DLT360: auditShare - A Powerful Audit Sharing Platform (MVP)

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

12

[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)

MVP of an audit-sharing marketplace, enabling the sharing of audit capabilities, resources and results across businesses, helping to avoid costly redundancies and risky expert bottlenecks.

[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 dependent on the Completion of Fund 11 CONCEPT PHASE of auditShare: We are proceeding very well and expect to complete the concept phase successfully by end of June 2024 For a first glance on our progress, please refer to the temporary landing page on the DLT360 Website (https://dlt360.io/f12-05) or check out our milestone Proof-of-Milestone-Achievement reporting. The auditShare Website will go life during June 2024. As of now we are perfectly on schedule. Please help us to go seamlessly into the MVP development phase, as it is very important to keep the momentum in this project.

Other important remarks:

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

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

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119653

This would allow us to involve experts from business and industry in a much more systematic way during this MVP Phase.

2) DLT360: Real-World Business Development Framework

All our four proposed industry applications

• This auditShare MVP proposal
• Our CANBAN Concept: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119623
• Our twinShare Concept: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119606
• And our corporateDAO Concept: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119944

are planned to become available within this TOGAF-compliant DLT360 Business Development Framework (see https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/119932). This open Enterprise Architecture Framework is important for allowing frictionless PoC, Piloting, Customization, Roll-out and Application Lifecycle Management according to best-practice industry standards. It would be VERY helpful to get a green light for establishing this Real-World Business Development Framework already in parallel to the CONCEPT/MVP Phases of the 4 scalable 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 auditShare MVP will be utilizing as many open-source software building blocks as possible.

Nevertheless, due to the nature of the auditShare business model, we need to encapsulate the open-source technology architecture within a managed solution architecture, as the future customers will require professional Service Level Agreements and active Product- and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM).

[METADATA] SDG rating

[8] Descent Work and Economic Growth

[9] Industry Innovation and Infrastructure

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Please note: The auditShare CONCEPT PHASE was funded by Fund 11. We are proceeding very well and expect to complete the CONCEPT PHASE by end of June 2024 For a first glance on our progress, please refer to the temporary landing page on the DLT360 Website (https://dlt360.io/f12-05) or check our milestone Proof-of-Milestone-Achievement reporting. The dedicated auditShare Website will go life during June 2024. Please help us to go seamlessly into the MVP development phase, as it is very important to keep the momentum in this project.

Rationale

Historically, ISO standards were a very useful instrument for harmonizing industrial processes and technologies throughout the world. This was achieved by creating common management frameworks for increasing transparency, productivity, quality, security and safety. In most legislations, these ISO standards were also referenced by national or regional regulation, making global compliance easier and less costly. Today, this successful global standardization story is in jeopardy. More and more experts from business and industry are ringing alarm bells, foreseeing what they call a Regulatory Tsunami, based on a fragmented regulatory landscape and exploding complexity. All this is causing a rapidly emerging Audit Dilemma. 

Purpose of auditShare 

auditshare is striving to help businesses with resolving and overcoming this Audit Dilemma by tackling major pain-points of today’s audit and certification landscape, by providing: 

• Important process improvements
• A powerful Web3.0 software application, introducing an innovative audit-sharing marketplace (a “TINDER for Audits and Auditors mixed with a breeze of LinkedIn”) with integrated document sharing, knowledge management, rating capabilities, dispute resolution and arbitration
• A dedicated website 
• An attractive service and solution partnership network

More about auditShare is explained by the deliverables of the auditShare CONCEPT PHASE. The following elements will be publicly available, expected to be released during June 2024

• auditShare Website: Providing an easy-to-understand overview
• auditShare Pitch-Deck: Accessible over the auditShare Website
• auditShare Pitch-Video: Accessible over the auditShare Website

The confidential elements can be made available on demand and case-to-case agreement:

• auditShare Requirements Specification
• auditShare Solution Specification
• auditShare Business Model Specification
• auditShare Design Thinking PoC

