Hand on heart – do you love paper and pen, are you comfortable with Excel, Word, and PowerPoint? Does your company print and fill out paper?
You are not the only entrepreneur who considers his operational processes to be modern and progressive.
After all, every employee has a PC, field workers even have tablets, and departments are connected via programmed interfaces. Modern media has made its way into businesses. But the concept of blockchain is accelerating the development.
Blockchain is not only part of the strategic orientation in global corporations and monopolies with high budgets. The term digital transformation hovers over all digital apps. So are the innovations of blockchain and distributed ledger technology.
Does Your Company Even Need Blockchain?
Since the release of the Bitcoin blockchain by Satoshi Nakamoto, a technological as well as economic evolution has begun. It leads to innovative applications and effective collaborations – even allowing automated trading with a crypto trading bot.
It has long since ceased to be solely about digital currencies or the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The blockchain stands for unique potential. It strengthens trust in digital spaces and the handling of data transactions.
You need a holistic view to see if your business really needs blockchain. Any business that produces, manages, duplicates, or receives data can use blockchain.
Operations are characterized by the transformation of analog data and formats into digital systems. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
Moreover, every operational action generates data. For example, in customer dialog, internal communication, construction or marketing. However, the data stored on the Blockchain represents a new quality.
Where Can Blockchain Be Used?
Practical blockchain-based enterprise solutions initially sound like technical jargon. They are simply apps that you can use to make workflows and processes more effective in your company.
Only the way the digital storage medium changes. The blockchain is a database. That’s what it basically boils down to. Around this database there is a network of computers. They form the basic framework, the so-called peer-to-peer network.
If you have data, you must store and control data. Think about which departments have the highest volume of data. In every company there is this department, perhaps even consisting of only one person.
This centralized location is the starting point for using blockchain. Enterprise solutions are apps based on the Blockchain. With them, the control of digital data can be handled securely, transparently, and automatically.
So-called smart contracts take on the task of controlling and validating data transfers and actions.
Value Creation Along the Supply Chain
You can use blockchain in almost any area. But data sets alone are not the reason for the high potential of blockchain. Value creation is at the core of global players’ efforts.
There is also a lot of money at stake here. Supply chain management has evolved to show the importance of the digital supply chain.
Digital images of goods, assets, and people offer a wide range of potential use cases. In these, technology around smart contracts can provide technological advancement.
More and more data sets are moving from filing cabinets into computers and (mostly) onto the Internet. The number of companies that are part of the supply chain is growing at the same time as digitization increases.
What initially looks like a contradiction is rooted in the increased desire for transparency across all interfaces. Both on the consumer side and on the partner side.
Hyperledger Fabric is a Production Platform
Does your company produce something? Do you manufacture a product or process an existing commodity? Do you offer a service and trigger orders? Is your company in the B2B space? You are always part of the value chain. And that benefits greatly from the Blockchain.
Blockchain is so valuable because of the secure validation as well as the transparent presentation on a trusted platform.
Documents are data, goods are data, identities are data. At least, that’s been the case since the Internet and mobile devices came into existence.
The Internet of Things is Made Up of Mobile Devices
As the number of mobile devices has increased, the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged. Meanwhile, the Industrial Internet of Things IoT and the Artificial Internet of Things AIoT.
On the Internet of Things, mobile devices come together and interact with each other without human intervention. They make decisions, perform analysis, and generate data.
The sensor that signals to the windshield wiper that the windshield is wet. Or the sensor that instructs the ECU to turn on the lights. Autonomous vehicles sound like futuristic dreams.
But in many cases, elements of it are already built into our means of transportation from air to road. These include, for example, the lane-keeping assistant, the navigation system, the automatic light, or the brake lane assistant.
Digital devices communicate autonomously and make decisions without the human brain being involved at that moment.
Open-Source Development Brings Blockchain to Industry
Your company is in IT infrastructure, mobile, or programming? Are you a mobility consultant, a communications service provider, or in healthcare?
The possible apps for public and private blockchains are as diverse as the types of activities in small and large companies.
Bitcoin transactions now account for only a very small proportion of apps. The industrial use of blockchain shows the way to a digital future.
The majority of it is based on open-source code, with interested and capable parts of our society working on practical apps with the help of companies. This holds great potential for innovation and the possibility of attracting skilled workers.
Your Company also Benefits from the Blockchain
With the Blockchain, you can benefit from a wide range of possibilities and achieve real added value for your company. It is almost impossible to find a business that would not be suitable for using the Blockchain.
You are certainly asking yourself, how does the Blockchain work? But this answer is not important to the details of deciding whether you can use Blockchain in your business.
It’s not about fully understanding deep information technology and cryptographic encryption mechanisms. It’s about data, processes, and efficiency.
Take your business into focus and go in search of data. Look for data processing, for networks with intensive communication, departments with high paperwork and interfaces that don’t offer full interoperability.
Then you will have the next big step towards digital transformation for your company in front of you and you will be ready for something new.