DLT360: Relaunch SMART INDUSTRY FORUM for Real-World-Adoption

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

DLT360

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Co-proposers and additional applicants

None.

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

100000

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

4

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

SMART INDUSTRY FORUM was a productive Digital Transformation Expert Community from 2015 to 2020, waiting to be re-kindled for identifying, shaping and optimizing Real-World Web3.0 & AI Applications.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

1) Legal Clarifications (part of this proposal)

Heinz Gassner was the Founding Director of the Smart Industry Forum (2015) and has the most important former members in his personal LinkedIn network and is in ongoing contact with many of these experts ever since. Heinz founded the Smart Industry Forum while being employed as responsible Area Director for Northern Europe at ABB (B&R Automation). After Heinz left the company, ABB did not continue with the Smart Industry Forum and put this initiative dormant after a while, but the copyright for the historic LOGO is still with ABB. Therefore, there is a need for legal clarification as part of the project. This clarification can lead to the following outcomes:

1) Likely: ABB waives all historic rights.

2) Best Case: ABB decides to support the relaunch and wants to be actively engaged.

3) Worst Case: In case we cannot reach clarity, we would simply need to redesign the LOGO (nothing else is protected). Using a new LOGO would not be a problem, but it would nevertheless be nice to relaunch based on the existing one, as many former network members still remember it very positively.

2) Other important remarks:

This proposal would highly benefit from getting also the following F12 proposals funded:

Our 4 Real-World-Application Concepts

Having detailed application CONCEPTs available is crucial for (re)starting the Smart Industry Forum, as none of the Smart Industry Forum participants is interested in discussing any shallow and general Web3.0 ideas. All potential ideas and applications we present for discussion MUST already be very well specified. This is exactly what we are aiming for with our 4 industry-application proposals:

• auditShare: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119964
• CANBAN: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119623
• twinShare: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119606
• corporateDAO: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119944

The DLT360: Real-World Business Development Framework

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119932

All our four proposed industry applications are intended to become available within this TOGAF-compliant Enterprise Architecture Framework. This is important for allowing frictionless PoC, Piloting, Customization, Roll-out and Application Lifecycle Management according to open industry standards. It would be VERY helpful to get a green light for establishing this Real-World Business Development Framework already in parallel to (re)launching the Smart Industry Forum and in parallel to working on the CONCEPTS of our 4 scalable industry applications.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

No

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

The DLT360: SMART INDUSTRY FORUM will be a members-based community with part of its activities open to the general public.

Nevertheless, specific activities and workshops will naturally include confidential business secrets of the network members and need to be carefully protected.

We will apply an 'inching approach' along the journey learning how to keep a maximum of content open, without violating the legitimate interests of our future network members.

[METADATA] SDG rating

[8] Descent Work and Economic Growth

[9] Industry Innovation and Infrastructure

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Rationale

Getting radical innovations from an early hype-phase to adoption-at-scale requires very specific approaches. Classic 'sales' never works, as the new opportunities are either not (yet) sufficiently understood or challenging and even offending the established corporate solutions and the decision-makers behind these solutions. Just like in farming, careful seeding is required. This recognition was behind the initial founding the Smart Industry Forum in 2015 by Heinz Gassner in his role as responsible Area Director for Northern Europe at ABB / B&R Automation. The initial mission of the Smart Industry Forum was about creating the very basic understanding of the holistic nature of Digital Transformation and about identifying high-priority actions. After Heinz left the ABB/B&R in 2017, he continued in his new role as VP Digital Transformation at Sidel/Tetra Laval Group. In 2020, the Smart Industry Forum went dormant. Since then, it is operated as an 'informal network' between influential experts from well-known corporations.

Purpose of (re)launching the Smart Industry Forum

What has been learned during the first phase of the Smart Industry Forum is also highly relevant for approaching business and industry clients with Web3.0 applications. No doubt, there are some business and industry-oriented Web3.0 applications receiving some interest from consumer-facing innovators within the corporate landscape. BUT: In the big and wide field of supply-chain applications, the initial euphoria got lost and considerable scepticism has arisen. If there is still some hype, the hype-money goes into AI projects. Especially the Web2.0 and Cloud-Computing ‘socialised’ CIO and CISOs represent a strong entry-barrier. For implementing a Web3.0 application (at scale) into the supply-chain area, a complex ‘buying network’ with various typical stakeholders needs to be convinced and won-over from scepticism to promotership. This can only work, if Web3.0 applications demonstrate ‘door-opening business benefits’ or ‘door-opening risk reduction’ and are offered by business professionals, supported by best-practice implementation frameworks. With ‘Hype’ or ‘Quick-Win’ approaches it might be possible to start the one or other pilot-project, just to be terminated soon thereafter.

