Was TradeLens the last hope for Enterprise Blockchain?
Last week IBM and A.P. Moller - Maersk announced that they will be sunsetting their enterprise blockchain project TradeLens, a platform created to help digitise global supply chains. The ambitious joint venture looked to use private permission ledgers to enable secure paperless data and document sharing between a complex ecosystem of supply chain participants. It was a concept that started back in 2018 with a fair wind, owing to the impressive resources of two industry and technology powerhouses. However, despite attracting the participation from over 100 organisations, including many leading global trade institutions, shipping companies, port authorities and customs authorities, it was not seen as capable of “reaching the level of commercial viability necessary to continue work and meet the financial expectations as an independent business” (Roterm Hershko, Head of Business Platforms at A.P. Moller – Maersk)
The question now is, what can we learn from this turn of events? Is it a “Blockchain” problem? Or are there better approaches?
We at Virifides, for instance, think that the first task should not be to “build and they will come” (sorry Kevin Costner), but to really understand the problem at the level of business, rather than industry, and to focus on delivering real value quickly there first before applying more widely. The inside-out approach, if you will. TradeLens admirably tried to tackle it in reverse but were met with complex and deeply embedded issues which, frankly, supply chains had been tolerating for decades. Not even the challenges of Covid and global supply disruptions, which brought the need for new solutions sharply into focus, was enough to make the platform indispensable.
Some will lay the blame at Blockchain’s door. They’ll say it’s too difficult a technology to communicate effectively, too high a bill to set up the ‘global’ infrastructure, too much reliance on consensus across multiple organisations...the list could go on. Yet multiple other enterprise Blockchain initiatives continue to make progress, and Governments, regulatory bodies, and industry bodies are still supporting Blockchain as a means of addressing challenges in areas such as Traceability, Provenance, Security, and Identity.
Supply chain collaboration, real product transparency, lower costs, greater process simplification and automation, were all part of TradeLens’ ‘mission’ but they needed to be grounded in the needs of individual businesses, trading partners, producers and sellers. Instead, start small. Use new technology that opens opportunities for greater trust, verification, accuracy, and insight (such as Blockchain, or quantum ledgers) to provide new digital capabilities and reduce costs.
This means building on the human and machine capabilities that ecosystems have today and developing digital journeys that deliver shared value for businesses and their trading partners. Doing this creates new starting points, simpler ways of working, greater trusted process automation and solutions that are scalable, flexible and ultimately of value to other trading ecosystems.
Unfortunately, the TradeLens ship is heading into the sunset, perhaps taking hopes of a single global data infrastructure with it. However, the industry is richer for the experience. The initiative launched a bold and exciting debate, the ripples from which will continue and in the end, help deliver new digital solutions that transform the way global trade is conducted and operated.