SAP to Adopt Blockchain Tech for Its Supply Chain

The German SAP software maker is expanding its portfolio. The company seeks to adopt blockchain technology for its logistics system.

The Farm to Consumer initiative will adopt blockchain technology

The announcement was made today, 14th May 2018 by SAP‘s project lead, Torsten Zube. In his statement, he revealed that SAP is seeking to introduce blockchain-based technology into agricultural supply chains as a result of the Farm to Consumer initiative. Among SAP partners we find Johnsonville, Naturipe Farms, and Maple Leaf.

“The Farm to Consumer project perfectly showcases a common pattern we see in many of our blockchain projects,” Zube stated in a blog post. “Cross-company collaboration along complex value chains for which the technology can remove abundant process steps and friction, and establish automated trust.”

SAP will introduce blockchain tech into its Global Track and Trace technology

In the near future, SAP will introduce blockchain tech into its Global Track and Trace technology to be used as “an additional layer complementary to the core processes that creates a Global View and Trace Technology shared view of data from all involved stakeholders contributing to the supply chain.”

According to SAP, the advanced technology will allow buyers to check the origins of the purchased products, request new orders, and make transactions. In order to ensure a coherent deployment of supply chain activities, SAP announced its partnership with the Swiss modum.io company. According to the company, new details will be provided in June.

“If enterprises can access the complete version of product history …this could result in a shift from a central unilateral supplier-led production to a consumer demand-led supply organized by a consortium of peers,” explained Zug.

The SAP’s blockchain lead ensures that blockchain technology will renew the current logistics system of the food industry. He added that “Networking along the traditional lines of value chains will be replaced by sharing data governance, resources, processes and practices and lead to joint learning opportunities.”

SAP has also been involved in projects based on blockchain tech. Previously, the company has released a “blockchain co-innovation initiative” with the goal of exploring the business systems that run on peer-to-peer networks. SAP is also part of the Alastria consortium and the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA) team.