With the (re)launch of the Smart Industry Forum, we want to utilize the (still) existing expert network for

• Identifying current pain-points along the Digital Transformation
• Jointly elaborating areas which can greatly benefit from Web3.0 / AI approaches
• Providing specific training for overcoming knowledge gaps
• Jointly ideating about promising Web3.0 and AI applications
• Introducing & discussing existing high-value Web3.0 application concepts (such as the ones for which DLT360 is currently establishing Use-Case-Concepts)
• Jointly refining the requirements, business & solutions approaches of such applications
• Harvesting actual PoC, Pilot-Projects and Real-World-Implementation from this community

While the original Smart Industry Forum was focused on premium in-person-Summits, the new version will mostly utilize the power of online workshops and events.

Picture: Some of the speakers at the Smart Industry Forum 2019

Major Activities and Deliverables of this Proposal

• Clarify legal status of the Smart Industry Forum (including LOGO copyright)
• Rebranding and if required: Redesigning LOGO
• Produce Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video
• Re-establish Website and Social Media Chanels
• Develop Concept & Governance (Membership and sponsoring models, aim for DAO-based setup, YouTube activities, Community Meet-ups, Workshop formats etc.)
• Form an initial Steering Committee with some renowned experts
• Kick-off Meetup

Understanding Smart Industry Forum in the overall DLT360 context

The graphic above shows, how DLT360, based on many years of experience in business and industry, approaches the scaling of WEB3.0 solutions:

1. Developing solid CONCEPTS, MVP and BLUEPRINTS for the major ‘door-opening applications’ (currently 4 such applications have been identified, 10-20 in the idea-pipeline)
2. Share and discuss these applications within the DLT360: Smart Industry Forum, a high-quality Digital Transformation Expert Community, planned to (re)launch during F12.
3. Contribute specific Knowledge and Trainings based on the tools and content that were funded by Fund 6, 7 and 8
4. Customer implementations: Use the DLT360 Business Development Framework for driving real-world adoption from PoC to customized MVPs, Piloting, Migration, Implementation and ongoing Application Lifecycle Management).

DLT360 Overall Startup Strategy 

Establishing our complete DLT360 approach, consisting of interconnected products and solutions, is structured into various phases and iterations. The DLT360 SMART INDUSTRY FORUM and our other proposals introduced to Fund 12 are important elements of our overall strategy, which can be laid out as following:

1. Fund 6, 7 and 8: We have established the DLT360 Knowledge Management layer with the required tools and content.
2. Fund 10: Unfortunately we were ‘downvoted’, forcing us to pull the emergency break - a very painful experience. 
3. Fund 11: Establishing the CONCEPT for ‘auditShare’, the first of various ‘door-opening application’. Having such deep-going CONCEPTS in place is a prerequisite for entering into serious and lasting interactions with our target-customers.
4. Fund 12: We aim for 3 additional CONCEPTS (for CANBAN, twinShare and corporateDAO) and push for getting 'auditShare' further to MVP status.
5. Fund 12: (Re)starting the Smart Industry Forum with key-people from renowned corporations for introducing and discussing our Application CONCEPTS and jointly prepare these applications for growing into MVP and then Application Blueprint status.
6. Fund 12: Establish the Concept of the DLT360 Business Development Framework, the ecosystem architecture framework for future customer implementations at scale.
7. Hand-in hand with all this, we are in progress of establishing stable solution partnerships with different expert-groups from business and industry, the Web3.0 space and from the Cardano Community. 
8. By end of 2024, we want to achieve a stable overall MVP status, with some renowned (early) customers in the boat. This shall give us the momentum to go from Catalyst Pre-Seed-Financing to classic Seed- and Series-A Startup Financing during 2025. 

