Ernst & Young (EY) announced via PR Newswire that they are currently supporting Blockchain Wine Pte Ltd, a company based in Singapore, in operating its wine marketplace. The latter has recently launched the wine marketplace aptly named ‘TATTOO,’ which stands for ‘traceability, authenticity, transparency, trade, origin, and opinion.’

The said marketplace was developed to become accessible for consumers from the Asia Pacific region. It leverages EY’s ObsChain blockchain platform, which functioned as a place for consumers to purchase premium wine products. At present, the TATTOO Wine marketplace offers a wide selection of wines from countries such as Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the United States. Their ultimate goal is to assist wineries of varying sizes from everywhere else in the world in offering their products to the Asia Pacific market by utilising the blockchain and e-commerce technologies.

The marketplace featured a secure, blockchain-based platform that will use digital tokens. These digital tokens identify the authenticity, provenance, and quality of both new and vintage wines. In the process, it will also reduce, even eliminate, the need for intermediaries while promoting cost efficiency.

Blockchain Wine Pte. Ltd.’s Founder and Chairman, Tim Tse, echoed the purpose of the marketplace and pointed out the traceability of the product from the point of origin to the consumer or buyer through direct delivery. He was quoted saying:

“TATTOO helps reduce layers of distribution and helps address the issues of counterfeit wines, optimizes supply chains, facilitates trade, and empowers both wineries and consumers.”

While the platform is based on EY’s OpsChain platform, the user-friendly experience was made possible by the SAP Commerce solution. This brings us back to the timely launch of SAP’s newest data centre in Singapore, which aims to support the deployment of platform-enabling businesses in the region. The wine marketplace allows a two-way process: for wineries to upload catalogs of their products and for consumers to browse and purchase from the given selections.

Meanwhile, the shipments are tracked and managed on the public Etherium Mainnet, a blockchain protocol that is developed and deployed to areas where transactions are broadcasted, verified, and then recorded. The EY Opschain features the integration of the commerce front-end and onboarding tools, which allow wineries to link their respective production systems to the Ethereum blockchain.

SAP Director for Blockchain Exploration, Thomas Uhde, shared that the project was one of the first commerce integrations of SAP software to a blockchain platform. He noted that there is “great potential in bringing scalable consumer-friendly front-end on a blockchain-based digital market.”

Waddesdon Wine Rothschild Collection’s CEO, Christopher Campbell, shared his excitement on the future of the marketplace:

“Waddesdon Wine markets wines from the Rothschild chateaux and other prestigious chateaux. We look forward to offering our wines within the TATTOO marketplace.”

EY’s Global Blockchain Leader, Paul Brody, shared his thoughts on the standing of the current era in terms of production data and the Ethereum Mainnet. He said:

“…thousands of companies will routinely be pushing production data onto the Ethereum Mainnet – creating, offering, and selling digital tokens that represent their products and services to consumers. This is what the mainstreaming of blockchain business looks like today.”

With the coming of this marketplace platform, the distribution and purchase of wines from all over the world are made more accessible and more convenient, especially for enthusiasts with no capacity to travel and make a purchase.

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Stefan Sauer of SAP’s Industry Business Unit Travel & Transportation Cargo Transportation has shared his insights on blockchain in shipping at the recently concluded Shipping 2030 Asia conference in Singapore.

Sauer acknowledged that the blockchain technology has come to a point between the peak and the trough in the Gartner Hype Cycle, a methodology that gives a view of how a technology or application will evolve enabling the organisations to manage its deployment to match specific business goals.

According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Blockchain Technologies, 2019, blockchain technology is sliding into the Trough of Disillusionment in Gartner’s Hype Cycle. However, “blockchain spring” is anticipated once the core-enabling technologies and use cases evolve and mature, resulting in significant benefits for the enterprise. CIOs must be up and about once it happens.

SAP’s Sauer explained that blockchain has to have a use case that makes use of that technology to transform a process. He added:

 “From a software vendor perspective, we want to build use cases that make sense and bring your industry forward and who is the best one to understand what brings an industry forward than the industry itself.”

On Digitising Bill of Lading

Bill of Lading is one of the key components of the shipping industry that sets the terms for the transport and delivery of the item. Sauer noted that despite having a business case for digitising the Bill of Lading to do away with the paper trail it entails, it is yet to gain wide-scale acceptance or use.

The collaboration of Maersk and IBM to apply Tradelens blockchain solution is one example of the technology’s application that needs to be replicated in the industry.

