Blockchain Use Cases: IBM Launches a Blockchain Network for Supply Chain Management

Overview

Supply chain management involves supervising the flow of goods and services. The products include tracking the movement and storage of raw resources, inventory, and final products. This has gotten acknowledged as one area that can benefit from blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology is a shared database conserved by a network of computers linked to the internet. Customary techniques of managing suppliers frequently involve cumbersome manual processes. The processes make it challenging to verify identities and track documents. Most companies have adopted the use of the decentralized methodology. They have as well linked the use of an immutable audit on blockchain.

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The new network can do away with the time-consuming processes. In turn, it will help in reducing the dangers of fraud and errors.

The International Business Machine corp announced a new blockchain development network. The network is meant for supplier validation, onboarding, and life cycle information management. The new blockchain network is referred to as Trust Your Supplier. The traditional methods of managing suppliers make it difficult to do verifications on identities. It is also a challenge to tracking documents like tax certifications.

Blockchain is expected to support the global movement and tracking of two million dollars worth of goods and services annually; the target is set to be achieved by the year 2023, according to a release by IBM.

The implementation and execution of a supplier development program for a company that produces a product with a good supply base is necessary in order to set your company up for long-term success. The supplier development and management program will provide better overall costs in the long run; additionally, it will give you a trusted partner with whom to conduct business.

You can create an execution plan and process on the first day with your team, along with new team members in the future. The creation will be the key to sustaining a fruitful supplier development program. Because this is a trusted partner, a dependable supply partner will understand every facet of your business. It can realize the pricing and commercial requirements, quality requirements, and shipping requirements, among others.

This understanding will help in incentivizing your procurement crew to develop suppliers appropriately. It should be the number one priority. It can also get achieved by replacing your team's supplier mindset with a "supply partner" mentality, emphasizing the importance of total cost of ownership, supplier performance, and growing and nurturing supplier relationships. Reward your team for how many suppliers they develop, not just for finding the most inexpensive sourcing option.

It is possible to completely change how companies onboard and manage their supplier network for the future. It is, however, possible only by the adoption of blockChain. Both the buyers and the suppliers will see the tracking down merits of blockChain through Trust Your Supplier. It will be visible to them through a reduction in costs complication and speed. The IBM Supply Chain Business Network can connect to Trust, Your Supplier. It can make the connection by the use of open industry programming interfaces for access to prevailing verified supplier information.

Trust Your Supplier creates a digital passport for supplier identity on blockchain development services network. The modern digital passport allows suppliers to share their details with any buyer with permissions on the system. Furthermore, it is compatible with IBM's Supply Chain Business Network.

It can connect existing procurement business networks. Therefore, users won't have to re-enter data across compound systems to use the product.

Trust Your Supplier

The Trust Your Supplier network brings together the IBM industry experience with Chainyards product capabilities. It helps eliminate some manual management processes existing today. Most verification documents are transmitted manually by the use of papers without the immutable nature of blockchain. The use of paperwork is a dreadfully slow process, especially in the modern digital marketplace.

The Network

The Trust Your Supplier platform is currently only available to North American suppliers. However, IBM anticipates for it to become global. It also aims at providing commercial availability by the end of 2019. From the early reports by IBM, it is indicated that the network could reduce new supplier onboarding duration.

The reduction might be as much as 80 percent. This will translate to about a 50 percent reduction in administrative costs. Several big companies have already joined the network to date. Some of these include Lenovo, Nokia, Anheuser-Busch In Bev, GlaxoSmithKline, Schneider Electric, and Vodafone.

Nokia is exposed to a great opportunity by working with IBM on this blockchain creativity. Nokia can further enhance their supplier's experience and elevate the onboarding process. The opening also got confirmed by the procurement Vice president of Nokia, Sanjay Mehta. It will be an advantage for everyone to adopt and use the most recent technology to address critical challenges; this will further elevate the speed of using innovative solutions.

Blockchain development has the potential to digitize and streamline the way procurement teams interact with their suppliers. The digitization is in a tremendously impactful way with a powerful overlay of trust and validation. Trust Your Supplier solution benefits are not just for procurement organizations. They are also for suppliers within the network.

By creating a digital identity, suppliers can eliminate redundancy of providing qualification information every time they work with a new buyer.

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