Good News, Bad News

We’re getting ready to launch a new service offering.  Whereas our existing Service Delivery Platform product line is currently targeted at the Chinese market (see Shanghai Mobile Announcement), our upcoming service offering targets the rest of the world.

 As we’re still pre-alpha, I cannot discuss it in detail (hey, I just lost most of you).  I’ve been spending the past few weeks travelling, meeting with potential partners, potential customers and most importantly with people whose opinion I value.  The result of this activity is a Good News, Bad News situation.

The good:  Everyone is excited by this new offering.  It seems to resonate with current market trends, and bridges a gap in the current value chain.

The bad:  There was not a single person I had met who did not ask me this question:  “Is it legal?  Can you do it and get away with it?”. 

And there you have it.  It all hinges on that seemingly simple question.   Often product managers and marketing executives in general tend to be so taken with the opportunity, so excited with the prospect of real product innovation, that they tend to ignore this often fatal question – am I allowed to do this?  (If you’re Google or Microsoft you may ignore this and just refer to your legal team/department/army).

Oh well.  I’m meeting the lawyers on Monday.

 — Oren