Deliverables of this auditShare MVP Phase

auditShare has the potential to become the center of a large audit- and certification optimisation ecosystem. Due the huge potential in this area, auditShare needs to be developed in iterative steps and will potentially grow towards full functionality over many, many years. Therefore, the MVP PHASE needs to focus on highly valuable core-elements of the future ecosystem, small enough to allow a MVP-style approach, but big enough to attract real-world customers at such an early stage. This MVP Phase is focusing on the following deliverables:

• auditShare official Website
• auditShare Web3.0 MVP Application (V01.00)
• auditShare Product Description (V01.00)
• auditShare Solution Description (V01.00)
• auditShare Business Model Description (V01.00)
• auditShare Pitch-Deck & Pitch-Video
• Internal security & legal audits
• audiotShare Application Blueprint for Customer PoC/Piloting/Customization/Rollout

Core-functionalities of the auditShare Web3.0 MVP Application

This MVP development phase ficuses on the following core-functionality:

• Marketplace to find auditors and audit engagements: Due to the increased pressure from regulators and customers, it becomes mandatory to have relevant ISO certifications. Conducting internal and supplier audits is compulsory as part of these certifications. Finding resources, which are qualified to perform these audits is becoming an increasing challenge. A marketplace, where demand and supply can transparently meet accelerates the identification of required resources.

• Settlement of time and efforts spend through time-based tokens: Introducing a time-based token, which could be freely traded and exchanged, enables new models of effort exchange (“payment” in time-based tokens vis versa) and new business models (cost-sharing of audit efforts) in a secure, decentralized way. 

• Sharing of audit or assessment results: Because not every supplier has a certification, an individual audit should be performed to verify the risk associated with the supplier. Numerous customers request the same kind of information and contract negotiations become complicated. The sharing of trustworthy assessments by peers in the industry could replace the requirement to get certified or might be a stepping stone to achieving certification. The secure, permission-based sharing of assessment findings is crucial in this process.

auditShare in the context of the DLT360 Overall Startup Strategy 

Establishing our complete DLT360 approach, consisting of interconnected products and solutions, is structured into various phases and iterations. The auditShare MVP 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 corporate-DAO) 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 auditShare MVP is a key-element of our overall DLT360 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

Value to the Cardano Community:

• Bringing industrial adoption to Cardano - the proposal is increasing the outreach of Cardano to industrial clients, who will be involved in the developments and implementations. This application has the potential to scale very rapidly, thus driving the adoption of Cardano in the supply chain automation area.

• Proximity and compliance with the emerging European NGI initiatives and solutions (NGI: Next Generation Internet initiatives within the European Digital Decade 2030 program)

• Utilization of latest Web 3.0 architectures

• Increase of transaction volume and usage - Based on this potential to drive a high transaction volume, there will be a positive effect on the overall market position of Cardano, once the real applications are developed and implemented at scale.

How to measure the impact ?

To measure the success of the project, we will employ a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures. The following are some key areas we intend to measure: 

• Measuring the impact of this auditShare MVP Project

1. Number of business and industry experts attracted and interested
2. Number of business and industry experts involved
3. Number of Cardano Community members and projects involved

• Measuring final impact of implementing at scale (not subject of this proposal)

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

The way we plan to make the results of this project available has been described in the 'Open Source Section' earlier in this proposal. Due to the nature of the project, this will be a mix of publicly available and not publicly available outputs (this is unavoidable due to the nature of the resulting outputs).

The publicly available parts of our outputs will be shared as following:

• Over the DLT360 Website
• Over LinkedIn and YouTube (the promotional elements)
• By delivering to the Cardano Catalyst Community based on the valid reporting standards

[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, team formation and updating all essential specifications (Completion: End of month 1 of 12)

Milestone Outputs 

1. Project infrastructure and detailed planning of the project
2. Updated Requirements Specification (originally established during Fund 11 Concept Phase)
3. Updated Solution Specification (originally established during Fund 11 Concept Phase)
4. Updated Business Model Specification (originally established during Fund 11 Concept Phase)
5. Updated Website, Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video (originally established during Fund 11 Concept Phase)
6. Required partnerships allocated (Cardano Community, Web3.0 space and selected Subject-Matter Experts)
7. Major open-source SW building blocks identified
8. Team in place 
9. Kickoff Event
10. Setup of full-stack development environment (people, processes and tools, aiming for Scrum & DevSecOps approach) 