He raised a question to the audience:

“But why, apart from TradeLens, is this technology not used?” 

Sauer cited how paper concert tickets have developed into QR codes. From paper tickets, it has developed to paper tickets with a barcode; then to using the barcode instead of tearing the ticket stub; and, finally, to a digital ticket in the form of a QR Code.

“That is the journey shipping needs to make – the digitisation of those pieces of paper,” he emphasized.

Digitising Bill of Lading is far more complex than tracking concert tickets. Unlike in the concert scene that normally involves two key players, the promoter and the buyer, the process of keeping track and transparency of a shipment involves a lot more parties. Sauer elaborated:

 “There has to be a journey not only from a technology point of view but most importantly our mindset point of view. We have the ports, the customer, the consignee, the ports, the shipper, the port authority, the banks, the insurers need to change their minds to appreciate and accept a bill of lading doesn’t have to be a piece of paper in an envelope that is mailed from the other side of the world.”

Facing the Challenge

Sauer stated that the challenge is on changing the mindset of some key players in the supply chain, particularly with customs and import/export ports. 

In the process of executing paperless shipping, he believes it will take “baby steps” slicing the chain into individual sections. He cited a shipping line that owns a terminal as an example. Digitising document between the two is a good start of the process and could be expanded to other parts of the chain as it gains acceptance over time. He concluded:

“We can’t expect blockchain to be the Holy Grail in a year. It will take time.” 

Shipping 2030 Asia 2019 held last 18-19 September at Hotel Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay has brought together visionaries and innovators from both inside and outside shipping, including companies at the cutting-edge intersection of technology and business, to share their ideas and innovations for the future of the shipping industry.

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Zuellig Pharma, Asia’s leading healthcare services provider, has recently developed the eZTracker smartphone app, an SAP-powered blockchain platform. Through the app, consumers’ mobile devices become an instant verification tool, tracing barcode on medication to its manufacturer and the country of origin within seconds. Hence, ensuring the authenticity of the drug and the legitimacy of its distribution.

Zuellig Pharma leverages the blockchain technology as a solution to the growing concern on counterfeit drugs distributed around the region. The company acknowledges the fact that keeping track of counterfeit drugs is tedious because it entails the gathering of data from different parties across its supply chain.

Zuellig’s eZTracker App Explained

Zuellig Pharma has already announced its innovative move to combat the distribution of counterfeit drugs through blockchain projects during Fight the Fakes Week in December 2018. The company stated:

 “If a product is fake, alerts will be automatically triggered to the manufacturer and to Zuellig Pharma, together with an instant identification of where the fake product entered the supply chain,” 

Recently this August, Daniel Laverick, Zuellig Pharma’s Head of SAP and IT solutions, elaborated on eZTracker at an SAP regional event in Bangkok. He explained that the SAP blockchain platform captures data from the drug manufacturer upon receiving a drug at its warehouse onto a blockchain.

Laverick added that pertinent information about a drug like drug types and batch numbers are saved on the blockchain from the time it is moved within Zuellig Pharma to being shipped to consumers, hospitals and drug stores. Information about when and where a consumer uses eZTracker to scan the drug’s barcode is also written to the blockchain once it reaches the consumer.

Consumers will be alerted and advised on the actions they can take, such as informing the authorities or to seek treatment if they have already consumed the drug when the drug is deemed a counterfeit.

With regards to parallel imports, Laverick cautioned that although the drug is genuine and has passed through Zuellig Pharma’s supply chain, it might not have been shipped in conditions that guarantee its efficacy. 

The Blockchain Journey Begins

eZTracker is just the beginning of Zuellig Pharma’s blockchain journey. According to Laverick, the supply chain can also benefit from the same technology wherein sensor data about environmental conditions in which drugs are transported can be captured, as well as to facilitate payments and transactions. He stated:

“We have to come to a point where we can get to an open platform that we can collaborate on and put all the data in so that consumers would only need to use one app.” 

With regards to cracking down on counterfeit drugs, Laverick said that the pharmaceutical giant was also looking at providing data that it has captured on its blockchain platform to the authorities. 

According to World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified. These drugs may cause harm to patients and fail to treat the diseases for which they were intended. Zuellig Pharma’s blockchain journey, starting with eZTracker, is one logical and high-minded move to help the industry strengthen its stand on medicine traceability.

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Anova Food, LLC, a top sushi-quality tuna company in North America that’s leading the industry in the global sourcing of wild caught and sustainably harvested tuna, recognized its partners who have contributed to the successful execution of its Blockchain technology project in partnership with SAP during a luncheon in Jakarta, Indonesia on June 18.

