto some ancient green screen dos prompt system after the acquisition. Unbelievable! I promised them we could easily build a bridge between our new system and give them whatever they wanted, in whatever format they wanted. Nope. Then my 1yr transition deal was up. whew.....

One of the companies I acquired and merged was driven by complex spreadsheets. There is a reason CFOs do that. It's called jobs security, haha. Nobody could ever figure the crap out w/out him.

 

[PopEmersen]

I was ready to upgrade my enterprise system before I sold a company but put it on hold. The fortune 200 company forced us onto some ancient green screen dos prompt system after the acquisition. Unbelievable! I promised them we could easily build a bridge between our new system and give them whatever they wanted, in whatever format they wanted. Nope. Then my 1yr transition deal was up. whew.....

One of the companies I acquired and merged was driven by complex spreadsheets. There is a reason CFOs do that. It's called jobs security, haha. Nobody could ever figure the crap out w/out him.

You know what's funny and sad at the same time, I believe everything you said and you aren't exaggerating.

This industry is ripe for disruption. I wouldn't even do a big ERP or CRM to start, I would just focus exclusively on financial reporting/forecasting, that would be the niche. Do it well and one of the big boys (SAP, Oracle, Salesforce) or a VC would be force to buy you out.

Its hilarious that the tools available to me as a mobile app owner are far more user friendly and efficient than what i've used in corp america all while giving great insights and visibility.

 

[Twiki]

This is a huge problem and has been for a long time... but it's only a problem from a technician's point of view because they see that it could easily be resolved for the all good technical reasons. But it is exactly those benefits from the technical POV that are liabilities to the users: staff wants to be able to make their own copy of an Excel file or (gulp!) Access database, they don't care about the cloud... and if they want security all they want is to password-protect (maybe) their file and stick it in Dropbox, they don't want to deal with IT... if they want to share it just email it to the partner or client (another copy out there in the wild)... and of course the decade+ of legacy formulas and worksheets that no one has any idea how or why they work (often it's not intentional obfuscation, just the result of turnover or hacking stuff together). In cases where there is intentional obfuscation, this is often beneficial to many parties involves, at an individual/staff/management level as described, and also for executives as it enables them to mold the data as desired, but also for the organization as a whole in situations where litigation is involved. It's a tough problem mainly because of non-technical factors, as other people as mentioned here.

 

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[PopEmersen]

This is a huge problem and has been for a long time... but it's only a problem from a technician's point of view because they see that it could easily be resolved for the all good technical reasons. But it is exactly those benefits from the technical POV that are liabilities to the users:

staff wants to be able to make their own copy of an Excel file or (gulp!) Access database, they don't care about the cloud...

Tell them they can't, no one does their expenses this way any longer. Thats housed online, so is your W2 info, paycheck stubs etc.

and if they want security all they want is to password-protect (maybe) their file and stick it in Dropbox, they don't want to deal with IT...

If the managers roll it out, they have to deal with it. Im not trying to be a hard a$$, but things change. People didn't like using computers, they like pen and paper, that changed. People didn't like HR info online, that changed. People loved the company paying for their health insurance, that changed. At some point, progress has to be pushed or nudged forward gently lol.

if they want to share it just email it to the partner or client (another copy out there in the wild)

You can implement a Google Drive/Dropbox system where you send the link of the file to someone. Not another copy.

... and of course the decade+ of legacy formulas and worksheets that no one has any idea how or why they work (often it's not intentional obfuscation, just the result of turnover or hacking stuff together). In cases where there is intentional obfuscation, this is often beneficial to many parties involves, at an individual/staff/management level as described, and also for executives as it enables them to mold the data as desired, but also for the organization as a whole in situations where litigation is involved. It's a tough problem mainly because of non-technical factors, as other people as mentioned here.

This is true, I am actually trying to reverse engineer a spreadsheet now BUT this is also an example of WHY my idea is great. This is the example you sell management. Why hire an outside consultant to reverse engineer something when you can now use that capital to implement something that saves the entire corporation time and money? Regardless of turnover, your data is safe and easily used.

I am not saying you are wrong, you are exactly right. These are all issues BUT these are also all barriers to competitors. All of these headaches are exactly why there is a strong need here. We are in a time where every corporation is looking to cut costs either by outsourcing, offshore tax havens, .etc. This idea cuts cost and gives more visibility to future costs and revenue forecasts.

 

[CommonCents]

In this area, reputation and social proof is super super critical. Financial systems are very guarded. Most businesses would rather stick to what they know works even if it is ancient, rather than expose themselves to the risk of change. Risk or perceived risk must be mitigated in order to succeed here.

Most businesses will go with whatever everyone else is going with.

I think a big oppty is creating mobile and SAAS links/reporting/apps/plugins for Quickbooks and the like that already have huge installed bases.