True automation software for everyone.

[dknise]

Ah... my nasty little habit of having side projects on my big projects. I've been trying to suppress this bad boy down to focus on my primary product, but I find myself tinkering with this when I just can't focus anymore on the main business.

Before I was a programmer, Excel's API to automate tasks with functions was like trying to read a book in another language. None of it made sense. The reason why is it was made by programmers... who clearly made it for other programmers. I don't think they ever thought of the user when designing it haha.

What I have is a software prototype that hooks into your every move on the computer and suggests the automation of work tasks. There are small tasks I see desk-level employees make that become routine. As I've mentioned a few times about my mom being an accountant, I've often helped her automate her tasks in Excel or go through huge amounts of files to pluck information in a directory set.

There are a few options of input that I've come up with.
1) Background suggestions for automation after the identification of a repetitive task.
While recording the moves the user makes, clicks, copy pastes, typing prefixing, naming conventions, etc, when it identifies a pattern it suggests it to the user. The user then opens up the suggestion and can choose to add it as an automated task and define how it is activated.
2) The same form and review for the automation that is used for the suggestion, can be manually entered, step by step.
Here, the user manually enters in all of the information regarding how to automate the task. The goal of it was to use all drop downs and presets as to not run into the same error of Excel, but still... it is cumbersome. Which leads us to...
3) Turning on a manual recording of a task for automation.
The user identifies the intent to automate the following task, performs the task, and identifies when the task has been completed. The two methods for this type of input are 1) end to end recording and 2) the step-by-step filling out of the form through the recording of each individual step.

Once the actions are recorded, it actually creates a background worker thread, opens hidden application instances, creates a fake pointer, and performs the tasks manually as if it were being performed by a lightning fast robot. The reason I did it this way, is that it allows for literally ANY task to be automated, without the need for hooking into a programs API directly. If it can be done through a mouse and the user interface, I can steal those actions and perform it from code.

I'm thinking about tossing it to some of my fam to test out on their work machines to see how they like it. Because of the intrusion into low level parts of the system with certain hooks, it is identified by every possible anti-virus software suite as a virus haha.

So for the kicker: What do you guys think about a software product that tracks your moves and suggests automation?


As a side note, another piece of software that I created generates an entire front end UI with WPF and the required WCF web services to access them from a SQL Server database. When I do side projects for extra cash setting up companies for full automation and online-client access, I use it to save me literally hundreds of hours of mindless setup work. It spits out Visual Studio projects much like PHP prints out html pages. It's not nearly polished enough to allow business owners to perform their own IT work without having to hire a guy like me... but I could definitely make it.

Two ideas, one I really wanted to know what you guys think about and throwing another one out there. They're both in the proto phase and have a lot of work to polish the idea and implementation, but I'd love to get your guys' feedback on.

Thanks everyone! And have a great weekend!

 

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[x11joex11]

Out of curiosity what gave you the idea for this software product? Who is your target market?

What would you sell this program for?

 

[dknise]

Out of curiosity what gave you the idea for this software product? Who is your target market?

What would you sell this program for?

There were two things that made me think of to write it. The first was there were a lot of times that I did repetitive tasks before I was a programmer. Now I know if I repeat something, I automate it. The second was hearing and watching what actions my mom does for her work. I swear two of her employees entire jobs could be automated with a days worth setup from this software.

 

[x11joex11]

When I heard you say 'I came up with the idea', that is the first red flag. Normally you want the idea to come to you from your customers mouth not what you think is the issue. The hardest part is getting your customers not the product! I'm not saying your product is bad but consider the options below to definitively find out.

Here is what I propose you to do: you want to find BEFORE you make your software your clientele. Go talk to them.

For example you can start with your mom. Ask her what her day-to-day issues are and see if she brings up the problem of the repetitive tasks on the computer without you probing it out of her. If she doesn't ask at the end of your discussion bring up the concept and ask if it would benefit her. Even more important would she pay for something like that? 'HOW MUCH is she willing to pay in her opinion?' If she won't pay for it ask her why and if you solve those issues would she then pay for it?

If she likes the idea, see if she will pay you in advance for it. If it's really solving such an issue I would think she would be ecstatic to pay you possibly in advance for the product (especially since you are her son). If she isn't even willing to do this then it may be just you who thinks it's a good idea, but it also might just be your moms personality.

Assuming she goes for it or if she doesn't and you are still feeling good about it still,go find AT LEAST 11 other people that you think would use your product (try to niche it to an industry if possible), asking them what they want in the software, and would they pay for the program you described to your mom, and if not, what needs to be there for it to be worth it to them. You would be amazed how much information you can get from just emailing or calling up these people. What you might do is say you are a student entrepreneur and you are looking to have an interview with them (show your linkedIn profile to give credibility) and email or call about 100 people in that niche. You would be surprised how open people are willing to telling you their issues and discussing your program idea, people will sometimes take hours out of their day to talk with you (I just talked an hour today with a guy about an idea I'm investigating). The best part about this is you build network connections and re-pore with your potential future clients.

The best thing about doing this, is you won't have to guess what features they want or what you need to develop because you will only program features that 'solve their problems'. This helps avoid 'featureitis', where you spend countless hours on features 'you' think are good when they might not be to your customers.

