The International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) announced Monday, a new blockchain network that will improve oversight management of goods and services.
The blockchain network dubbed “Trust Your Supplier,” is set to enhance both manual and cumbersome supply chain management, which includes tracking the movement and storage of raw materials, inventory, and finished goods.
Notably, the traditional methods of managing suppliers often involved complex processes, which makes it challenging to verify identities and track documents such as bank account information, ISO certifications, tax certifications, and certificates of insurance.
According to IBM, the new Network will address the issues. It will eliminate time-consuming manual processes and help mitigate the risk of fraud and errors by using a decentralized approach and an immutable audit trail built on the blockchain.
“By moving this process onto the blockchain, we’re taking much of that burden and shifting it to the network, where it can be shared in real-time more securely and efficiently,” Marie Wieck, general manager for IBM Blockchain said.
However, the blockchain network has limited availability with existing participants and is scheduled to launch in the third quarter of 2019.
Alongside IBM, the other founding participants are Cisco, Anheuser-Busch InBev, GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric, and Vodafone.
It is no longer news that Blockchain technology is of huge benefit to tracing and transparency of goods supply chain. The technology research firm Gartner Inc said by 2023, and blockchain will support the tracking of $2 trillion of goods and services on a yearly basis.
As per the report, the technology to be provided by the blockchain specialist firm, Chainyard and is built using IBM’s blockchain platform. The other firm members meanwhile are putting their supplier data onto the new Network and contributing their expertise to expand the Network.
Also, IBM noted it would use the “Trust Your Supplier” network to bring onboard 4,000 of its own North American suppliers over the next few months.
