What does blockchain mean for digital transformation?
Every few years we are faced with a barrage of new technical jargon that become the must have darlings of technology in order to remain competitive. As competition heats up in the technology world, organisations must move their focus onto new areas of technology to drive digital transformation. Web 2.0, 3.0, Augmented Reality, Programmatic Advertising, Contextual Marketing, AWP, PWA and so on. Well, 2018 is by no means unique and has introduced a new wave of technical terms that you may feel you should aspire to have. Artificial Intelligence, Data lakes, Bots and of course the more recent kid on the block, BlockChain. Most of the newly introduced technologies are seemingly self-explanatory but one that I get asked to explain the most is Blockchain and what it means for Digital Transformation.
Based on various recent studies, almost half of decision makers within a company feel that their current digital offering is out of date. Ninety-four per cent of companies say they have increased focus on their digital growth, while ninety per cent admit digital is central to the business achieving their business strategy. So far, over twenty-five per cent of business budgets have been invested in Blockchain and AI and that is set to grow significantly through 2018 to 2020. Blockchain holds immense promise for pushing transformation even further by eliminating the middleman from most business processes, manual and digital, as well as protecting almost anything—from finance, to music, document audits, to mortgage loans and digital wallets.
So, what does blockchain mean for digital transformation? The impact can be as significant as the browser was to the growth of the internet.
A really exciting example where blockchain can prove transformative is in healthcare, where personal records need to be stored in a secure way but made available quickly when needed. Blockchain can revolutionise this process by securely keeping a record that is owned by the individual providing ID and permissions so only the relevant information is released to the right people at the right time. Decentralisation is the key, transforming the ownership and control to the individual. Think of the opportunities here!! Data marketing firms could be obsolete in 5 years. World aid can become far more slickly handled too. The UN World food programme sent more than 10,000 Syrian refugees cryptocurrency-based vouchers to purchase food enabled by blockchain technology. This eliminated the need for real money and all the issues that it brings with it when distributing in an area in need of help and support.
And then there’s transport and logistics. Blockchain could help streamline transport by pulling various shipment data and putting in one place. UPS have joined a group who are bringing blockchain to the shipping industry. BiTA is looking at how distributed ledgers could transform freight shipping. Distributed ledgers use blockchain technology to store and share linked data across several different computers. When data is added to the ledger from anywhere in the network, it’s made available to every other node too. For example, data on an individual shipment could be added to a centralised ledger and then updated by the parties involved throughout its transport.
