In the above figure, we have visualized the onboarding process for Application and Service Providers to release their solution on Catena-X Marketplaces. This process is referred to as the Application and Service Provider Journey and consists of four main phases that will be detailed below. Within each of these phases sub-chapters can found, which also correlate to the provided Onboarding Guide. This figure, accordingly, serves as a representation of the steps mentioned in the guide and helps to understand the process, tailored to suggested company roles. Detailed tasks within these steps may differ between Application and Service Providers, due to their individual solution offering. Visualized in grey are external responsibilities by the Conformity Assessment Body and certified Operating Companies. The criteria of these tasks need to be considered to comply with Catena-X standards to offer the individual solution on the marketplaces.

The Catena-X Marketplaces offer opportunities for companies in the automotive value chain and their partners to discover and access innovative solutions that enable data exchange. With provisioning of interoperable and secure solutions that comply to Catena-X standards, Enablement Service Providers and Business Application Providers will support data space participants to comply with standards and ensure secure data exchange. This chapter highlights principles of Catena-X to foster new interactions among participants, creating a network effect that unlocks new market potentials. These interactions, in turn, create incentives for providers to develop solutions based on Catena-X standards. 

Solutions offered on Catena-X Marketplaces are required to fulfill specific standards, they may vary depending on the use case. Following these standards is a must to equalize given parts of functionality across different applications and realize shared semantic models. This section of the guide elaborates on these standards and references useful sources to view most recent standards. In addition, KITs are elaborated on as a helpful tool for companies to ease and accelerate solution development. Thus, project Eclipse Tractus-X is explained, which provides information on recent reference implementations and useful resources.

The certification process of Catena-X ensures that solutions are aligned with Catena-X principles such as data sovereignty and interoperability. Solution providers, accordingly, must consider this process, since only certified solutions can be offered on Catena-X Marketplaces. 

Catena-X Marketplaces are accessed by a Catena-X Portal. Solution providers, therefore, must register with one of the operators of the data space to access the functionalities of solution releases. This section of the guide explains the steps to be followed to offer a solution on Catena-X Marketplaces by elaborating on an examplary solution publishing process. The first operator of a Catena-X Marketplace is Cofinity-X.