Question regarding Business Idea

[Jorgensen]

Noob in business.
Will appreciate any form of advice

Let's say I have a IT mobile- apps business idea

I managed to source for 2 companies products that align with my business idea. Both are foreign companies based in Asia
1)Vendor A able to provide mobile app/software support
2)Vendor B able to provide hardware support


This business process can only work if Vendor A software integrate with Vendor B hardware. In detail, information produced by Hardware B must match with the information captured by Software A


Questions
- Hardware B & Software A products' functionality are non-customizable. Can I engaged an external party, for example : Freelance Programmer C to help me to program & integrate the 2 products? Will there be any other implications , like copyright infringement?
- How do I protect myself from Vendor A & Vendor B 'by-passing' me and sell the product under their names once the product integration is successful?
- Do I need to setup/register a company for the above type of business?
- Since this business involve partnership of 2 Vendors, can I use the name of either Vendor A or Vendor B, to set up a regional office in Singapore to run the business locally?

 

[alexchia01]

Noob in business.
Will appreciate any form of advice

Let's say I have a IT mobile- apps business idea

I managed to source for 2 companies products that align with my business idea. Both are foreign companies based in Asia
1)Vendor A able to provide mobile app/software support
2)Vendor B able to provide hardware support


This business process can only work if Vendor A software integrate with Vendor B hardware. In detail, information produced by Hardware B must match with the information captured by Software A


Questions
- Hardware B & Software A products' functionality are non-customizable. Can I engaged an external party, for example : Freelance Programmer C to help me to program & integrate the 2 products? Will there be any other implications , like copyright infringement?
- How do I protect myself from Vendor A & Vendor B 'by-passing' me and sell the product under their names once the product integration is successful?
- Do I need to setup/register a company for the above type of business?
- Since this business involve partnership of 2 Vendors, can I use the name of either Vendor A or Vendor B, to set up a regional office in Singapore to run the business locally?

My suggestion is don't do this business.

You have no control over the software nor hardware.

All you have is an ideal. Based on what you wrote, I don't think you have any IT knowledge as well.

So pretty much anyone can screw you, even your programmer can screw you.

If you run a business where you've no control over the important stuff, it's going to fail.

Don't do this business, find one that you know and you have control over.

 

[lewissac]

My suggestion is don't do this business.

You have no control over the software nor hardware.

All you have is an ideal. Based on what you wrote, I don't think you have any IT knowledge as well.

So pretty much anyone can screw you, even your programmer can screw you.

If you run a business where you've no control over the important stuff, it's going to fail.

Don't do this business, find one that you know and you have control over.

I would agree on this.

Having vendors selling non-customisable products to you would tend to kill your business easily if something screws up.

Plus seems that you might be over-relying their products as well. if they decide to "bite" you back, then you're done for it.

 

[Jorgensen]

I would agree on this.

Having vendors selling non-customisable products to you would tend to kill your business easily if something screws up.

Plus seems that you might be over-relying their products as well. if they decide to "bite" you back, then you're done for it.

Your points are valid.

To further elaborate, I am not looking for long term business partnership with Vendor A & B, therefore less likely this type of things will happen

I would buy their selected products that fit in my business idea as a normal customer. If able to reach agreement to customize the products with this 2 vendors, I'm prepared to pay for the products and the additional customization charges as a normal customer. If not, I will get freelance programmer to do the customization on ad-hocs project basics

The business idea work in such a way that there is no need for constant supply of goods/service from the vendors. It is likely a one-time purchase from them

The customized products will be rented out to my customer under a service package they purchased from us, therefore these products can be reused and rent to the next customers

I'm quite confident this business is workable even without IT knowledge. Not all salon owner know how to cut hair. Not all coffeshop tow kay know how to make coffee.

My main concern is whether there is copyright infringement if I get external programmers to customized the vendor products. Can patent the customized products solve this issue?

