Software Giant Oracle Rolls Out Blockchain Supply Chain Apps Using Hyperledger
One of the world’s biggest software companies, Oracle has released four new blockchain supply chain apps based on Hyperledger Fabric technology, designed to reduce the barriers for businesses to adopt blockchain technology.
Integrating nascent technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) with blockchain, Oracle aims to provide increased transparency and improved traceability to supply chain management systems.
The new business-ready product entitled ‘Oracle Blockchain Applications Cloud’ provides a suite of applications (apps) that intend to make it easy for businesses to integrate blockchain supply chain systems. Oracle’s Senior Vice President, Supply Chain & Manufacturing Cloud Applications, Rick Jewell stated that the apps are:
“out-of-the-box ready with pre-built integrations and business network templates” adding “customers can get immediate value from blockchain technologies by transforming existing business processes,”
According to a press release published on Tuesday by Oracle, the four apps entitled ‘Intelligent Track and Trace’, ‘Lot Lineage and Provenance’, ‘Intelligent Cold Chain’, and ‘Warranty and Usage Tracking’ aim to streamline transactions throughout the value chain, creating more agile business networks.
Based on its Oracle Blockchain Cloud Service, as part of its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, the blockchain apps are designed to interconnect with other Oracle Cloud apps, including its Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) Cloud.
As a company renowned for its database expertise, Oracle hope to differentiate their blockchain offerings from their competitors, Atul Mahamuni, VP of IoT and Blockchain at Oracle, explained that by gathering insights from IoT systems and ERP data, it can:
“put them into the blockchain and then do the correlations and artificial intelligence machine learning algorithms on top of those transactions,”
The Oracle apps further aim to improve the end-customer’s experience, allowing users to authenticate products with its ‘Lot Lineage and Provenance‘ app, and by providing verifiable logs with its ‘Warranty and Usage Tracking‘ app Oracle states it can “expedite settlements and claim processing and prevents abuse of assets.”
First announcing its collaboration with the Linux Foundations Hyperledger Project in October 2017, by May 2018 it was already working with the Nigerian government to develop a customs and import duties blockchain system, with Oracle’s President of Software Development, Thomas Kurian confirming that “Oracle will introduce an enterprise level ‘platform-as-a-service’ product”.
Announced at its Oracle Openworld Conference this week, it confirmed that its blockchain supply chain apps are already in use by a number of its enterprise clients, including Arab Jordan Investment Bank, Indian Oil, Neurosoft, and TradeFin. After integrating ‘Oracle’s Intelligent Track and Trace‘ app for its shipment documentation, CargoSmart’s chief commercial officer, Lionel Louie stated:
“we expect a 65% reduction in the amount of time required to collect, consolidate, and confirm data from multiple parties,”
With total revenues of $39.8 billion in 2018, according to the Global 2000 2018 Forbes list, Oracle is the second largest software development company in the world, topped only by Microsoft.
With a plethora of global blockchain projects based on its Azure Cloud, Microsoft has been charging ahead partnering with giants like AT&T, Digital China and EY, alongside startups such as Unchain.io, with which it is creating an enterprise blockchain platform for the Netherlands infrastructure.
Oracle are not the first corporate giant to utilise blockchain technology for supply chain solutions, both Alibaba and IBM have made massive footprints in the blockchain race. As per a BCTech Report just last month, the world’s largest retailer Walmart mandated its suppliers to use the IBM Blockchain Food Trust platform.