Summary & Next Steps 

The DLT360 Smart Industry Forum (re)launch is a key-element of our overall business approach. This (together with our other proposals submitted to Fund 12) is an important milestone in succeeding with our lean and iterative startup strategy. 

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

Bringing Value to the Cardano Community:

The DLT360 Smart Industry Forum (re)launch can be a big game-changer in succeeding with scalable Web3.0 implementations for business and industry. Web3.0 is blessed with a lot of Web3.0-insider-communities, but is lacking to reach out to the Digital Transformation Experts from business and industry. Smart Industry Forum can contribute:

• Careful (non-missionary) reach-out to business and industry decision makers and experts
• Making Cardano known to a wide group industry excperts
• Providing a forum for ideating and shaping highly-beneficial Web3.0 applications (from DLT360 but also from other Cardano teams and the wider Web3.0 landscape)
• Proximity and compliance with the emerging European NGI initiatives and solutions (NGI: Next Generation Internet)
• Bringing adoption to Cardano as a go-to layer 1, especially in the industrial supply chain area.
• Utilization of latest Web 3.0 architectures (identity, scaling and privacy/confidentiality solutions)
• Mod- and longterm: Substantial increase of transaction volume and usage.

How to measure the impact ?

In the early stage, the impact can best be measured by the number of renowned industry players, which we will be able to involve. DLT360 has a great network among important experts and decision makers within the Digital Transformation space. The following are some key areas we intend to measure: 

• Number of business and industry experts attracted and interested
• Number of business and industry experts repetitively involved
• Number of members and sponsors
• Number of Cardano Community members and projects involved

How we will share the outputs and opportunities that result from this project?

We will start with very active outgoing communication on LinkedIn and YouTube, thus contributing to Cardano’s reputation as go-to ecosystem for business and industry. The Smart Industry Forum, once operating in a stable cadence of meet-ups, workshops and events, can become an important community for providing real-world feedback to many of the Community's emerging Web3.0 solutions.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Overall Feasibility

The feasibility can best be supported by the fact, that this is a relaunch of an already existing (though currently dormant) organization, that was able to deliver great results and attract an excellent Digital Transformation expert community. The network is still (informally) alive and the new online-formats make a re-kindling a lot easier and cost-effective compared to being limited to the in-person-summits of the past. Heinz Gassner as the original Founding Director of the Smart Industry Forum, still has all the network available and maintained over the past years. The legal challenges are limited to finding an agreement with ABB about using the original logo. Nothing else is protected in any way.

Our Capabilities as DLT360

DLT360 was founded by an ambitious core-team coming from many years of leadership experience in business and industry, combined with the fresh perspective of young talents in various disciplines (see CVs and team description later in this proposal). The senior founders have also been active members of and contributors to the Catalyst community since early-on. DLT360 has successfully completed all earlier projects from Fund 6, 7 and 8. This project is now a major element of orchestrating many of the previous projects, making us finally ready for scaling up the work with Corporate Clients from business and industry. 

 Our team (including the closely linked free-lancers) has many years of experience in:

• Innovation Management
• Specific knowledge about industrial process and supply-chain transformation
• Specific knowledge of activities and regulations of the European Union
• Strong network to key-players within industry, academia and within the various EU-initiatives
• Expert-level knowledge about Enterprise Architecture Frameworks
• Expert-level knowledge about Quality Management according to ISO9001 and Cybersecurity according to ISO27001
• Expert-level knowledge about Business Model & Value Proposition Development
• Expert-level knowledge about UX, design and branding
• Expert-level knowledge about Program Management, Project Management and Scrum (Scrum of Scrum)
• Access to full-stack development resources
• Expert Knowhow in business administration, controlling and reporting

We use best-practice infrastructure and tools like e.g. GitHub and MIRO for supporting our collaborative processes and document management.

