Selling Software

[MatthewH5]

Hi,

I'm not sure whether this should be in the Business forum instead, but I've been a software developer for almost 20 years (C / assembly). During this time, I've created several open-source projects outside of my full-time work, but I'm now hoping to branch out into commercial software.

I've been working on a remote administration package for Windows PCs over the last 9 months (similar to VNC and LogMeIn but with some additional features). I primarily created this for my own purposes, but I feel that it would have commercial value. I won't post a direct link here, but a couple of screenshots of the product are below:

http://37.187.121.135/ss_1.png
http://37.187.121.135/ss_4.png

I don't use any 3rd-party libraries so there are no issues with licensing.

It's now ready to release, but I don't really know where to begin with the marketing side of things. I'm aware of websites such as Softpedia, but these seem to be aimed more towards home users. As an independent developer, I don't have much of a marketing budget. It's also a fairly generic piece of software, so I've not yet identified a particular target market. I've created a very basic website where a free trial can be downloaded, but I'm not sure where to go next.

Has anybody previously been in a similar position themselves or have any advice to give?

Thanks.

[buggalugs]

Are you aiming at MSP’s or the in house IT market? I’d say the latter is fractionally less saturated. Impressive to have put all that together on your own in that length of time.

Issues that come to mind -

Security
Security
Security
Cost - one off or subscription
Security

Did I mention security

[Troubleatmill]

How on earth are you going to support it?

Big companies will look at D&B reports, financial health etc etc


You need to really target your market.

[eltawater]

I don't understand what problem your product is offering to solve which isn't already covered by the myriad of solutions already on the market which are better supported and/or cheaper ?

[deckster]

Can't help with the marketing side but as above there are a few things that people will expect from a commercial package.

As has been said, security. Security is the first, second, and third most important thing particularly for a remote admin package that potentially opens client machines to the public internet.

Support. Warranty. Maintenance. Updates. How are all of these handled? When people pay for something, they expect at the very least for somebody to be available and responsive to issues, bug reports, and (mainly) idiot users who can't/won't read the manual.

Your work, your IP. How will you protect it? Just giving people downloads is fine but particularly if the package is any good it will be re-uploaded to dodgy sites before you can get out of bed. How do you track that, how do you deactivate hokey copies, how do you make sure people are entitled to use your software?

I wish you well, I wish I'd had the balls to release some of my own software over the years. But now it's much easier to let somebody else handle the messy side and just concentrate on the stuff I'm good at

[hyphen]

MatthewH5 said:

(similar to VNC and LogMeIn but with some additional features). I primarily created this for my own purposes, but I feel that it would have commercial value..

Feel? You need to be certain.

Are you certain these additional features are needed by a large enough part of the market/niche willing to pay for it? As seems odd the big boys don't offer it.


Edit: just looked at it. It's got 'monitoring the user' tools which I'm guessing you think are the USP? Ring some Private Detective firms and see if interested.

Edited by hyphen on Sunday 6th September 15:33

[rustyuk]

Take a look at component source.

Unless your products features are exceptional then you might be struggling as RDP does a great job and is shipped with windows for free.

You could also try licensing it to other vendors to ship in their product. Slack recently pulled screen control due to complexity.

[Origin Unknown]

MatthewH5 said:

Hi,

I'm not sure whether this should be in the Business forum instead, but I've been a software developer for almost 20 years (C / assembly). During this time, I've created several open-source projects outside of my full-time work, but I'm now hoping to branch out into commercial software.

I've been working on a remote administration package for Windows PCs over the last 9 months (similar to VNC and LogMeIn but with some additional features). I primarily created this for my own purposes, but I feel that it would have commercial value. I won't post a direct link here, but a couple of screenshots of the product are below:

http://37.187.121.135/ss_1.png
http://37.187.121.135/ss_4.png

I don't use any 3rd-party libraries so there are no issues with licensing.

It's now ready to release, but I don't really know where to begin with the marketing side of things. I'm aware of websites such as Softpedia, but these seem to be aimed more towards home users. As an independent developer, I don't have much of a marketing budget. It's also a fairly generic piece of software, so I've not yet identified a particular target market. I've created a very basic website where a free trial can be downloaded, but I'm not sure where to go next.

Has anybody previously been in a similar position themselves or have any advice to give?

Thanks.

Working on the assumption you're remote control solution is aimed at the support desk.

I work (well, one more week and I'm off) for an ISV that specialises in EDR working with large enterprises, 10k employees up to 650k. The days of remote control have well and truly passed. If users have an issue, they want IT to find it before it impacts their work. If a user experiences issues, they ideally want to interact with a chatbot who can remediate the issue without interacting with a human.

If a human needs to be involved in the investigation process, users DO NOT want to talk to the service desk folks. They don't want a remote screen sharing session. They want IT to have the tools to investigate and remediate the issue remotely. Which is what EDR does.

There are also many remote control tools out there that you will struggle to compete against. Particularly as mentioned above, in all transactions, the prospect want's to understand your business to the nth degree to get a feel on whether you can support, protect and deliver on their investment.

Finally, as mentioned above, if your USP is around monitoring employees, there are a lot of tools on the market that do this. Most commonly under the banner of DEM or DEM+ (Digital experience monitoring). These are primarily tasked with measuring the experience the user gets from their device but capture enough to measure what a user is doing.

Finally, if you want to sell in NL, DE and markets where there are Workers Council, you'll have a tough time getting approval.

Sorry for the negative response.

[MatthewH5]

Thanks for all of the replies. All are valid points - I think I'll continue using this for my own purposes but concentrate my efforts into my other projects for now!