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Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Top 5 ERP News and articles: Week 2019-26: ERP and Block Chaiin - 2

Checkout my book 'Selected Articles on ERP' on Amazon.com 

The Short URL for this post is http://bit.ly/ERP_BlockChain2

You can read the part I of this article in this URL:  http://bit.ly/ERP_BlockChain1

Introduction

This week we are looking at another set of five articles on Blockchain. The first article from Ultraconsultants blog discusses the Blockchain integration with ERP. An example is given of Smart Contracts where based on various Blockchain events, activities are initiated in ERP. Other well known use cases of Blockchain like Global Traceability are also discussed. Second article is a skeptics view. Mr.Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra thinks that Private Blockchains aka
Blockchains for Enterprises are not going to sustain. In his article, Mr.Stan Gibson says that Blockchain can be used to replace EDI in Supply Chain since it is much more easy to add a partner to Blockchain than to EDI.


In the fourth article, Nitin Singh and Pravin Lewis suggests two approaches to introduce Blockchain in an organization. First approach is to review the current business challenges and see if Blockchain can be used to resolve any of them. The other approach is to look at the available Blockchain use cases like Global Traceability, Product Authenticity or Digital Payments and see if it can be rolled out in the organization. This article cuts the technology from Blockchain discussions and presents it as a Business Decision. In the fifth article, Ms.Darshini Dalal and Eric Piscini of Deloitte discusses the need for adopting Blockchain standards. The suggestion to CIO is not to wait for Technology Companies to develop standards, the customer can initiate the development of standards in their Organizations

Great articles all of them.

Top Five Articles 

1. Blockchain and ERP: What is the impact on manufacturing and distribution?: Ultraconsultants blog

https://ultraconsultants.com/erp-software-blog/blockchain-and-erp/

For manufacturers and distributors, Blockchain will improve Supply Chain Transparency, Security, Quality and Process Integrity through a transparent central ledger integrated with ERP. It encourages reliability between trading partners. One of the obvious business use cases is Smart Contracts. For manufacturing, Smart Contract could initiate a Purchase Order at shop floor level based on the reorder point of an item. Other use cases include:
  • Integration with ERP
  • Global Traceability
  • Business Process Automation
The main benefit is real time response to events and reduction in disputes.

There is also an embedded Video on ERP and Blockchain.


http://amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2019/02/25/blockchain-fail-abra-ceo

It is not that everyone is gung ho on Enterprise Blockchain. Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra is one of the skeptics who feel that private Blockchain is bound to fail. He feel that Private Blockchain is similar to the idea of  'Extranet' a fad that prevailed in the early 90s, that failed to take off. Abra is a Bitcoin App that lets lets people buy and sell currencies, virtual coins, and Nasdaq-listed stocks.

He should know, I guess.

3. Can Blockchain replace EDI in Supply Chain? Stan Gibson for Digitalistmag.com

https://www.digitalistmag.com/digital-supply-networks/2019/03/04/can-blockchain-replace-edi-in-supply-chain-06196784

While there are Blockchain Skeptics (see article 2 above), the spending on Blockchain research is growing at an astonishing 81% CAGR and is expected to touch $10 Billion by 2021. One area where Blockchains can add value is to replace traditional Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). The immutability of Blockchain transactions guarantees the integrity of Supply Chain. The benefit to the participants is their visibility to the provenance of goods (end to end traceability).

Improved analytics due to accurate and transparent data is another benefit.

Reduced cost could be one reason why Blockchain will replace EDI. EDI expects the two parties in a contract to know each other before entering into an EDI arrangement. Blockchain do not require that and hence the agreement can be completed quickly. By removing requirements for individual partner agreements, Blockchain could help in creation of wider Business Networks, an 'eBay of Businesses'.

The article ends by giving a few tips on selecting the right Blockchain implementation partner.

Nice article. My only grouse is that it mixes multiple items like Traceability, EDI and Smart Contracts. The idea of  'cBay of Businesses' is very interesting, though.

4. The potential of Blockchain for improving your business model: Nitin Singh and Pravin Lewis for Digitalist mag.

https://www.digitalistmag.com/digital-economy/2019/05/29/potential-of-blockchain-for-improving-your-business-model-06198726

This article cuts the clutter around Blockchain and provides two approaches by which Organizations can use Blockchain into their Business Model. The two approaches are:
  1. Analyze your business for gaps that can be filled by Blockchain
  2. Analyze the existing Blockchain use cases and see if they can fit in to your business
If you are following Approach #1 above, you have to review each business process through the prism of three questions.
  1. Does the process involve multiple parties?
  2. Could we gain additional business value from a trusted multi-party relationship?
  3. Can we digitize our agreements with partners?
If the answer to the above questions is Yes, then analyze further if Blockchain can be used to resolve the issues.

The second approach is to review the existing Blockchain use cases like Traceability, Product Authenticity, Digital Payments etc for their fitment to the current business model. It is not that all of them will be applicable in all situations. For example, using Blockchain for Product Authenticity is not required for a commodity business.

Once you identify some Blockchain use cases, you can start execution of Blockchain solution.

Very good article. Thank you Nitin Singh and Pravin Lewis of SAP

5.  Blockchain To Blockchains: Broad Adoption Enters The Realm Of The Possible: Darshini Dalal and Eric Piscini of Deloitte. Article republished in Digitalist Mag

https://www.digitalistmag.com/cio-knowledge/2018/05/07/blockchain-to-blockchains-broad-adoption-enters-realm-of-possible-part-2-06136145

This article covers three parts - Benefits of Blockchain standardization, how CIOs can hasten standardization and the challenges to integrating Blockchain from disparate network, as for example, when one company merges with another.

Currently there is no standardization in Blockchain development. Each vendor is developing their own standards. Standardization has benefits including, shareable solutions, quicker development of Blockchain based solutions, solution scalability and developer expertise.

In the absence of standards, CIO can initiate creation of standards by co-opting open source developer community and also ensuring development standards are set in their organizations. Given that data standards already exist in many organizations, the task of extending them to Blockchain could be easy.

The standards will become handy since currently it is almost impossible to integrate two different Blockchain networks. There are two challenges. First is that the two network may use different protocol and complex custom code will need to be written to integrate the networks. Second, even if the networks are integrated, to integrate all the transactions in the two networks is a daunting challenge.

Nice article. Checkout an awesome graphic on 'Blockchain Implementation Roadmap'

Additional Readings


1. SAP Blockchain applications and services:   
https://www.sap.com/products/leonardo/blockchain.html?url_id=text-global-digitalist

2. Deloitte Blockchain Adoption Series 
https://www.digitalistmag.com/tag/deloitte-blockchain-adoption-series


The Year at a Glance

The articles that we have so far covered in this series in Year 2019 are:

22. Week 2019-25: ERP and Block Chain - 1
23. Week 2019-26: ERP and Block Chain - 2
23. Week 2019-27: ERP On Cloud
24. Week 2019-28: ERP for SMBs

Disclaimer:

The articles in this blog post are those that I found interesting and relevant to the topic of ERP and technology in general. I have no commercial association with any of the entities mentioned in this article. I may be following a few of these entities on LinkedIn and even some of these entities may be on my LinkedIn or Social Media network. These articles are selected purely based on their relevance to the objective of this blog, to promote ERP. Finally, the summary is mine. While I stay close to the points in the articles, I also elaborate a few of them based on my understanding.

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