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone Title:

Project setup & planning and detailed drafting the detailed content-structure of the deliverables

Milestone Outputs:

1. Project infrastructure and detailed planning of the project
2. Team in place, kickoff event
3. Precise definition of the content-structure of the deliverables, which will consist of

• How to approach the clarification of the Legal status of the Smart Industry Forum
• If rebranding and new LOGO should be required: Draft details of deliverables
• Content-structure draft of Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video
• Exact deliverables regarding Website and Social Media Chanels relaunch
• Details of deliverables regarding Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance
• Exact deliverables with regards to Steering Committee with some renowned experts
• Exact deliverables with regards to Kick-off Activities & Meet-up

Acceptance Criteria:

1. Project setup including project plan in GitHub completed
2. Roles defined and resources allocated (team in place), kickoff-meeting done
3. Detailed definition of deliverables established (in MIRO and as document content structure draft in version V0.01)

Evidence of Milestone Completion:

We will deliver a brief video in which we will go through the individual outputs, the acceptance criteria and the evidence. The video will cover:

1. Showing Github setup and the detailed project planning,
2. Explaining the project organization, introducing key-people and reporting the outcome of the kickoff meeting
3. Demonstrating and explaining the MIRO Board with the detailed definition of the deliverables of this project by showing the content-structure of the folwing deliverables:

• Show legal status action plan
• If required: Show rebranding and new LOGO action plan
• Show content-structure draft of Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video (V00.01)
• Show exact deliverables regarding Website and Social Media Chanels relaunch
• Show details of deliverables regarding Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance
• Show exact deliverables with regards to Steering Committee
• Show exact deliverables with regards to Kick-off Activities & Meet-up

Milestone Title:

Legal clarifications, rebranding and fist version of Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance

Milestone Outputs:

After establishing the details and the content-structure of the deliverables in milestone 1, milestone 2 focuses on legal clarifications and content creation. This will result in completed draft version of the Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance (V00.10) and Branding Guidelines (V00.10) with approximately 80% completion state.

Acceptance Criteria:

Part 1: Legal Clarification: Summary Report with documented results

Part 2: New Branding Guidelines (if required, including a new logo)

Part 3: Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance (exact content-structure will be refined during the work on Milestone 1, this is the momentary best guess):

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction
3. Problem Definition
4. Vision, Mission and Value Proposition(s)
5. Overall Strategies & Solution Approach
6. Target Members & Stakeholders
7. Market Analysis
8. Core-Activities, Workflows and Processes
9. UX and User-Requirements
10. Outlook: Tokenomics and DAO Migration
11. Legal & Regulatory Requirements
12. Roadmap and Milestones

Evidence of Milestone Completion:

We will deliver a brief video in which we will go through the individual outputs, the acceptance criteria and the evidence. As evidence we will provide:

• Showing the results of the Legal Clarifications
• Showing the new Branding Guidelines and (if required) new logo (V00.10)
• Guiding through the content of the drafted Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance Document (V00.10)

We will also provide links to the draft documents for allowing deeper-going review.

Milestone Title:

Completion of Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance Document, Branding Guidelines, Website and Social Media Channels relaunch, Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video.

Milestone Outputs:

Milestone 3 will deliver the following outputs:

1. Final version of the Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance Document
2. Final version of the Branding Guidelines,
3. Website Content
4. Social Media Channels relaunch
5. Promotive Pitch-deck and Pitch-video

Acceptance Criteria:

The outputs of Milestone 3 are validated by following acceptance criteria:

1. Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance Document (V1.00) completed
2. Branding Guidelines, (V1.00) completed
3. Website Content Draft (V0.10) completed
4. Social Media Channels relaunch completed (YouTube and LinkedIn channels active & basic content prepared, optional: Facebook, X and Discord)
5. Pitch-Deck & Pitch Video completed.

Evidence of Milestone Completion:

We will deliver a brief video in which we will go through the individual outputs, the acceptance criteria and the evidence. As evidence we will provide:

1. Showing & explaining the released Smart Industry Forum Concept & Governance Document
2. Showing and explaining of the released Branding Guidelines
3. Showing and explaining of the Website Content Draft
4. Showing and explaining of the Social Media Channels
5. Showing and presenting the Pitch-Deck and Pitch Video

We will also provide links for allowing deeper-going review.

