Regulatory compliance software-Too late?

[Alexandra91zk]

Hello everyone.

I'm a privacy professional and my current occupation is to make sure my company complies with GDPR (new European Union regulation about privacy).

FYI, I'm European and this regulation only applies to EU companies. Hopefully you guys overseas can still give me your business feedback ☺

We use a software in my company that helps us comply with GDPR requirements, and that software is crap.

The leading gdpr compliance software also sucks, it's so complicated you have to do workshops to understand how that works.

I've been thinking of creating my own gdpr compliance software. I know exactly all that's needed and how to make it simple. As a privacy professional I have the skills, the knowledge and I know how to make it simple.

The market is big - every EU company has to be compliant so that's 28 countries. Also, that's a mandatory regulation so companies HAVE TO comply.

But here's the thing. GDPR has been around for more than a year now. Even if most EU companies are not totally compliant, they probably already have completed their obligations and used the existing softwares. Nobody wants to start this painful process all over again.

Therefore, I don't know if I should put time and energy to a software that only 30% of companies might use (apparently that's the percentage of companies that haven't started their gdpr compliance process yet as of today). The problem seems already solved

But yet existing softwares suck so much.

What do you guys think? Is it worth it to start a business to start solving a problem that might have already been solved - badly solved?

Thank you beforehand.
Alexandra

 

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[SEBASTlAN]

There's always room for one more player.

 

[Rabby]

It depends on how you solve it. I'm also making software that helps with compliance, but everyone has a theory about how best to do that. What you shouldn't do, in my opinion, is make it work the same way everyone else's does. Even if it works "better." Find a better way to solve the problem instead. Doing the same thing (the same basic solution) a little better is nice, but your competitors will just make theirs better. They're probably already working on that. Make them compete by scrapping what they've got and trying to copy you. That way you're actually ahead of them.

 

[Jon L]

The reason existing software is so complicated is very likely because they tried to make it all things to all people. Instead, (and since you're just one guy), focus on one segment of the market that you can dominate. Be the go-to software for Magento-based online stores, for example. When you focus your software like that, you can make it both simple and complete.

A year in is still very early to get into this kind of market.

 

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[Alexandra91zk]

There's always room for one more player.

That's the way to see it!

 

[Alexandra91zk]

The reason existing software is so complicated is very likely because they tried to make it all things to all people. Instead, (and since you're just one guy), focus on one segment of the market that you can dominate. Be the go-to software for Magento-based online stores, for example. When you focus your software like that, you can make it both simple and complete.

A year in is still very early to get into this kind of market.

Yes that's exactly what happened, really. The thing, also with this competitor software we're using at work, is that they don't just do GDPR compliance. They also do other kinds of privacy regulations all over the world (like HIPAA in the US, Japan, etc) while I would be only focusing on GDPR. Their software therefore appears as very complicated. They also have bugs all the time, we call them all the time to understand how that works... While it could all be so easy.

The real problem is that no company that's already started to put information in the competitor's software will want to start the process all over again even if another software is offering a much easier solution...

 

[Alexandra91zk]

Make them compete by scrapping what they've got and trying to copy you. That way you're actually ahead of them.

Thank you for your input, it's helping me a lot.
It's what I was planning on doing, really. I was really planning to start from scratch so I can have something that looks nothing like their software. There are 28 countries in the European Union so that could potentially be a pretty big market. Most companies don't even have a software, they use Excel sheets or Word documents to do what's required by GDPR

 

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[Jon L]

Yes that's exactly what happened, really. The thing, also with this competitor software we're using at work, is that they don't just do GDPR compliance. They also do other kinds of privacy regulations all over the world (like HIPAA in the US, Japan, etc) while I would be only focusing on GDPR. Their software therefore appears as very complicated. They also have bugs all the time, we call them all the time to understand how that works... While it could all be so easy.

The real problem is that no company that's already started to put information in the competitor's software will want to start the process all over again even if another software is offering a much easier solution...

that is not at all true. with the bug problem alone, that could be enough to make someone switch. Part of your offering could be a consulting service that either converts the data entry from the old system, or reinputs it. I'd bet that 1-10 percent per year would want to switch. Thats enough for a business.

I'd start out by making some calls to companies to gauge their interest ... find out what their pain points are. Ask what they need in a system and see if they'd be willing to switch. Tell them that you're considering writing your own software. What would be ideal is if you could find a few that would fund your development expenses, provided that they get the kinds of features they want.