Once you go back and forth with your 11 pre-customers, and you create a sketch of something that solves their problems go to them again and tell them, I can get this created but I need your support to get it off the ground, would you be willing to pay X amount of months in advance now to purchase this software if it did what you wanted. If you truly have a good idea they will gladly pay you to create the software.

The key here is you don't have to have the product first to sell it to them. I've already got 3 people ready to give me their credit card for a program they desperately want developed. In fact, one of them has already pre-ordered 3 months! This is without even programming the software yet.

You can then use your pre-launch money to even fund the endeavor if you wanted. Point is you will have a market and customers before you even launch greatly increasing the success of your business venture and your customers will be your guide so you are never lost not knowing what to do.

Let me know if this helped you at all. Just giving my 2 cents, thanks!

 

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[dknise]

Let me know if this helped you at all. Just giving my 2 cents, thanks!

Thanks for your reply!

When I heard you say 'I came up with the idea', that is the first red flag. Normally you want the idea to come to you from your customers mouth not what you think is the issue. The hardest part is getting your customers not the product! I'm not saying your product is bad but consider the options below to definitively find out.

I side with Steve Jobs on this one that you can provide your customers with something they didn't know they even wanted or needed. While I was at Microsoft, we had to go through this thing called Scenario Focused Engineering where we got the features and the software model from the end user. The inherent problem with this... is user's don't even know what's possible! It should be up to the developers to spot problems (tasks that could be automated, but the end user isn't aware it's even in the realm of possibility) and come up with a solution for it.

Here is what I propose you to do: you want to find BEFORE you make your software your clientele. Go talk to them.

For example you can start with your mom. Ask her what her day-to-day issues are and see if she brings up the problem of the repetitive tasks on the computer without you probing it out of her. If she doesn't ask at the end of your discussion bring up the concept and ask if it would benefit her. Even more important would she pay for something like that? 'HOW MUCH is she willing to pay in her opinion?' If she won't pay for it ask her why and if you solve those issues would she then pay for it?

This is exactly how I found out about the potential need. She would explain in detail manual processes that are repetitive, and I would ask her why it hasn't been automated. She thinks (thought) it was impossible. A lot of the side work I do eliminates manual transactional jobs. The reason why I score these weekend hackathons, is because I can build it all in 2 days and outsourcing IT companies require 3-6 months. The going rate is also 50%-100% of the yearly salary of each employee that is eliminated, and mine is a flat fee of $3-6k.

With a product such as this where the setup is left entirely to the end user... A huge price tag isn't within reason. If there was a sales force that came and worked with business owners and managers to setup the automation processes, there would be a bit higher of a price tag but it would also require human resources which I hate dealing with and don't want to even get into haha.

If she likes the idea, see if she will pay you in advance for it. If it's really solving such an issue I would think she would be ecstatic to pay you possibly in advance for the product (especially since you are her son). If she isn't even willing to do this then it may be just you who thinks it's a good idea, but it also might just be your moms personality.

It's solving an issue she and everyone else wasn't even aware existed. As programmers, you and I are aware that if you do steps 1,2,3,4 repeatedly, you automate it and never perform it again. To a regular employee, this is just low wage grunt work that requires a human resource.

My mom was stunned when I told her it could be automated, made the prototype, and then showed her exactly how it could. She said it would eliminate several transactional jobs at her company. She's been my test client for several years and we're on a very personal level where she understand that her deepest, honest criticism are not taken personally and are only helpful to my end product. She loved this idea because it would free up $100k+ in human resources a year to be redistributed towards growth and other improvements.

Assuming she goes for it or if she doesn't and you are still feeling good about it still,go find AT LEAST 11 other people that you think would use your product (try to niche it to an industry if possible), asking them what they want in the software, and would they pay for the program you described to your mom, and if not, what needs to be there for it to be worth it to them. You would be amazed how much information you can get from just emailing or calling up these people. What you might do is say you are a student entrepreneur and you are looking to have an interview with them (show your linkedIn profile to give credibility) and email or call about 100 people in that niche. You would be surprised how open people are willing to telling you their issues and discussing your program idea, people will sometimes take hours out of their day to talk with you (I just talked an hour today with a guy about an idea I'm investigating). The best part about this is you build network connections and re-pore with your potential future clients.

Once you go back and forth with your 11 pre-customers, and you create a sketch of something that solves their problems go to them again and tell them, I can get this created but I need your support to get it off the ground, would you be willing to pay X amount of months in advance now to purchase this software if it did what you wanted. If you truly have a good idea they will gladly pay you to create the software.

The key here is you don't have to have the product first to sell it to them. I've already got 3 people ready to give me their credit card for a program they desperately want developed. In fact, one of them has already pre-ordered 3 months! This is without even programming the software yet.

You can then use your pre-launch money to even fund the endeavor if you wanted. Point is you will have a market and customers before you even launch greatly increasing the success of your business venture and your customers will be your guide so you are never lost not knowing what to do.