Milestone Title:

Completion of Steering Committee Setup, Kick-off Activities & Meet-up, and final release of all agreed deliverables

Milestone Outputs:

1) Steering Committee Setup:

• Completed setup as outlined in detail during the work on milestone 1
• Recorded Kickoff Meeting

2) Kick-off Activities & Meet-up

• Completed YouTube Recording with introduction of Smart Industry Forum (using Pitch-Deck and/or Pitch-Video)
• Recorded Kick-off Community Meet-up

3) Updating of all Deliverables

• Updating all Deliverables according to pilot customer feedback
• Final Release of Deliverables (V1.00 or V1.01)

3) Internal Project Closing with

• Conducting Retrospective Meeting
• Gathered reportable data & facts

4) External Project Closing

• Closeout Report
• Closeout Video

Acceptance Criteria:

1) Steering Committee Kickoff Meeting completed (recorded meeting)

2) Youtube Introduction Video completed

3) Kickoff Community Meet-up completed (recorded meeting)

2) Deliverables updated and released (V1.00 or V1.01)

3) Closeout Report completed

4) Closeout Video completed

Evidence of Milestone Completion:

We will deliver a brief video in which we will go through the individual outputs, the acceptance criteria and the evidence. As evidence we will provide:

1) Showing and explaining the Steering Committee Kickoff Meeting

2) Showing and explaining the Youtube Introduction Video

3) Showing and explaining the Kickoff Community Meet-up

4) Present all finalized and released Deliverables

5) Hand over Project Closeout Report

6) Present Closeout Video

We will also provide all required links for allowing deeper-going review.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Project Lead

• Heinz Gassner, founder and CEO of DLT360 comes from 30+ years of experience in technology marketing, strategic business model development and Digital Transformation leadership positions in renowned manufacturing companies. In addition to this, Heinz has education and experience in general business administration and regulatory matters and is just completing his latest M.Sc. in DLT/Blockchain at University of Malta. Due to his long industry-career, Heinz also has a strong personal network within the business and industry leadership community. Heinz has been engaged with CARDANO since 2017 and is an active player within the Catalyst community since the very first town-hall. See LinkedIn 

Key Contributors & Corodinators

• Thorsten Pottebaum, co-founder and CTO of DLT360. Thorsten is also a very active player within the Cardano Catalyst community. Thorsten comes from a background of financial management and has more than 20 years of experience as Enterprise Architect within the IT and cybersecurity space (cybersecurity audit program manager) as well as with business development across multiple markets and industries, including Healthcare, Energy and General Manufacturing.. See LinkedIn

• Jonas Weinberger, co-founder of DLT360. Jonas has recently graduated from the Brussels School of Governance. Jonas is a regular contributor to DLT360’s legal workstream and is an active part of the DLT360 research team. Jonas is also our internal mastermind in design, presentation as well as video production. Currently, Jonas is Master Student in Branding, Design and UX at University of Barcelona, Spain. See LinkedIn 

• Guilherme Pereira, co-founder of DLT360, recently completed his M.Sc. in Mechatronics in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Guilherme is our mastermind behind our program- and project management. Guilherme also coordinates our Brazilian free-lancers for back-office and software (PoC) coding. See LinkedIn

 

Domain Experts from Academia and Industry

• During this project, we will consult with our various domain experts from academia and industry for securing the required academic and practical anchoring.

Development Resources and Freelance Assistance

Besides our core-team, this project will be supported by the freelance and partner resources:

• Back-office team (Brazil)
• Full-stack Development team, freelance but closely linked (Brazil)
• Domain Experts from industry and academia for assisting us on demand 
• External partnerships

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

1) VALUE

The DLT360 Smart Industry Forum provides the right community for (finally) getting to real-world-adoption at scale. Pease note that this project can produce VERY substantial value. With this approach, many of the historic mistakes of developing premature applications before understanding product/market-fit (customer needs and implementation context) can be avoided. It is difficult to quantify, but prematurely announced, ‘hyped’ and then failed industry applications can be of great harm to the reputation of the entire Cardano ecosystem. 

2) For MONEY

The following background is important for understanding the calculation of our average global hourly rates:

 

• For the applied average hourly rates, please note that the DLT 360 Team is located in Europe, UK and Brazil. We also need to engage high-level external experts on-demand, coming from various disciplines in academia and industry. This requires rather high hourly rates, which are influencing the overall averages. 
• Whenever possible, we are allocating tasks to our team in Brazil (eg. back-office work, project management work, research and development assistance)
• Our applied (average) hourly rates cover
• Costs for travel & accommodation
• General administration, operations and marketing overhead
• Costs of general office infrastructure and tools
• Tax, insurances and social security expenses
• Special crypto-related legal and tax consulting expenses
• EXCHANGE RATE RISK MANAGEMENT