Editor’s Note: In 2019, just about everyone in the technology world is talking about and writing about Blockchain distributed digital ledgers, including the supply management world. It’s not the cool new thing everyone’s talking about but hardly anyone’s doing — it’s real, and it’s happening. When mated with other emerging technologies and innovations, like connected devices (aka, “The Industrial/Internet of Things”), digital currencies, mobility, and virtual assistants, the sky is literally the limit for Blockchain. It has enormous potential to disrupt supply chain, risk management, procurement, and finance/accounts payable operations. Because of this potential, we’ve been following Blockchain’s rise, development, and news cycle carefully. That is part of my job here at Ardent Partners — a job that I embrace as our resident “Tech Futurist.” So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the latest installment of When Blockchain Meets Supply Chain!

Icertis Partners with Mercedes Benz on Blockchain-based Supply Chain Sustainability Initiative

On February 25, Icertis, the Seattle, Washington-based contract management SaaS provider, announced that it has partnered with Mercedes-Benz Cars in an effort to put the auto manufacturer’s compliance requirements and supplier contracts on the Icertis Blockchain Framework (“the Framework”). Mercedes Benz will use the Framework, including Smart Contracts, to drive visibility into its sourcing and contracting processes in order to ensure that its supplier base adheres to its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies and other ethical and legal concerns. Smart contracts are, like Blockchains, permanent, immutable, and highly-secure distributed digital documents. For these reasons, the Framework will limit user access to supplier and sub-contractor data to those provisioned with the proper credentials. Mercedes Benz will also have the option to use Icertis’s AI-based capabilities to automatically verify whether its suppliers and their sub-contractors are in compliance with these and other contractually-mandated requirements.

Accenture, Others Form Blockchain-Based Sustainable Supply Chains Initiative

Also on February 25, Accenture, one of the world’s largest auditing, management consulting, and technology integration firms, announced that it has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Everledger, MasterCard, and Mercy Corps on a Blockchain-based program to foster sustainable global supply chains. While Accenture, Amazon, and MasterCard are household names, Everledger and Mercy Corps are lesser-known entities. Everledger is a London-based Fintech and Blockchain solutions provider, while Mercy Corps is a Portland, Oregon-headquartered non-governmental organization that provides humanitarian assistance to impoverished and or war-torn communities. Together, the five parties have been working on a Blockchain-based digital solution meant to improve the lives of those who contribute to and, frankly, rely on the world’s many different supply chains to survive.

Blockchain is the bedrock of what Accenture calls its “circular supply chain capability,” which provides retailers, manufacturers, and small farmers and manufacturers with several key features meant to increase transparency and control, and improve the lives of local producers: traceability/visibility across supply chains, inventory management tools, digital identity and payment technologies, and greater, more direct access to consumers. Retail and manufacturing companies can use track and trace capabilities integrated with the Blockchain to establish product provenance (point of origin) and monitor the flow of goods and commodities across supply chains, as well as inventory management tools to help them reduce waste (like food and other perishable products). It can help local farmers, miners, and other small producers access consumers directly and sell their products without having to work with third parties. And with a bar code scan, it can help consumers reliably access small, local, and or artisanal producers in order to purchase sustainable products and support local economies.

IBM Completes Blockchain-based Bill of Lading Trial Project

Earlier this year, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced the completion of a months-long trial project to use Blockchain distributed digital ledgers to process electronic Bills of Lading (e-BL) for perishable goods that are shipped and received. Digital Bills of Lading also help trading partners establish and affirm a product’s provenance by concurrrently documenting ownership of a shipment, and serving as both a contract and a receipt for that shipment.  In this specific case, IBM partnered with Pacific International Lines (“PIL”), a Singapore-based shipping company, and Hupco Pte Ltd (“Hupco”), a fellow Singapore-based importer of mandarin oranges, to use its Blockchain platform to track and verify a 28-ton shipment of mandarin oranges from China to Singapore just prior to the start of the Chinese New Year.

The two trading partners were able to track the shipment from its point of origin and receive and approve the e-BL in a mere second, compared to the seven days that it typically takes to process a paper Bill of Lading. This time reduction has widespread benefits across the perishable goods supply chain. After all, faster Bill of Lading processing and approval times reduces the length of time that perishable cargo remains in climate-controlled containers, which reduces energy and logistics costs, reduces product spoilage, and helps to reduce the risk of fraud and tampering. Digitizing Bills of Lading and linking them to Blockchains can also help reduce fraud by making it harder to forge or alter them, since Blockchain is widely regarded as a secure, immutable, and permanent digital ledger.

Deloitte Partners with Logistics Providers on Blockchain-Based Platform

Last month, Deloitte, one of the “big four” accounting and management consulting firms in the U.S., announced that it has partnered with a couple of logistics providers in a joint effort to digitize logistics via its Blockchain Platform. Kerry Logistics and CargoSmart have worked with Deloitte over the past few months to operationalize a Blockchain proof of concept for logistics digital transformation. And last month, the three companies did just that. They reportedly connected different Blockchain distributed digital ledgers with each other in order to create a network of users across the logistics, shipping, and other parties within the supply chain value chain.

By linking multiple different Blockchains via multiple different Cloud infrastructures, the parties were able to demonstrate their ability to overcome standing challenges — interoperability between different chains and platforms — in order to send and receive digital trade documentation. Doing so further proves the concept of using Blockchain to digitally send and receive trade, shipping, and logistics documents, such as Bills of Lading, industry certifications, invoices, receipts, manifests, country of origin certifications, and other documents in an effort to build and maintain trust and verify product and user authenticity.

Procurant Launches Blockchain-based Procurement, Supply Chain Track-and-Trace Tool

In other news, Procurant, a California-based provider of digital solutions for the food and beverage industry, announced the limited release of a Blockchain-based purchasing and track-and-trace program, Procurant ONE, that company executives claims is the first and only one of its kind. Procurant ONE is a cloud-based Blockchain solution that leverages connected devices (the Internet of Things), mobile applications, and intelligent programming to connect all parties in a given food supply chain — from farmers to brokers to shippers to wholesalers to retailers with the goal to increase visibility, trust, and control, and decrease product waste and fraud.

Procurant ONE enables procurement users to manage product specifications in a centralized manner, track and plan inventory, forecast demand, discover and manage trading partners, and use pricing tools to monitor and better negotiate deals with prospective suppliers. Downstream, it also provides users with tools to collaboratively manage orders and exceptions, instant alerts and notifications (like when products have shipped), invoice matching and payment tracking, optimized load planning and delivery status tracking, and mobile supply chain applications and alerting. Procurant ONE is also said to seamlessly integrate with ERP and other enterprise-wide systems.

Supply Chain Just Got RATIO’d: BLOCNETS Launches Blockchain-as-a-Service

And in a final bit of news, BLOCNETS, a Georgia-based start-up and provider of intelligent, Blockchain-based supply chain applications, announced the release of RATIO, its flagship Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) for supply chain management. RATIO leverages SAP Leonardo technology (itself based on the Hyperledger Fabric, IoT, machine learning, and data analytics) to provide enterprises of all sizes the visibility, trust, and control that they need to operate throughout their extended supply chains. Users can conduct a host of activities on RATIO, including but not limited to the tracking of products and assets as they move across the supply chain; receive and review product information, and validate product authenticity; automatically encrypt product and transactional data as it moves from point to point (becoming another block in the chain); and searching each block for specific item numbers, key words, or other search terms. RATIO is available now for a 60-day trial.

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