Blockchain in supply chain management is beginning to demonstrate practical value as companies move beyond experimentation and apply the technology to specific business problems. Trade services, freight, logistics, invoicing, and payments are among the areas where blockchain can help businesses reduce costs and improve processes.
Walmart Canada’s implementation illustrates the potential benefits. By bringing information from fragmented systems onto a unified platform, the retailer is using blockchain technology to address shipping discrepancies and streamline freight invoice reconciliation and payment processes.
In an April 2019 viewpoint titled “Blockchain B2B Is Starting To Turn The Corner,” Mercator Advisory Group noted that while the scale remains small, blockchain technology is beginning to take hold, with trade services as a sector realizing “additional value, both in potential costs savings and opening up greater trade financing opportunities.”
Today, retail giants like Walmart are realizing those benefits with advanced blockchain implementations that solve costly problems. An article from techrepublic.com has more:
“The freight and logistics industries are plagued with high administrative costs, lengthy payment delays, and costly invoice reconciliation, said Walmart Canada “
“…the world’s biggest industrial IoT/blockchain roll-out” has reduced shipping discrepancies by 97%.
“The retailer is using the DL Freight supply chain invoice and payment platform.”
Having a unified platform that captures data points from fragmented systems in order to automate payments or other manual tasks is an approach that Mercator Advisory Group is continuously observing to be a popular solution, as opposed to fully restructuring systems and business practices from the ground up.
As implementations mature, blockchain in supply chain management could become particularly valuable when it connects previously fragmented data and automates costly manual processes. Walmart Canada’s experience demonstrates how the technology can address tangible operational problems without requiring businesses to completely rebuild their underlying systems.
For B2B payments and trade services, this approach could create opportunities to reduce reconciliation work, accelerate payments, and improve the accuracy of transactions. The strongest blockchain applications may ultimately be those that solve clearly defined business problems while integrating effectively with existing processes and infrastructure.
Overview by David Nelyubin, Research Analyst at Mercator Advisory Group