The event was graced by key partners including local non-governmental organization (NGO), Masyarakat Dan Perikanan Indonesia (MDPI), processing partner, Harta Samudra, and Anova Indonesia, along with community members from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and a number of international NGOs.

James Veale, Vice President of Agri Solutions with SAP Asia Pacific Japan, also presented several SAP Innovation Awards to each partner following the successful launch of Anova’s recent Blockchain technology program during the luncheon.

Anova ‘s commitment to innovate and improve seafood traceability to address the pressing demands of consumers on food safety and sustainability led to the company’s partnership with SAP earlier this year. SAP’s Blockchain technology offers mobility to the consumer. Now, consumers can access the complete origin and history of Natural Blue by Anova yellow-fin tuna simply by using their smartphones to scan a QR code on the product package.

Blane Olson, Managing Director of Anova Technical Services, expressed his appreciation of the hard work and dedication of their partners and suppliers who have helped bring Anova on the Blockchain. He said,

“With the addition of our new Blockchain technology program, we’re able to easily access and share powerful information about the fish-to-market journey with customers and consumers, while ensuring that fish is caught from clean ocean waters by fishermen who operate under Fair Trade standards, which are certified by MDPI and Fair Trade USA to ensure fair wages and safe working conditions.”

MDPI, which translates to Association for Communities and Fisheries of Indonesia, has been an instrumental partner of Anova in the implementation of its Blockchain technology program. MDPI has been in the industry since 2013 working directly with fishing communities to implement socioeconomic and environmental improvements, including fisheries management, Fair Trade certification, and modernization of supply chain operations. Likewise, Anova has also supported MDPI by forming partnerships with industry processors and distributors, as well as fishing communities, in order to implement projects like the recent Blockchain technology program.

Saut Tampubolon, Interim Executive Director of MDPI stated that working with the Anova team to implement this powerful Blockchain technology has been a rewarding experience. He explained,

“We pride ourselves in our work to ensure that each fish is fresh and has been sourced fairly, and we’re thrilled that this impactful information is now available for customers who are seeking out sustainable seafood products.”

About SAP’s Blockchain

World Economic Forum Survey says that 10{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of global GDP may be stored with Blockchain technology by 2027 and SAP is well in sync with this prediction with 84{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of SAP Blockchain Community members already on their Blockchain journey.

SAP offers to simplify complex multi-party processes and create trust among participants with Blockchain and distributed ledger solutions.

Businesses utilizing SAP’s Blockchain technology can also leverage SAP Leonardo’s systematic approach to digital innovation in helping them build state-of-the-art applications with Blockchain capabilities.

SAP’s Blockchain technology is business process centered, has a vibrant and active network for seamless integration and security, and offers BaaS abstraction layer that supports open standards with built-in integration with SAP applications and insulates businesses and their partners from the technology’s volatility.

SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service and SAP HANA Blockchain service are part of SAP’s Blockchain applications and services.

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The infrastructure will now have equal functionality regardless of environment, supporting the interplay between SAP-provisions nodes and those residing on premise or in a different cloud, and blockchain-enabled SAP applications and business processes with externally operated nodes and networks, to help customers meet specific regional, hardware and regulatory requirements.

SAP has also added support for Quorum, an enterprise-focused version of Ethereum. SAP already provides support for Hyperledger Fabric and MultiChain via the SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service.

Expanding its engagement with industry around blockchain, SAP has formed two new consortium groups within its SAP Blockchain Consortium program – one for the pharmaceuticals and life sciences industries, and the other for agribusiness, consumer products and retail, adding to the high-tech group established earlier in 2018.

Customers, partners and other stakeholders work together in the consortia to identify blockchain use cases and areas for collaboration. SAP now has 35 participants in its three industry consortia, including AmerisourceBergen, Arvato, CONA – Coke One North America, GlaxoSmithKline and Maple Leaf Foods.

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The new offerings include SAP Conversational AI, a service which includes an end-to-end toolkit for training, building and monitoring intelligent chatbots, which could be integrated with SAP and non-SAP systems; and SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain, a new blockchain as a service, enabling enterprises to easily build and extend business solutions with blockchain technologies, such as Hyperledger Fabric and MultiChain.

SAP announced that SAP Leonardo Machine Learning capabilities are embedded in applications across the SAP portfolio, including SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP C/4HANA and SAP Ariba solutions; and five new services from SAP Leonardo Machine Learning Foundation, including object detection, text recognition in images and text classification.

