(This post was updated on Nov 7, 2018 to reflect the discontinuation of the free SOLO plan.)
Launch day!
For about 15 months now, I have been working on a project to build a better piece of risk management software. This is something I have been thinking about since 2002 and I think now, more than ever, we need – and deserve – a better piece of software for risk management. Why?
Because most of the existing tools are awful.
Expensive. Difficult to use. Glorified spreadsheets. Inaccessible. Sometimes all of these.
‘Too complex for [non-experts].’
‘The output is too complicated and not user friendly.’
‘Too open to influence by managers.’
‘[Use of the tool] has to be outsourced raising significant costs.’
‘Not dynamic.’
‘Slow or delayed outcomes or results.’
‘Costs thousands of dollars and still doesn’t do what we need it to.’Quotes from risk managers interviewed in 2017
Having built DCDR, I appreciate how hard it is to build fast, clean, elegant software. I use tools like Dropbox, Evernote and Remember the Milk every day because they work and are ridiculously simple. That’s really hard to do yet these tools all manage to be simple, fast and effective and cost less than $20 per month.
But some of the risk management tools on the market cost upwards of $5,000 per month and are still terrible. Worst of all, if you use these tools, you are often locked into working with a particular firm. They hold your data and the only way to get it is to keep using their system. Or the mitigation measures all seem to require their services. So the software becomes another technique to upsell products.
“Somebody comes in with a problem and you go, I know this problem, I can name this tune in three notes. Well, no. Actually, that’s not the business model. You wanna say, oh, boy, that’s a complex symphony. That’s gonna be 3,000 notes.”
Former CEO Home Depot Frank Blake on why he left the legal profession[1]
In the end, I decided to built my own tool because I truly believe that risk management should be accessible and we need better tools. And honestly, I love solving problems but I hate the upsell.
So after years procrastinating, 15 months of developing and weeks of testing, it’s time to launch.
Whoosh! Photo SpaceX on Unsplash
DCDR launched yesterday.
DCDR launched on Jun 19, 2018.
DCDR is a risk-driven, decision-making application that sorts and grades your risks to allow you to make informed decisions quickly and affordably. The tool is web-based and accessible on desktop or mobile platforms via a web browser to ensure accessibility, speed and simplicity. DCDR modules include risk assessments and incident reporting, all captured in a shared dashboard. You can see a demo here.
It’s the tool I have been looking for since 2002.
The basic tool is free and will remain free as long as that is feasible (i.e. until we are enslaved by our robot overlords, when Vecna returns [2] or Tarjuman collapses.)
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When you sign up, you will get access to the PRO version of the app for 14 days for free. Even if you don’t want to stay on a PRO plan, you can continue to use the free SOLO version (with all your data) after the trial so there’s nothing to lose.
(Nov 2018 – There’s still a free trial of up to 31 days with DCDR but the SOLO free plan has been discontinued for now. A free version of DCDR will be spun off in the future but for now, the free plan has been replaced with a low-cost version of the SOLO plan.)
More advanced versions provide additional functionality for PRO users (consultants or teams of one) and teams. The objective is still to keep this accessible so pricing will be kept as low as possible while still allowing me to offer a robust, secure application.
It’s been a lot of work to launch DCDR (and I still have a lot to do) but I really believe that this offers a new, fresh approach to risk management and puts powerful risk assessment tools into everyone’s hands.
There’s no upsell, no associated services and you always have access to, and control of, your data.
Try it and let me know what you think
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Footnotes
[1] – This Interview with Frank Blake is great for many reasons but something that really caught my attention was when he talks about managing a crisis – in this case, a massive data breach. The transcript and audio are here. https://tim.blog/2018/03/22/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts-frank-blake/
[2] – If this makes sense, kudos and you gain 250 xp