Askel Ventures · Melers Oy · draft v1 · 7 Oct 2026 · proposal, nothing pushed to Trello yet

Melers Digital Roadmap — 12 months

Five workstreams. One of them (LaaS) is the Business Finland Sprint, and part of Logistics belongs to it too. Everything else is Melers' own development. The dashed box is the BF project period (1 Aug 2026 – 31 Jul 2027).

Business Finland (counts toward the 24 person-months) Melers own development (not BF) Admin / project management Milestone / gate

Your 8 steps, placed on the calendar

Step 1 · Sep–OctWorkflow mapping, charter docs + Trello
→ WP1 + TP1

Step 2 · Nov–DecSolution spec / PRD / architecture, UI/UX
→ TP2 spec

Step 3 · JanPoC development + PoC demo
→ TP2

Step 4 · FebFeedback & revisions
→ TP2 / TP4

Step 5 · Feb–AprMVP build, partnership development, pre-sales
→ TP2 + TP4 + TP3 recruiting

Step 7 · AprOPS team training
moved before the pilot

Step 6 · May–JulMVP revisions from market feedback, testing
→ TP3 pilot, 20+ customers

Step 8 · Aug–SepFinal report + auditor's report, project closes
→ BF final payment

Analysis of the draft

1. TP1 sits in Jan–Apr 2027, but the BF plan puts it in months 1–3 (Aug–Oct 2026)

Everything downstream depends on TP1: the MVP (TP2, months 2–9) is built on the service concept, and the pilot (TP3, months 9–12) starts in April. If TP1 is still running in April, no MVP is ready for the pilot and we miss the 20-customer target. Proposal: catch up and finish TP1 by the end of November (B2B/B2C concepts, marketplace logic, process maps). It's late, but recoverable.

2. TP2, TP3 and TP4 aren't on the chart at all

TP2 (platform), TP3 (pilot with ≥20 customers) and TP4 (Nordic market analysis + 4–10 partner interviews in two Nordic countries) are the actual BF deliverables, and together they're ~20 of the 24 person-months. They're in the proposal below.

3. The "Merkkaus & laskutus" row has a TP1 label, which looks like a copy-paste

Marking & invoicing is Melers' operational development, not the LaaS service model. Is part of it meant to count for BF? Integration with the systems across the whole service process is mentioned in TP3, so a slice could be justified, but by default I'd keep it outside BF.

4. The BF final report is in June, but the project runs until 31 July 2027

Costs can be reported right up to the end of the project, and the final report needs an independent auditor's report. Proposal: final report + auditor in Aug 2027, auditor booked in April. Reporting in June would leave out July's wage costs.

5. The Logistics & routing row is empty, even though it's partly BF

TP2 explicitly includes logistics optimisation, routing and an AI logistics agent. That's the most natural BF use for this row. Melers' purchased service in TP1 (€5K, Rami: logistics planning) also lands here, invoiced at cost.

6. Step 7 (OPS training) comes after the MVP revisions

The Melers team runs the pilot in Turku, so they need training before the pilot starts (April), not afterwards.

7. Capacity: 24 person-months into roughly 10 months

Aug–Sep went more or less untracked, so Niklas (11), Varia (9) and Mike (4) now need about 2.4 FTE on BF on top of the Melers streams and fundraising. Time tracking has to start this month, with each person's month signed off by the project lead's supervisor. The Melers clock-in app doesn't cover the partners' BF hours.

8. What works

Admin as its own lane, kickoff in October, and the mid-way review at the turn of the year are good. Merkkaus & laskutus is already underway: Mikke's orders/invoicing/waybill-scanning version is on staging (crm-staging.melers.fi), so this row can show progress first.

Proposed epics (draft, not yet on Trello)

One Trello card per epic in the EPICs list on the MELERS Oy – Business Finland & BisDev board, with a WP label + a BF label where it applies. Checklists below. Owners are suggestions taken from the BF plan's division of work.

Trello structure (when you give the go-ahead)

Item	Proposal
New labels	WP1 Admin · WP2 LaaS · WP3 Merkkaus & laskutus · WP4 Inventaario · WP5 Logistiikka · BF (marks cards whose hours go to Business Finland). The old EPIC 1–6 labels stay on the completed cards, untouched.
Epic cards	12 cards in the EPICs list, each with start + due dates, owner, checklist and DoD. Tasks are pulled from the checklist into the TO DO / DOING lists as their own cards.
Existing cards	"busniness Finland admin" → part of E1. "BF suunnittelu memo" → its content goes into E1 and E3. "Suunnitellaan ja rakennetaan laskutusjärjestelmän prototyyppi" + "Täydennä laskutuskoodi-sheetti" → under E8. "Rakenna HILMA automaatio" stays outside the roadmap.
Rhythm	Monthly time-tracking reminder (1st of each month) + a monthly roadmap check from me in #businessfinland: which epics are behind schedule.

Open questions for you

A. What does "Merkkaus" mean in practice?

Marking customer laundry (labels/barcode/RFID) for tracking, or marking incoming orders (waybills)? That determines whether it's a hardware project or software only.

B. Inventaario: inventory of what?

Textiles (rental textiles / sheets-as-a-service stock), chemicals and consumables, or both? Sheets as a service (TP1) needs textile inventory tracking, which would tie this row partly to BF.

C. B2B or B2C first in the pilot?

My recommendation is B2B: hotels, care homes and short-term rentals from Melers' existing customer base. That's the fastest route to 20 customers, and it's what the application frames us as. B2C (seniors, families) would be tested on a subscription model on a smaller scale.

D. Owners

Are the owner suggestions on the epic cards right, especially Mikke on Merkkaus & laskutus and Satu/Rami on the Melers side?

Sources: BF Sprint project plan 29.4.2026 (Diaari 1690/31/2026), application 26.8.2026, Sprint grant funding terms 2.3.2026, Varia's roadmap draft 7.10.2026, the Melers BF & BisDev Trello board. Steve 🦔