DLT360: Real-World Business Development Framework

[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)

A powerful Solution Lifecycle Framework supporting PoC/MVP, Piloting, Migration, Integration & Application Lifecycle Management of Real-World-Web3.0 Applications. Compliant with Industry Best Practice

[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.”

This proposal is not directly dependent on any other proposal, but would highly benefit from getting also the following F12 proposals funded:

1) Our 4 Real-World-Applications

Having our 3 application CONCEPTs and the 1 MVP funded would be VERY helpful for implementing this Business Development Framework, as this would allow us to approach this very 'hands-on' and in closest interaction with experts from business and industry. These 4 application proposals are:

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

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

With the Smart Industry Forum, we want to (re)establish a proven Digital Transformation expert-community. Together with the above-listed industry applications and this Business Development Framework, our overall DLT360 approach would be complete and ready for scaling real-world applications. Please check: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119653

[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

Underlying Open-Source Elements:

The DLT360 Business Development Framework is an important element for driving Web3.0 adoption at scale within real-world businesses and industry. It is based on the following industry-best-practice and open-source approaches elements:

• TOGAF Enterprise Architecture Framework
• Design Thinking & Value Proposition and Business Model Development Framework
• Scrum (of Scrum) Framework
• Product Management Framework and Idea-to-Market Process
• Open-source software solutions

 

Accountability due to Forming Managed Products and Services

While most of the above-listed elements are open-source, we are embedding these elements within a ‘managed layer’ for commercial use, enabling us to deliver binding Service Level Agreements and Life-Cycle-Management Agreements to future customers. This needs to be seen like e.g. the various managed LINUX derivates available for corporate clients.

Confidential Customers Applications:

When applied as envisioned, the DLT360 Business Development Framework provides customers with a reliable and accountable environment for the implementation of Web3.0 applications. In this process, the DLT360 Business Development Framework supports important adoption-stages such as:

• Cost-effective PoC and support to pass decision-making stage-gates
• Creating optimized ‘mutations’ of Blueprint-applications (by applying structured Design Thinking, Value-Proposition and Business Model Development)
• Solution-lifecycle-support according to TOGAF Enterprise Architecture Framework, Scrum and Product Management for the entire Idea-to-Market Process (from PoC, to MVP, to Piloting, Migration, Implementation and ongoing Application Lifecycle Management).

Conclusion:

While many elements of the DLT360 Business Development Framework are originally open-source, the actual combination and use of these elements requires strict confidentiality in some areas, as this will naturally also include intellectual property rights of our future customers.

[METADATA] SDG rating

[8] Descent Work and Economic Growth

[9] Industry Innovation and Infrastructure

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Rationale

Currently, business and industry-oriented Web3.0 applications see some interest in specific consumer-facing areas, but in the wide field of supply-chain applications, the initial euphoria of early enthusiasts has been replaced by considerable scepticism. If there is some hype, this 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. DLT360 is here for the very long-run. The overall DLT360 approach with the DLT360 Business Development Framework will allow us to bridge the current chasms and get to real-world industry applications at scale. 

Purpose of the DLT360 Business Development Framework

This proposal is about delivering the CONCEPT for the DLT360 Business Development Framework. The DLT360 Business Development Framework is a key-solution for driving Web3.0 adoption at scale in real-world businesses and industry. Web3.0 Applications, even when carefully developed, cannot be marketed like consumer APPs. Every customer adoption needs to be seen as a ‘mutation’ of a blueprint, requiring a well-designed solution ecosystem consisting of:

• Cost-effective PoC environment and the support to pass typical decision-making stage-gates.
• Structured Design Thinking, Value-Proposition and Business Model Development services for creating optimized customisation. 
• Embedding of the solution within a specific customer ecosystem, following the TOGAF Enterprise Architecture Development Model (ADM)
• Solution-lifecycle-support according to TOGAF Enterprise Architecture Framework, 
• Providing critical resources and processes (Scrum Masters, Product Management support along the entire Idea-to-Market Process, covering PoC, to MVP, to Piloting, Migration, Implementation and ongoing Application Lifecycle Management).

Deliverables of this Concept Phase

• DLT360 Business Development Framework Requirements Specification (from business perspective)
• Solution Architecture Framework Specification (TOGAF compliant)
• Idea-to-Market Process Specification
• Organisation & Tools Specification 
• Website
• Promotive Pitch-deck and Pitch-video
• PoC together with a carefully selected industry expert (potential customer)

Understanding the DLT360 Business Development Framework 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 Training based on the tools and content that were funded by Fund 6, 7 and 8
4. Customer implementations: Create a customer-specific instance of the desired application(s) and of the DLT360 Business Development Framework. Within this customer-specific instance, the entire Idea-to-Market process is executed and the selected solutions are introduced to lifecycle-managed according to the TOGAF Framework. 

DLT360 Overall Startup Strategy 

Establishing our complete DLT360 approach, consisting of interconnected products and solutions, is structured into various phases and iterations. The DLT360 Business Development Framework 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 Business Development Framework 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. Once this Architecture Framework Concept is in place, we plan to develop the MVP in Fund 13, hand in hand with testing this solution with first real-world customer implementation projects. 

