Blockchain Fails to Gain Traction in the Enterprise

More on Enterprise Blockchain, Maersk

Blockchain Fails to Gain Traction in the Enterprise

The Wall Street Journal

Isabelle Bousquette, December 15, 2022

Blockchain technology's widespread enterprise adoption has failed to materialize, with a project by Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk and IBM's TradeLens to create a shipment-tracking platform the latest to be discontinued. Blockchain's complexity, the time needed to get a blockchain running, and problems recruiting participants have stymied major initiatives. IBM's Kathryn Guarini said blockchain demands changes to technology and business models that are difficult to drive forward, adding that enterprise blockchain has taken longer to bring change to business than originally predicted. Some experts maintain smaller projects involving fewer participants, with definite returns on investment and no sector-wide transformative ambitions, could reap greater success.

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IBM, Maersk Pull the Plug on Blockchain-based TradeLens Shipping Platform

Had followed this for some time, I thought it was a good example, used it in talks The 'why' seems weak.  Unless the fundamentals were just not there. 

IBM, Maersk pull the plug on blockchain-based TradeLens shipping platform  By Kyt Dotson in SiliconAngle

Computing giant IBM Corp. and Danish shipping company A.P. Moller – Maersk are discontinuing their blockchain-enabled shipping platform, TradeLens, which was jointly developed by the two companies for tracking shipments and managing supply chains in the container industry.

Maersk announced late Tuesday that the platform had failed to meet its commercial goals necessary to sustain itself, and thus the two companies are now pulling the plug on the platform. It’s expected to go offline by the end of the first quarter of 2023.

“TradeLens was founded on the bold vision to make a leap in global supply chain digitization as an open and neutral industry platform,” said Rotem Hershko, head of business platforms at Maersk. “Unfortunately, while we successfully developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved.”

TradeLens was launched in 2018 as a collaborative project between the two companies using IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology. It’s used to connect shippers, shipping lines, freight forwarders, port and terminal operators, transportation and customs authorities in order to reduce costs by tracking shipping data and documents.

The objective was to revolutionize the way that documents were transferred between different entities in the supply chain in order to smooth out operations and thus streamline efficiency.   Speaking to SiliconANGLE today, Neeraj Srivastava, co-founder and chief technology officer of DLT Labs, a blockchain firm that develops solutions for fintech and supply chains, argued that TradeLens failed because it spent too much time on hyping itself and too little time on innovation.

“TradeLens’ failure was not that the blockchain wasn’t worthwhile,” said Srivastava. “It’s that it spent too much effort on marketing the platform and hyping up its benefits and not enough time developing the technology to deliver on what the company promised. Too much hype is not good.”

Maersk said it intends to continue efforts to digitize supply chains even after shutting down TradeLens in order to optimize shipping and trade speeds.

Blockchain technology has been tested widely to track and protect supply chains, examples include IBM’s Food Trust Network for food safety, GrainChain for grains and Tradewind Markets Origins for minerals. ... ' 

IBM, Maersk link with TradeLens And Thai Commerce

A continuation of IBM's work with Maersk.  The basic idea here is to provide reliable information about supply chain activity in real time.  Another example of how companies are experimenting successful with the emergent technology .

IBM-Maersk Logistics Blockchain to Be Used by Thai Customs Agency   By Daniel Kuhn in CoinDesk

Thailand is integrating IBM and Maersk’s blockchain project to streamline its shipment tracking procedures, according to a local news source.

The Bangkok Post reported Thursday that the Customs Department of Thailand will adopt TradeLens, the logistics platform jointly supported by IBM and Maersk as part of the country’s Thailand 4.0 policy. Thailand will be the second member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to use the platform, following Singapore.

More than 90 different companies have joined TradeLens since its launch.

According to the Post, customs officials in Thailand will receive notifications when shipping containers leave their ports of origin, allowing them to better prepare for arrival.  ... "

More on IBM, Maersk Supplychain and Blockchain

I see that a number of companies that have to take supply chain management very seriously are involved.    So they believe in the use of this technology.  Includes my former company, Procter & Gamble, where we were involved in using very deep analysis of the supply chain via analytics of many kinds.  It also very good that the problem addressed is supply chain operational management.  Note also the integration of Smart Contracts. Worth a deep look,  following.

IBM and Maersk launch TradeLens blockchain shipping platform to lower costs and ship faster By Kyt Dotson in Siliconangle.

IBM Corp. and A.P. Moller-Maersk Group are establishing a new jointly owned company to promote and sell a blockchain-based system for managing global shipping.

The yet unnamed company will use a platform developed by the two companies as part of trial announced in March last year that involved digitizing Maersk’s shipping manifests and operations. The initial offering will include two blockchain-based options: a shipping information pipeline that provides a real-time, transparent view of merchandise movement and smart contracts that replace traditional paper-based processes.

“The objective of the platform is to connect and provide benefits to the supply chain ecosystem,” IBM said in a statement. “A global network of interconnected shipping corridors linking the ports and terminals, customs authorities, shipping lines, third-party logistics (3PLs), inland transportation, shippers and other actors, all together.”

Multiple parties are said to have already piloted the platform, including DuPont, Dow Chemical, Tetra Pak, Port Houston, Rotterdam Port Community System Portbase, the Customs Administration of the Netherlands, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A number of others are said to have expressed interest in trying out or working with the platform, including Singapore Customs, Peruvian Customs, General Motors Co. and Procter & Gamble Co.   ... "