I think I'll try that... I have about twenty companies locally that I've done work for and I wasn't planning on pitching it to them until I could actively set them up to try it, but I think I could with the proto to demo it.


From your response... I'm getting that you DON'T think it would be marketable? Why do you think owners and manager's wouldn't want this software?

Thanks!

 

[PatrickP]

I am not too up on this but what about making the software which can automate what is done in thousands of companies, then approach each one to buy it.

As opposed to having to make a new one for every small group of buyers.

Maybe even do a free version then a paid for version that most would be likely to use because they want to update.

 

[dknise]

I am not too up on this but what about making the software which can automate what is done in thousands of companies, then approach each one to buy it.

As opposed to having to make a new one for every small group of buyers.

Maybe even do a free version then a paid for version that most would be likely to use because they want to update.

I'm glad you asked! Exactly what I'm looking to achieve!

Right now when a company hires me, or any company does any automation work, it requires the manual setup and creation by a developer. The developer has to have the SDK API's from each individual program that it works with and has to manually connect the dots. If the dots change, the developer has to come in to change it.

I'd have to say that 99% of the time, the tasks that are being automated can be done through a user interface. So what I did, was track the interactions with the user interface, then replicate them thousands of times faster in the background.

It's not a permanent solution I'd suggest for huge companies work with hundreds of millions of transactions a day, but for small companies who can't afford to hire an IT team for 6 months, it's a life saver.

What are your thoughts Patrick? Thanks for your input!

 

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[PatrickP]

Not sure really maybe one for lawn services, or hair salons but that would be more about automating basic accounting and billing things. Maybe make it user friendly.

I didn't really have anything in mind when I suggested it just a general sense of what might work.

Or what about if you had a program for setting up a business. Something like the person puts in the name of the business and the software makes a facebook account, twitter account etc and all the things that you are suppose to do when you first get a new company going.

 

[dknise]

Or what about if you had a program for setting up a business. Something like the person puts in the name of the business and the software makes a facebook account, twitter account etc and all the things that you are suppose to do when you first get a new company going.

Sounds like something you should be adding to your business model!

That's similar to the other software I wrote that I use on contracts, but I focus on the back-end functionality vs the consumer's endpoint.

 

[AgonI]

You are trying to kill jobs for slowlaners ha?

It's definitely a good idea but I am not sure how effective it'll be. I mean, are you going to track mouse clicks(and the component that was clicked on the screen) and then create a bot to automate that sequence of clicks? I would think that would not be easy to do.

 

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[PatrickP]

Is this something like what we were talking about?

Mouse Recorder LITE - Mouse Recorder, Keyboard Recorder, Automation Software for Windows

 

[dknise]

You are trying to kill jobs for slowlaners ha?

It's what I do best. Every employer I've helped cut jobs for has created an equal amount in it's wake and in one case has created 5 more jobs from the added business. There's no sense in allocating resources towards a task that can be automated.

It's definitely a good idea but I am not sure how effective it'll be. I mean, are you going to track mouse clicks(and the component that was clicked on the screen) and then create a bot to automate that sequence of clicks? I would think that would not be easy to do.

I already have a working proto and it's not exactly that easy, but ya, basically.

 

[AgonI]

Is this something like what we were talking about?

Mouse Recorder LITE - Mouse Recorder, Keyboard Recorder, Automation Software for Windows

Seems like that's what we're talking about. Is that right dknise?

 

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[PatrickP]

I just tried the free version and it worked amazingly well.

 

[dknise]

Is this something like what we were talking about?

Mouse Recorder LITE - Mouse Recorder, Keyboard Recorder, Automation Software for Windows

It's pretty similar. We acquire the information for automation in a similar way, but I'm using it differently. Man I really should just toss up a quick site with a beta to let people try it out.

 

[x11joex11]

I am not against the idea, I have no idea or not if it's good that is the point I was trying to make. I was just urging you do your research and get paying customers before you even create the idea, then you will know without a doubt there is a market for your product as well as customers before you even launch . I get what you are saying about customers not always knowing what they want. You don't need to know what they want just that they have a problem and they are willing to pay for your solution.

 

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[andviv]

I suggest you take a look at these two:

iMacros

Mac OSX Automator

So for the kicker: What do you guys think about a software product that tracks your moves and suggests automation?

This sounds like a great idea... I wonder what algorithm you are going to need to identify the patterns as repetitive.

 

[dknise]

I suggest you take a look at these two:

iMacros

Mac OSX Automator

That Mac OSX Automator is the closest I've seen to something like it.

This sounds like a great idea... I wonder what algorithm you are going to need to identify the patterns as repetitive.

I've been trying to leave out the implementation details haha, but for identifying patterns I use a design structure like a regex engine modified for exactly what I need.

 

[andviv]

I've been trying to leave out the implementation details haha, but for identifying patterns I use a design structure like a regex engine modified for exactly what I need.

you must be really good with RegEx. I can't even imagine how to do this with regular expressions.

 

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[dknise]

you must be really good with RegEx. I can't even imagine how to do this with regular expressions.

Haha I am really good at regex, but it's more applying the concepts of the engine.

I worked the last year or so in virus scanning which deals with signature detection and pattern matching. Learned a ton!