Biggest logistics provider trialing blockchain for supply chain
UNLOCK met with Ahmed Adly Senior Director, Cloud Computing Leader at Oracle, UAE during Gitex Week to discuss their latest Blockchain projects in the MENA region. According to Adly Blockchain cloud services has met with very high interest given not only the ease of using it but also the fact that the UAE government is supporting blockchain and has carried out research stating that Blockchain will save more than 50 billion AED from the automation of paperwork alone. Adly states, “the stance taken on by the UAE government has reflected positively on the private sector.
Oracle MENA has already commenced work on POC (Proof of Concepts) across the UAE and the GCC area. One of them is with a government department in the UAE that is working on an employment History Blockchain POC that will check the validity of what applicants have put on their CV. Adly explains; “the governmental entity will connect with businesses across the UAE and abroad to ensure that applicants have actually worked where they say they have. Since this is a huge endeavor this government entity will make this service available to all government entities and not just itself.”
Another use case under study in the UAE deals with putting bank guarantees on the blockchain when companies are tendering for projects with the government. Adly states, “Governments and private sector don’t want to build everything from scratch so they are working with Blockchain as service providers. This ensures zero upfront cost, no hardware costs and no need to hire blockchain expertise. Oracle is providing hybrid cloud, public cloud or cloud on premise.”
Oracle was also part of the Blockchain implementation for Jordan Investment Bank. “The Jordan Investment Bank used blockchain for transfers and payments with 10 of the banks , reducing the time for transfers from 3 days to just 2 minute.” added Adly.
But according to Adly one of the biggest Blockchain projects is under testing with the largest logistics company in the UAE. As he mentions, “this large logistics company which we cannot name at the moment is piloting a blockchain case study where it is tracing the shipments in containers from any shipping port in the world until it reaches the customer. They are using IOT and Blockchain with sensors placed on the containers being shipped. The company is now trialing from one of the ports in UAE and will then look into market uptake for this. “Sensors in the future can be used to capture all types of information and including temperatures and the price of these sensors has gone down tremendously reaching 0.01 dollars.
But Blockchain uptake is not only happening within the UAE, KSA is moving forward with studies, POCs and trials of its own. One of the most recent is with a governmental health authority which is evaluating the implementation of Blockchain. Adly states, “They are evaluating a use case for Blockchain and are targeted to launch it in 2019. There are many other similar evaluations taking place in KSA.”
In Conclusion Oracle is working with governments and private sector around the region on their digitization efforts aimed to improve internal operations as well as customer facing services. Adly, “we carry out co-innovation workshops to develop solutions that will enhances services, create efficiencies and introduce new business models. We believe that the top three technologies that will be used with be AI machine learning, IOT and Blockchain.”