 

[shared]

Not to say you can't do it, but if you dont have the basic skills or knowledge in the field you want to enter, it is very very easy to smoke scam carrot you.

Any contingency, last minute urgent issues and you will be handicapped due to lack of expertise.

 

[makav31i]

1) Is the app after integration by the two vendors going to be used in-house or going to be repackaged and sold to customers?if it is the former, it would not be a problem...If it is the latter, you purchased the product as an end user license so read what you agreed to use the software for as an end user... Business usually offer different user license to organization and end user...

2) you cannot protect yourself from country a or b as you do not owned the intellectual property of the two software...They can take you to court for infringement of their intellectual property..

3) I don't even know why you even ask if you need to start a business... Even if you intend to do freelance work, minimally most will register as a sole proprietor...So are you intending to sell a software or service without setting up a business entity or you want to wait for IRAS to step in and fine you?

4) you cannot use the name of company a or b without their prior approval to promote or advertised your business...If you happily use other people name without their approval, be prepared to receive a lawyer letter or cease and desist order...

 

[Darkzi0n]

What is ur moat? What stop others from copying ur idea once they saw ur service?

 

[wahkao3]

1) Is the app after integration by the two vendors going to be used in-house or going to be repackaged and sold to customers?if it is the former, it would not be a problem...If it is the latter, you purchased the product as an end user license so read what you agreed to use the software for as an end user... Business usually offer different user license to organization and end user...

yep. there will be some license agreement thingy
wan to use inhouse, no problem
wan to repackage and resell, got problem. need extended license

read the license agreement.

 

[wahkao3]

What is ur moat? What stop others from copying ur idea once they saw ur service?

his moat would be priopietary software. The integration of 2 vendors to form a 3rd product. And only he knows how to integrate.


Its a pretty small moat though.... and if the market is small relative to MES (min efficiency scale), i dont think others will come in.
a lot of sucessful businessses dont have moats and they do pretty well

 

[focus1974]

if it's a start and proof of concept, i think your idea is do-able.

if it's meant to be sustainable, it might only increase your cost as time goes by.

Apart from the nightmare of the vendors coming back to say you infringe their copyright (if your software proves successful enough), or if you have paid enough for the license usage of the software (per user or per company?).. So if vendor A/B increase licensing cost and your contract with your clients does not include that, then you have to absorb the cost.

You have 2 moving parts where you need to constantly track and work on
1) Vendor A software update or change - you need to do regression testing across your whole suite of software
2) Vendor B software update or change - you need to do regression testing across your whole suite of software
3) Vendor A & B software EOL or certain functions not being updated (but your client business down the road require certain tweak to the function that is not udpated - you have to deep dive into the code)

and the worst is ... if it's business critical function, most businesses don't want black boxes. They want to hire that company which has the software expertise to develop the end to end solution (means codes are all in house).


Is the TS trying to integrate two opensource solutions?

 

[makav31i]

if it's a start and proof of concept, i think your idea is do-able.

if it's meant to be sustainable, it might only increase your cost as time goes by.

Apart from the nightmare of the vendors coming back to say you infringe their copyright (if your software proves successful enough), or if you have paid enough for the license usage of the software (per user or per company?).. So if vendor A/B increase licensing cost and your contract with your clients does not include that, then you have to absorb the cost.

You have 2 moving parts where you need to constantly track and work on
1) Vendor A software update or change - you need to do regression testing across your whole suite of software
2) Vendor B software update or change - you need to do regression testing across your whole suite of software
3) Vendor A & B software EOL or certain functions not being updated (but your client business down the road require certain tweak to the function that is not udpated - you have to deep dive into the code)

and the worst is ... if it's business critical function, most businesses don't want black boxes. They want to hire that company which has the software expertise to develop the end to end solution (means codes are all in house).


Is the TS trying to integrate two opensource solutions?

Don't think it is opensource but one harware and one software company...Only thing that I can think of is SaaS, PaaS, IaaS or webhosting...