Acceptance Criteria

1. Project setup including project plan in GitHub completed
2. Updated Requirements Specification Document released (V02.00)
3. Updated Solution Specification Document released (V02.00)
4. Updated Business Model Specification released (V02.00)
5. Updated Website, Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video (new release-versions)
6. Required partnerships formally allocated (documented)
7. Major open-source SW building blocks identified (documented)
8. Roles defined, people allocated to roles, all properly documented
9. Kickoff Event held (documented)
10. Full-stack development environment available (documented)

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 updates made to the Requirements Specification Document
3. Explaining the updates made to the Solution Specification Document
4. Explaining the updates made to the Business Model Specification Document
5. Explaining the updates made to the Website, Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video
6. Introducing the formally allocated partnerships
7. Explaining the selected open-source SW building blocks
8. Introducing the team with all roles and allocated people
9. Showing impressions and key-results of the Kickoff Event
10. Walking through the full-stack development environment 

Additionally, the validators will get read-access to the listed documents

Milestone Title

First Iteration through Solution Architecture with strong focus on Design Thinking oriented Workshops, with the main goal to get from the initially specified Baseline approaches to updated target designs based on workshops with deep Subject-Matter-Expert involvement (Completion: End of month 3 of 12)

Milestone Outputs 

1. Design Thinking Workshop 1
2. Design Thinking Workshop 2
3. Website Improvement Specification
4. Business Processes, IAM and Tokenomics Specification
5. Frontend Development Specification
6. Web3.0 Backend Development Specification 
7. Migration and Implementation Specification (How to make this to the first Application Blueprint within the DLT360 Business Development Framework)

Acceptance Criteria

1. Design Thinking Workshop 1 completed and documented
2. Design Thinking Workshop 2 complete and documented
3. Released version of Website Improvement Specification (V01.00)
4. Released version of Business Processes, IAM and Tokenomics Specification (V01.00)
5. Released version of Frontend Development Specification (V01.00)
6. Released version of Web3.0 Backend Development Specification (V1.00)
7. Released version of Migration and Implementation Specification (V01.00)

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. Present highlights and results of Design Thinking Workshop 1
2. Present highlights and results of Design Thinking Workshop 2
3. Explaining the content of the Website Improvement Specification (V01.00)
4. Explaining the content of the Business Processes, IAM and Tokenomics Specification (V01.00)
5. Explaining the content of the Frontend Development Specification (V01.00)
6. Explaining the content of the Web3.0 Backend Development Specification (V1.00)
7. Explaining the content of the Migration and Implementation Specification (V01.00)

Additionally, the validators will get read-access to the listed documents

Milestone Title

Frontend, Backend, IAM and Tokenomics Rapid Prototyping Development (Completion: End of month 5 of 12)

Milestone Outputs 

1. Updated Website, supporting Business Processes, IAM and Tokenomics
2. Rapid Prototype of Application Frontend
3. Rapid Prototype of Web3.0 Backend (simulation mode)

Acceptance Criteria

1. Released version of updated Website
2. Rapid Prototype of Application Frontend available 
3. Rapid Prototype of Web3.0 Backend available 

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. Detailed explanation of the updated Website
2. Detailed demonstration of the Application Frontend 
3. Detailed demonstration of the Web3.0 Backend 

Additionally, the validators will get read-access to the listed applications

Milestone Title

Second Iteration through Solution Architecture, Development Review and extended Expert Workshops (Completion: End of month 7 of 12)

Milestone Outputs 

1. Updated Requirements Specification
2. Updated Solution Specification 
3. Updated Business Model Specification
4. Updated Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video
5. Expert Workshop 1
6. Expert Workshop 2
7. Updated Website Improvement Specification
8. Updated version of Business Processes, IAM and Tokenomics Specification
9. Updated version of Frontend Development Specification
10. Updated version of Web3.0 Backend Development Specification
11. Updated version of Migration and Implementation Specification