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

Bringing Value to the Cardano Community:

The DLT360 Business Development Framework can be a big game-changer in succeeding with scalable Web3.0 implementations for business and industry. Approaching corporate clients without such a solution in place creates a huge waste of money, as even good technical solutions cannot unfold their potential. Once proven for the core-applications of DLT360, the DLT360 Business Development Framework can become a launch-pad for high-quality Web3.0 applications from partnering entities within the Cardano Community. Besides this, we have identified the following value propositions: 

• Bringing adoption to Cardano, especially in the industrial supply chain area.
• Proximity and compliance with the emerging European NGI initiatives and solutions (NGI: Next Generation Internet)
• Utilization of latest Web 3.0 architectures
• Increase of transaction volume and usage.

How to measure the impact ?

In the early stage of this Concept Phase, 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 (see also our DLT360: Relaunch Smart Industry Forum proposal) and with this approach we will be able to attract some of them also in an early stage. 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 involved in Concept Phase
• Number of Cardano Community members and projects involved

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

Once we have reached a minimum level of success (and NOT before), we will start with active communication mainly on LinkedIn and YouTube, thus contributing to Cardano’s reputation as go-to ecosystem for business and industry. The DLT360 Business Development Framework will naturally also lead to close partnerships with technology providers within the Cardano ecosystem. It can become an important launch-pad for many (currently sleeping) beautiful applications, respectively helping existing applications in optimizing their value propositions for meeting business & industry requirements. 

[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?

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 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

• DLT360 Business Development Framework Requirements Specification (from business perspective)
• Solution Architecture Framework Specification (TOGAF compliant)
• Idea-to-Market Process Specification
• Organisation & Tools Specification 
• Website section
• Promotive Pitch-deck and Pitch-video
• PoC together with a carefully selected industry expert (potential customer)

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:

• DLT360 Business Development Framework Requirements Specification (from business perspective)
• Solution Architecture Framework Specification (TOGAF compliant)
• Idea-to-Market Process Specification
• Organisation & Tools Specification 
• Website
• Promotive Pitch-deck and Pitch-video
• PoC together with a carefully selected industry expert (potential customer)

Milestone Title:

Draft Versions (V0.10) of Requirements Specification and Solution Architecture Framework Specification in place

Milestone Outputs:

After establishing the content-structure of the deliverables in milestone 1, milestone 2 focuses on content creation. This will result in completed draft version of the Requirements Specification (V0.10) and the Solution Enterprise Architecture Framework Specification (V0.10) with approximately 80% completion state.

Acceptance Criteria:

Part 1: Content Draft (V0.10) of Requirements Specification (the actual chapter-structure was the deliverable of the preceding milestone 1, therefore the structure shown here below is only for orientation and might change based on learnings along the project):

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction
3. Problem Definition
4. Vision, Mission and Value Proposition(s)
5. Solution Approach
6. Target Customer & Buying Center Definition
7. Market Analysis of Open Enterprise (Ecosystem) Architecture Frameworks
8. Legal & Regulatory Requirements
9. Business Requirements regarding benefits and risks
10. UX and User-Requirements
11. Requirements regarding Enterprise Integration, Organization, Processes & Tools
12. Case Studies with Customer Business Value Proposition

Part 2: Content Draft (V0.10) of Solution Enterprise Architecture Framework Specification (the actual chapter-structure was the deliverable of the preceding milestone 1, therefore the structure shown here below is only for orientation and might change based on learnings along the project):

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction to Architecture Model, Organization Processes & Tools
3. Phase A: Architectural Vision
4. Phase B: Business Architecture
5. Phase C: Information Systems Architecture (Application & Data Architecture)
6. Phase D: Technology Architecture
7. Phase E: Opportunities & Solutions
8. Phase F: Migration Planning
9. Phase G: Implementation Governance
10. Phase H: Architecture Change Management

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:

• Report about the major stages of the work process
• Introduction to the content of the draft documents of the Requirements Specification and Solution Enterprise Architecture Framework Specification

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

Milestone Title:

Completion of Requirements- and Architecture Specification, of Idea-to-Market Process, of Website-section, Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video

Milestone Outputs:

Milestone 3 will deliver the following outputs:

1. Final version of the Requirements Specification
2. Final version of the Solution Architecture Framework Specification
3. Idea-to-Market Process Specification, covering PoC, to MVP, to Piloting, Migration, Implementation and ongoing Application Lifecycle Management.
4. Organisation & Tools Specification 
5. Website section
6. Promotive Pitch-deck and Pitch-video

Acceptance Criteria:

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

1. Requirements Specification (V1.00) completed
2. Solution Architecture Framework Specification (V1.00) completed
3. Idea-to-Market Process Specification (V1.00) completed
4. Organisation & Tools Specification (V1.00) completed
5. Website section completed
6. 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 and explaining of the released Requirements Specification
2. Showing and explaining of the released Solution Architecture Specification
3. Showing and explaining of the Idea-to-Market Process Specification
4. Showing and explaining of the Organisation & Tools Specification
5. Showing and presenting the Website Section
6. Showing and presenting the Pitch-Deck and Pitch Video

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

Milestone Title:

Completion of PoC-Workshop and final release of all agreed deliverables

Milestone Outputs:

1) PoC under involvement of expert(s) from potential customer(s)

• Completed Workshop with pilot customer engagement
• Summary and documentation of results

2) 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) PoC Workshop Summary completed

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 PoC Workshop results
2. Present all finalized and released Deliverables
3. Hand over Project Closeout Report
4. 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, Key Contributors & Corodinators

• 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 

• 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

 Regulatory Matters, Research Assistant & UX Design

• 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 

 

Project Management / Quality control & Development Coordinator

• 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

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. The DLT360 Business Development Framework helps avoiding such issues and provides the foundation for finally getting to real-world-adoption at scale.

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