Manufacturers worldwide have had to deal with a logistical crisis that has hampered and disrupted the supply of essential raw materials. These products include medicines, computer chips, exercise equipment and cereals for our daily breakfast.

The shortage of everyday and not-so-everyday products is largely due to the outbreak of the pandemic, which has disrupted almost every aspect of the supply chain. The lack of goods has also led to a rise in prices.

The Bank of Spain estimates that the impact of this problem on economic growth will be up to nine tenths, in the case of Spain, in 2022. Given this scenario, it is essential for companies to be more aware of everything that is going on in the process so that they can detect points for improvement and address gaps in business loss. How can they do this? The answer is simple, with technology.

The key to predicting an aforementioned situation for companies is to opt for a model in which information can be predictable: that is, predicting events that may affect the operation of the entities.

The failures reported in supply chains in 2021 and the shortage of essential products have called into question many of the work formulas and processes involved in the supply chain. The Covid pandemic has put on the table the need for a technology that will enable it to deal with situations involving a large part of the business conglomerate around the world. And that is exactly what Blockchain technology can do in this area.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain technology is a shared and unchangeable information book that, above all, facilitates the registration of transactions in a business network. Anything valuable, whether tangible or intangible, can be tracked on a Blockchain network. Cryptography does not allow data that is recorded or shared between members of a network to be altered or deleted without proof of it. Thus, this technology becomes essential to track orders, payments, accounts, and production details, among other things.

Because users share a single source of truth, everyone can see and access every detail of a transaction from start to finish, creating greater confidence and efficiency in the process.

Telefónica Tech, Telefónica's digital business unit, has a standard and configurable supply chain management platform based on Blockchain technology, which allows companies to increase their control over the various processes involved. This way, chain participants can have a complete product life cycle history and share it in real time. This helps them to make decisions together and increase the efficiency and traceability of their assets.

Telefónica Tech's supply chain platform, developed in collaboration with IBM, also includes the opportunity to build business measures on efficiency, sustainability and social responsibility.

How does it work?

Telefónica Tech's Blockchain-based platform deploys in a cloud environment and operates in a variety of supply chain processes, from product manufacturing and transformation, to logistics distribution or management distribution and integration, to inventory planning in own and third-party warehouses, and many other features and monitoring options. between.

In addition to the immutability, privacy, and decentralization capabilities of blockchain technology, there are other benefits for companies that adopt this platform. On the one hand, this service allows organizations to reduce the costs of not having to develop their own platforms, as well as reducing time to market by providing the platform as a standard, flexible and scalable production ecosystem, and a short-term return on investment.