 

[Jorgensen]

1) Is the app after integration by the two vendors going to be used in-house or going to be repackaged and sold to customers?if it is the former, it would not be a problem...If it is the latter, you purchased the product as an end user license so read what you agreed to use the software for as an end user... Business usually offer different user license to organization and end user...

2) you cannot protect yourself from country a or b as you do not owned the intellectual property of the two software...They can take you to court for infringement of their intellectual property..

3) I don't even know why you even ask if you need to start a business... Even if you intend to do freelance work, minimally most will register as a sole proprietor...So are you intending to sell a software or service without setting up a business entity or you want to wait for IRAS to step in and fine you?

4) you cannot use the name of company a or b without their prior approval to promote or advertised your business...If you happily use other people name without their approval, be prepared to receive a lawyer letter or cease and desist order...

There will not be reselling of products to customer. Only service will be provided, customised hardware rent out and customer software account opened for 1 week rental period. At end of rental period,Customer will return all items we rented out to them. Customer software account will be closed. Customer have option to print out a online report to keep.

Does the above constitute as in house or resell?

Does partnership with Vendor A and B prevent infringement?Any other ways to avoid infringement?

 

[Darkzi0n]

There will not be reselling of products to customer. Only service will be provided, customised hardware rent out and customer software account opened for 1 week rental period. At end of rental period,Customer will return all items we rented out to them. Customer software account will be closed. Customer have option to print out a online report to keep.

Does the above constitute as in house or resell?

Does partnership with Vendor A and B prevent infringement?Any other ways to avoid infringement?

Then the question is why does A and B need you as the middleman?

 

[makav31i]

There will not be reselling of products to customer. Only service will be provided, customised hardware rent out and customer software account opened for 1 week rental period. At end of rental period,Customer will return all items we rented out to them. Customer software account will be closed. Customer have option to print out a online report to keep.

Does the above constitute as in house or resell?

Does partnership with Vendor A and B prevent infringement?Any other ways to avoid infringement?

The software code is written by you or the vendor? If by the vendor, read the license Terms of Service you paid for on whether you can "share" your license with other people...Most probably you have to purchase volume license from the vendor...

Partnership does not equal to no infringement...You still need to negotiate with the vendor on the terms of the partnership and what can or cannot be done...

 

[Jorgensen]

The software code is written by you or the vendor? If by the vendor, read the license Terms of Service you paid for on whether you can "share" your license with other people...Most probably you have to purchase volume license from the vendor...

Partnership does not equal to no infringement...You still need to negotiate with the vendor on the terms of the partnership and what can or cannot be done...

On the finished software product, 90% shall be kept to original software code and 10% modified to fit in to my idea.
Seem like partnership with vendors is inevitable

 

[wahkao3]

On the finished software product, 90% shall be kept to original software code and 10% modified to fit in to my idea.
Seem like partnership with vendors is inevitable

in a partnership model, you can also negotiate a royality agreement
like for every customer that you rent out to, they get a cut.

 

[paurusu]

On the finished software product, 90% shall be kept to original software code and 10% modified to fit in to my idea.
Seem like partnership with vendors is inevitable

I assume you are not IT trained and hardly knows how IT contract works - since your question is kind of basic.

If you're buying any software & hardware from vendor , take note of the term of use from that products. Most of the time it is provided to you as is.
See if there is any clause to prohibit you on re-selling

Integration on the software & hardware (based on API already provided by vendor) do not infringe copyright , because your code should not be touching their IP.

Things are different if you DO touch their base code. That is (in most cases) straight away IP infringement unless you have the rights to do that.
And if you mention 90/10 whatever proportion changed from base - it doesn't make difference . U need to get the whole IP rights to do so legally.
Likely u wont get partnership - bite the bullet and buy the rights to do so. Very likely no reason for vendor to partner with you in the first place.

Of course you can do illegal things and hope not to get caught but u will bear the chance of being screwed in future if u make it big.