Acceptance Criteria

1. Updated Requirements Specification (V02.10)
2. Updated Solution Specification (V02.10)
3. Updated Business Model Specification (V02.10)
4. Updated Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video 
5. Expert Workshop 1 completed and documented
6. Expert Workshop 2 completed and documented
7. Updated Website Improvement Specification (V01.10)
8. Updated version of Business Processes, IAM and Tokenomics Specification (V01.10)
9. Updated version of Frontend Development Specification (V01.10)
10. Updated version of Web3.0 Backend Development Specification (V01.10)
11. Updated version of Migration and Implementation Specification (V01.10)

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. Explain the updated Requirements Specification (V02.10)
2. Explain the updated Solution Specification (V02.10)
3. Explain the updated Business Model Specification (V02.10)
4. Explain the updated Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video 
5. Present highlights and results ofExpert Workshop 1
6. Present highlights and results ofExpert Workshop 2
7. Explain the updated Website Improvement Specification (V01.10)
8. Explain the updated Business Processes, IAM and Tokenomics Specification (V01.10)
9. Explain the updated Frontend Development Specification (V01.10)
10. Explain the updated Web3.0 Backend Development Specification (V01.10)
11. Explain the updated Migration and Implementation Specification (V01.10)

Additionally, the validators will get read-access to the listed documents

Milestone Title

MVP Version Development, including IAM, Smart Contracts, Tokenomics and (internal) security and legal Audits (Completion: End of month 11 of 12)

Milestone Outputs 

1. MVP Version of the Website, supporting Business Processes, IAM and Tokenomics
2. MVP Version of Application Frontend
3. MVP Version of Web3.0 Backend
4. Transform Development Specification into Development Documentation
5. Business Processes, IAM and Tokenomics Documentation (V01.00)
6. Frontend Development Documentation (V01.00)
7. Web3.0 Backend Development Documentation (V01.00)
8. Migration and Implementation Documentation (V01.00)
9. Internal Security Audit 
10. Internal Legal Review

Acceptance Criteria

1. MVP release of the Website available
2. MVP release of Application Frontend available
3. MVP release of Version of Web3.0 Backend available
4. Development Documentation available
5. Internal Security Audit done and documented
6. Internal Legal Review done and documented

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. Detailed explanation of the MVP Website
2. Detailed demonstration of the MVP Application Frontend 
3. Detailed demonstration of the MVP Web3.0 Backend 
4. Explain Development Documentation
5. Explaining the results of the internal Security Audit
6. Explaining the results of the Internal Legal Review

Additionally, the validators will get read-access to the listed applications

Milestone Title

Complete all deliverables, handover as first Application BLUEPRINT to DLT360 Business Development Framework, Ready for customer PoC, Piloting and Roll-outs (Completion: End of month 12 of 12) and formal closing of the project

Milestone Outputs 

1. Transform Requirements Specification into Product Description (V01.00)
2. Transform Solution Specification into Solution Description (V01.00)
3. Transform Business Model Specification into Business Model Description (V01.00)
4. Handover of Released Application as Blueprint into the DLT360 Business Development Framework
5. Update Website to include PoC-, Piloting- and Rollout-Descriptions (including Terms and Conditions)
6. Updated Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video
7. Internal Project Closing with

• Conducting Retrospective Meeting
• Gathered reportable data & facts

1. External Project Closing

• Closeout Report
• Closeout Video

Acceptance Criteria

1. Product Description (V01.00) available
2. Solution Description (V01.00) available
3. Business Model Description (V01.00) available
4. Blueprint for DLT360 Business Development Framework available (V01.00)
5. Updated Website available
6. Updated Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video available
7. Internal Project Closing completed
8. External Project Closing 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 Product Description (V01.00)
2. Showing and explaining the Solution Description (V01.00) 
3. Showing and explaining the Business Model Description (V01.00) 
4. Showing and explaining the Blueprint for DLT360 Business Development Framework (V01.00)
5. Demonstrating the official Website 
6. Showing Pitch-Deck and Pitch-Video 
7. Sharing the results of the internal Retrospective Meeting
8. Hand over Project Closeout Report
9. 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 

• 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

Key Contributors & Corodinators

• 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, Industry and Cardano Community

• 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. This auditShare MVP development 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