Elemica has completed a successful blockchain pilot project between leading global chemical manufacturers as part of an innovation initiative to test new technologies that will redefine B2B processes and support digital transformation.
In the pilot program, Elemica and crossinx, a network for financial business collaboration solution, exist as nodes on a public blockchain, connecting structured data with unstructured data, such as documents, to enable multi-tier payment. In the pilot, two large global chemical companies facilitated document and data transfer of invoices, purchase orders, delivery tenders and proof-of-delivery posts. With the ability to connect to a digital network, blockchain functionality can be made accessible to support a many-to-many connection of companies, facilitating payment processing.
“Similar to any new technology, there is a period of learning and evolution before adoption,” says Arun Samuga, chief technology officer of Elemica. “We like what we see so far and are identifying areas of clear applicability of the technology.”
Elemica’s blockchain pilot tested the ability to use blockchain to support a many-to-many architecture. Blockchain technology can be used to break supply chain data out of silos and reveal this information to all trading partners regardless of the network they are connected.
“Our goal is to use the blockchain to automate document exchange along the supply chain and make it more transparent. This is the basis for our supply chain finance solutions," explains crossinx CEO and founder Marcus Laube.
The benefits of this capability with blockchain could lead to:
- Feasibility of employing a trustless, intermediary-free, decentralized standard to exchange information between different stakeholders
- Simplify existing business processes and make them smarter
- Auto-ordering based on IoT information
- Automated PO confirmations
- Auto-invoice creation based on Pickup or PoD
- Auto-matching of invoices
- Auto-payments
- Extend to other complementary decentralized networks and from IoT devices
