Blockchain may not be a family group word yet, but on the next decade its effect on businesses will rival the transformative capabilities with the Internet. The potential applying blockchain are endless, and for retailers blockchain will likely be revolutionary, write Cognizant’s Steven Skinner and Lata Varghese.
Blockchain results in a digital peer-to-peer network that enables direct transactions among users. Its distributed and immutable nature eliminates costly redundancy and enables trust, eliminating the requirement of and price of your intermediary. Public blockchains, such as Bitcoin, are anonymous and open to anyone, while permissioned blockchains, such as could be found across a logistics, comprise categories of connected stakeholders that have an interest in working together. Permissioned blockchains offer privacy, security and scalability and therefore are well suited to the demands of your enterprise environment.
Highly secure by design, blockchains provide enhanced transparency by using a distributed ledger and public key encryption techniques that protect sensitive information while allowing verification and authentication of data by every one of its users. Essentially, this creates some books for the complex, Kogan Page Logistics Books, enabling retailers to detail the entire transaction reputation an item from source to sale without each retailer giving away charge of its data and assets.
Blockchain allows retailers to validate a product’s provenance and guarantee authenticity, helping combat counterfeit goods and reinforce value of premium products. This is particularly important to top and bottom line growth being an estimated $461 billion in imported counterfeit goods hit the world market annually, based on the OECD and the Western european Intellectual Property Office. While there are many applications for blockchain in the retail world, its business value to the logistics is most readily apparent and simply understood.
Blockchain technology is truly transformational to the logistics
Blockchains can leverage so-called smart contracts in the logistics to complete actions using a specified list of triggers, creating both controls and efficiencies. For instance, when a retailer confirms receipt of your shipment on the blockchain, a good contract might automatically initiate payment to the appropriate parties. Or, a good contract could automatically trigger performance of your insurance plan when a sensor detects anomalies in the storage warehouse. Smart contracts might also be accustomed to make procurement decisions using a defined list of attributes, streamlining the procurement process. Constructing a transformational blockchain network can drive efficiencies through the entire logistics, lower costs and counter-party risks through disintermediation, and improve customer relationships by giving indisputable proof of authenticity.
Because blockchain adoption in the retail companies are an ageing technology, many executives question whether some thing now or wait-and-see before jumping on board. A good initial step would be to define use cases for blockchain that address particular pain points or improve optimisation. From there, developing proof of concepts and executing pilots will help decide how, when or if to unleash the power of blockchain across your organisation’s logistics.
Understanding blockchain’s implications to the industry can now drive future decisions about technology and allow executives to influence how blockchains evolve. Those found on the forefront will shape blockchain’s evolution to best suit the requirements their organisations thereby driving competitive advantage. Blockchain technology is truly transformational to the logistics, and definately will require change with a cultural, technological, and business process level comparable to that regarding the world wide web. Those who don’t set about that evolution now may give the price for late adoption.
Related: ‘Blockchain Technology: The way it operates, main advantages and challenges’ and ‘Consortium launches blockchain technology initiative for logistics’.
Check out about Kogan Page Logistics Books just go to our new net page: web link