5 min read

Participant Playbook

How to sell Kaphera Cloud into the participant archetype: organisations joining a dataspace because a customer, mandate, or regulator requires it. The deadline is the close; the tier choice (shared, dedicated, BYOC) follows from their security and infrastructure constraints.

Jobs to be done

  1. When my customer tells me I need to join a dataspace by a deadline, help me get connected without becoming an infrastructure team, so I can satisfy the mandate and get back to running my business.
  2. When I need to exchange supply chain data with OEM partners, help me do it compliantly and reliably, so I don’t create a security or compliance exposure.
  3. When I have no IT team and no Kubernetes experience, help me join a dataspace through a guided web flow, so I don’t need to hire a consultant.
  4. When I need full control of where my data infrastructure runs, help me run the platform on my own infrastructure with Kaphera managing operations, so I get expertise without surrendering control.
  5. When additional dataspace mandates arrive, help me join them from the same platform, so each new mandate is a click, not a project.

Tier-choice decision tree

flowchart TD
  Q1{"Has IT team?"}
  Q2{"Security team requires<br/>dedicated isolation?"}
  Q3{"Can run on third-party cloud?"}
  SH["Managed Shared<br/>(Petra)"]
  DE["Managed Dedicated<br/>(Thomas)"]
  BY["BYOC<br/>(Dirk)"]
  Q1 -- "no" --> SH
  Q1 -- "yes" --> Q2
  Q2 -- "yes" --> Q3
  Q2 -- "no" --> SH
  Q3 -- "yes" --> DE
  Q3 -- "no" --> BY

Signal → Product map

When you hear the signal, sell the product. The justification tells you why that product and not another.

What you hearWhat to sellWhy this product, not another
”We’ve been told we need to join Catena-X by September”kaphera-cloud-managed-server • kaphera-cloud-managed-console (shared tier)They have a deadline and no infrastructure. Managed shared tier: signup to data exchange in under a minute. Lowest cost, zero ops. Not BYOC, they don’t have a cluster.
”We don’t have an IT team”kaphera-cloud-managed-server • kaphera-cloud-managed-console (shared tier)Self-service onboarding in plain language. Fixed monthly pricing. No technical prerequisite. Not the CLI or Terraform, those are builder tools. The console is their entire interface.
”Our security team requires dedicated infrastructure”kaphera-cloud-managed-server • kaphera-cloud-managed-console (dedicated tier)Full resource isolation per participation. No shared tenancy. The security team gets a clean answer. Not shared tier, that’s multi-tenant.
”We cannot run on a third party’s cloud”kaphera-cloud-server • kaphera-cloud-console • all 3 operators (BYOC)Full platform on their infrastructure, managed by Kaphera. Source-available gives them the exit path their procurement requires. Not managed tier, their data classification policies forbid third-party cloud.
”We need ISO 27001 and TISAX”kaphera-cloud-managed-server (dedicated tier) or BYOCCompliance certifications the procurement process requires. Not shared tier, it doesn’t carry TISAX. Dedicated or BYOC depending on infrastructure sovereignty requirements.
”We need to explain to our CEO what we’re paying for”kaphera-cloud-managed-server (shared tier)€20/month for the control plane. Fixed, predictable, fits in an operational line item. No capital investment justification needed. This is the number that makes the CEO conversation easy.

Upgrade signals

  • Multiple dataspace mandates (Catena-X + MDS, or a second OEM customer) → each additional join is a new participation. Recurring revenue.
  • Security team pushback on shared infrastructure → move to dedicated tier. The isolation argument closes it.
  • “Our OEM wants us on private infrastructure” → BYOC conversation. Sell kaphera-cloud-server + kaphera-cloud-console + operators.
  • They ask about digital twin submodel descriptors → add kaphera-digital-twin-registry for Catena-X product-level data exchange.

Objections & responses

ObjectionResponse
”€300/month is too much for what we’re exchanging""Shared tier starts at €20 for the control plane. We built it specifically so cost is not the reason a supplier can’t participate."
"How do I know our data is safe?""Every connector runs with strict tenant isolation. The platform code is source-available, your security team can audit exactly what manages your data. Infrastructure runs on EU-sovereign cloud providers."
"We don’t understand what any of this means""You don’t need to. The onboarding walks you through it in plain language. You’ll be exchanging data before you need to understand how.”

What closes the deal

The deadline. They have one. Everything else is secondary.

Show them the join flow, login, browse dataspaces, click join, watch the real-time progress tracker. If they can see themselves completing it, they’ll sign.

For petra-novak: the €50 price point + the guided flow. She needs to know it costs less than a consultant and takes less time than a meeting.

For thomas-brandt: the SLA document + the compliance certifications. His procurement process needs paper, not demos.

For dirk-wassermann: the architecture document + the source code. His engineers will evaluate for 12-16 weeks. Give them the repo, not a pitch deck.

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