SAP has also released Leonardo-based innovation kits for specific industries, including retail, life sciences, manufacturing and automotive, and launched the SAP Leonardo Partner Medallion Initiative, an SAP partner service that has more than doubled the number of Leonardo embedded industry solutions.

SAP’s multicloud strategy for the Cloud Platform has taken another step forwards with the general availability of SAP Cloud Platform on Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure – meaning it is now available on all major hyper scale cloud infrastructure providers.

The company disclosed plans to release a private cloud deployment of SAP Cloud Platform on the IBM Cloud – allowing clients in regulated industries such as banking, healthcare and transportation to have flexibility, speed and agility for data management via a private cloud. For Android users, SAP has also now released the Cloud Platform SDK to develop apps for Android or Chrome devices.

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A joint initiative between companies and research institutions, the alliance is looking to SAP, with customers in more than 190 countries, for international industry leadership, based on its 45 years in business and its development of the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system to seamlessly integrate blockchain technologies with existing business software.

“The Chinese Trusted Blockchain Alliance unifies efforts and underlines the joint desire to advance these technologies and drive adoption across industries,” said Torsten Zube, head of blockchain, SAP.

The alliance was established with support from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). The CAICT chairs the alliance, as well as China’s Industrial Internet of Things Alliance, of which SAP is also a member organisation.

“Combining SAP’s technical and business expertise with CAICT’s ecosystem, all parties will work closely to unleash new value for companies,” said Zube.

The Chinese Trusted Blockchain Alliance plans to establish working groups to address key issues such as blockchain core technology R&D, industrial applications of blockchain technologies, and blockchain governance and standardisation.

To help accelerate the application of blockchain technologies the alliance is collaborating with the Industrial Internet of Things Alliance to establish the Industrial Internet Blockchain Special Working Group. Ruicheng Li, managing director, SAP Labs China, SAP (China) Co. Ltd., has been appointed as deputy chair of the working group.

Established in 1957, CAICT is a think tank of the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, playing a key role in research for China’s national industrial policy and roadmap development, including strategic industrial planning, policy, standardisation, industrial testing and certification.

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There’s been a lot of change for finance and accounting lately. We know. And it may feel overwhelming to have to keep up with new technology and the ever-increasing amount of available data to analyse, while trying to figure out if the robot uprising will be a threat or a liberator.

As if all of this isn’t enough to make your head spin – and we know it is – along comes blockchain technology. Tempting to ignore it and hope it goes away, right?

But it’s not going to. And based on its current trajectory, it could impact your organisation sooner than you think.

Disruption in the finance industry has become the new normal, and migrating to a growth mindset is the most effective way for accounting and finance professionals to prepare for what’s ahead. It’s also the only way to switch up the typical pattern of lagging behind as the last industry to adopt cutting edge technology.

So, what is blockchain?

A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger with built-in security that records transactions in real-time. Every ten minutes, all transactions are verified across the network, reconciled, permanently time-stamped, and stored in a block that is encrypted and inextricably linked to the preceding block. This creates a chain. A blockchain.

Blockchain is the technology that powers cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum, but its potential for accounting and finance extend far beyond digital currency.

Blockchain is structured as a triple-entry system, with both sides of every transaction simultaneously and directly recorded onto a shared ledger, creating a verifiable cryptographic receipt – or digital signature – that is visible to both parties.

The process provides a permanent audit trail, significantly reduces the risk of accounting errors, and guarantees the integrity of financial records. It eliminates central points of attack and protects the ledger from corruption and fraud because transactions can’t be retroactively altered.

It also holds the potential to revolutionise the areas of documentation, invoicing, and payment processing, erase waiting periods and reduce the cost of global transactions.

The trust protocol 

The heightened security of both data and information is one of the most valuable components of blockchain technology, and it establishes an unprecedented level of trust. The transaction itself can be fully trusted without having to trust the other party.

As a result of this trust protocol, blockchain is being cited as the next wave of disruption, especially for global companies and auditors.

Technology searching for a purpose

Now is the time for accounting and finance organisations to research and reveal the ways in which blockchain can benefit their companies. The technology holds the potential to provide a seemingly limitless number of solutions, and it’s growing fast – really fast.

As a result, it’s essential to ignore the hype and focus on the practical use if cases emerging from the research from financial institutions around the globe. These range from data management and record-keeping to compliance, and can begin to give your organisation a clearer picture of how to adjust your strategy to prepare for the very near future.

