PublicSoft

Inspiration

We've seen what Kickstarter did for creative projects. We see a big opportunity to extend this model to connecting beneficiaries to IT freelancers and start-ups that have been hit hard by the Corona crisis. The groups on the supply side of IT services struggle a lot due to fewer IT projects, corporate cost cutting, travel bans and lower risk and investment appetite. On the demand side, SMEs are forced to cut cost, but still need to invest their small budgets into digitization to survive in a world of physical distancing and the general public still lacks a mechanism to collectively request software products that are of wide public use. So, we thought, let’s tune the idea of Kickstarter to bring these people together and shape a new sustainable business model.

In these Corona times, states are pumping money into a locked job market to support those in need. However, PublicSoft offers more elegant ways to support the economy. The platform can become an escrow system backed by the government. So, states can jump in to reduce the business risk for smaller players (or directly support their financing) and nurture ideas that prove to be sustainable in the world after Corona, instead of keeping unsustainable models alive.

PublicSoft is a truly European idea. Not only is our seasoned team of financial software professionals widely spread across Europe, but the platform will work best at a European scale, thus virtually crossing borders in a time of strict physical border controls.

What it does

We propose a platform where freelancers / SMEs / start-ups can explain the problems they are trying to solve, their economic ramifications and the critical mass (number of customers / aggregate amounts committed) needed to bring their solutions to life. The platform would serve both as an informational hub and an idea matching space. Customers can post their demands and make purchase commitments that are aggregated. Freelancers / startups can team up to offer a solution. The model also works the other way round. Smaller players (freelancers / start-ups) are encouraged to offer well thought-out solutions and see if there is an aggregated market need for them (a community of beneficiaries) – offering a lean market entry for them without having to venture into areas they might be less familiar with (business development, marketing, etc). Contracted deliverables will benefit from evolved follow-up mechanisms tracking execution.

For more details on how it could work, check out the main flow.

How we built it

• We sketched Personas to identify our target groups. We came up with Beneficiaries, Suppliers and Guarantor as our persona classes and designed user journeys for them
• We wrote our main business case
• The prototype explores the physiology we're looking for. It was built from scratch for this Hackathon. An architectural overview is also provided.

Challenges we ran into

Choosing what items to focus on here given the extremely short time window, given the complexity of our project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Formulating a coherent proposal on a complex socio-technical problem that transcends technical challenges and setting up a prototype to see that we can bring it to life technically.

What we learned

We learned that COVID-19 hasn't curbed the creative drive of European innovators

What's next for PublicSoft

Depending on partnerships and public uptake - developing it into a European platform.

Built With

• blockchain-(hyperledger-/-custom-made)
• bpm
• html5
• java
• microservices
• psd2-apis
• smart-contracts
• spring
• sql/nosql
• vue
• vue-native
• websockets
• workflows-/-event-engines