“The excitement around blockchain continues to gain momentum as firms see it as an opportunity to get their feet wet with a transformative computing architecture that they believe will change the [accounting] industry,” says Selwyn Halbertsma, director of business consulting at Synechron, in a Journal of Accountancy article.

Why finance automation matters more than ever 

Remember when the concept of ‘Modern Finance’ was first introduced? Since then, finance automation has emerged as the most effective way to modernise your processes, particularly the manual tasks that are part of the financial close.

And if you’re at all familiar with the Continuous Accounting model, you’ll know that preparing for finance of the future is a process-first approach. By making more efficient and productive use of accountants’ time and valued work, CFOs, Controllers, Internal Audit and the accountants themselves are better able to achieve the company’s strategic objectives at less cost, with the added bonus of more meaningful work.

Ventana Research states that “there are many ways of putting the [blockchain] technology to practical use that complement and enhance established patterns of doing business. Technology that conforms to how an organisation operates and provides immediate, clear benefits usually is adopted broadly and quickly”.

This means that in order to be ready for the benefits of blockchain, you must identify the gaps and areas of process improvement now and work toward operating as a modern finance organisation. For just as you can’t automate bad process, you can’t expect to integrate innovative technology like blockchain into a department that still relies heaviiy on spreadsheets and manual processes.

Shaping the future of finance

The value that blockchain technology could bring to finance reinforces that accurate financial data, greater reporting transparency, and  automation that streamlines intercompany accounting and ensures compliance will eventually be a permanent part of the financial landscape.

And because blockchain is still in the early stages of what’s possible, there’s an opportunity for accounting and finance professionals to lead this global initiative at its onset, playing an integral role in shaping the future of finance and our world.

Ann Furlong is APAC director at financial automation software provider, BlackLine.

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The initiative seeks to integrate the digital ledger system into its Internet of Things (IoT), manufacturing and digital supply-chain solutions using the SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service.

The companies that have joined the initiative come from a range of industries around the global, including consumer products, telecom, retail, pharmaceuticals, logistics, agriculture, high-tech, aerospace and defence, industrial machinery, energy and utilities, and public services.

“At Deutsche Telekom, we see a big potential for blockchain technology in the telecommunication business,” said Hartmut Mueller, SVP business solutions, Deutsche Telekom IT. “Our cooperation with SAP will speed up digitalisation to the benefit of our customers.

SAP also said it will join the European Alastria Consortium, which brings together banks, telecom providers, energy companies, universities, smart city organisations and developers, as well as the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance, which addresses the freight and transportation management sectors.

“Our customers and partners are eager to join SAP in embracing blockchain as a distributed ledger that can increase transparency and collaboration. We are equally eager to co-innovate with the world’s leading companies to remain a future where blockchain is woven into the fabric of the digital value chain,” said Dr Tanja Reuckert, president of IoT and digital supply chain, SAP.

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SAP plans to make the digital ledger system an integrated part of Internet of Things (IoT), manufacturing and digital supply chain solutions, and will work with customers and partners to validate use cases and business models for blockchain usage.

The SAP Leonardo Blockchain Co-Innovation program will explore applications including registering events to blockchain from product inception and design to manufacturing and logistics phases for product track and trace. The program also addresses parts serialisation and order validation for inventory management, as well as product providence and authenticity. The vendor is also exploring digital supply chain scenarios which would enable different suppliers to submit offers directly to blockchain to improve effectiveness across their business networks.

“In the digital economy, an iterative, fast-paced approach in close collaboration with our customers and partners is imperative,” said Dr Juergen Mueller, chief innovation officer, SAP. “With the blockchain service as part of the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system we are enabling an open collaboration around distributed business processes in peer-to-peer networks.”

SAP has also opened registrations for the SAP Leonardo Blockchain Early Access program, allow participants to get their hands on standard SAP products enhanced and augmented with blockchain functionality. Customers and partners can register until early Q1 2018, with more information available at SAP’s blockchain website.

With this program, SAP is particularly targeting industries such as automotive, aerospace and defence, discrete manufacturing and utilities.

“At Moog, we can see that distributed ledger technology will be a key enabler for more digital, connected and leaner workflows within the industrial, medical and aerospace businesses,” said George Small, chief technology officer, Moog Inc.

“We believe that shared, distributed legers are all about collaboration and openness. Our collaboration with SAP will accelerate the development of distributed ledger tools and infrastructure needed to realize our vision of the future.”

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