EdgeVerve, an Infosys Product subsidiary, this week announced a new blockchain-powered application for supply chain management as part of its product line. Nia Provenance is designed to address the challenges faced by organizations managing complex supply chain networks with multiple IT stacks engaged across multiple stakeholders. Here I take a quick look at the new application and its potential impact.

Supply chain traceability, transparency & trust

Nia Provenance is designed to provide traceability of products from source of origin to point of purchase with full transparency at every point along the supply chain. The product establishes trust through the utilization of a version of Bitcore, the blockchain architecture used by Bitcoin. While this can be a relatively simple task in agribusiness and other supply environments in which a product involves only processing as it moves through the supply chain, environments such as consumer electronics or medical devices are much more complex, involving integration and assembly of multiple components along the way. The ability to isolate a specific component and trace it to its source of origin, through phases of value addition timestamped on a blockchain ledger, is invaluable in case of recall or consumer danger.

Transparency in Nia Provenance is provided through proof of process as the product or commodity moves through the system – so attributes that must be agreed on at specific phases of the supply chain, such as conflict-free or locally-sourced, can be seen in the system as they are accumulated. Similarly, regulatory inspections and certifications are more easily tracked and audited through a blockchain solution like Nia Provenance.

Finally, trust is gained in a system with a combination of data immutability, equality in network participation as a result of decentralization of the overall SCM ledger, and cryptographic information security. Over time, the benefits of a blockchain SCM environment accrue both to the organizational bottom line, in the form of cost savings, and to the organization’s brand as a function of increased consumer trust in the brand promise.

Agribusiness client case

As one example of how Nia Provenance is being leveraged in the real world, a global agribusiness firm undertook a proof of concept for its coffee sourcing division in Indonesia to track the journey of coffee from the growing site, through the roasting plant, the blend manufacturer, the quality control operation, the logistics providers, and on to the importer. This enabled the trader to provide trusted accreditation and certification information to the importer for properties such as organic or fair trade status, or that the coffee was grown using sustainable agriculture standards.

Providing strategic blockchain reach

Nia Provenance provides Infosys with three important sources of strategic blockchain ‘reach’ in an increasingly competitive market, because:

• It is platform-agnostic and purpose-built to dock with multiple blockchain architectures. A supply chain solution that relies too heavily on the specific capabilities of one common blockchain architecture or another – for example, Ethereum or HyperLedger – would encounter difficulty working with other upstream or downstream architectures. By keeping the DLT technology in an abstraction layer, Nia Provenance eases the process of incorporating different blockchain architectures in a complex SCM task environment
• It is designed to benefit multiple supply chain stakeholders, not just the client. Blockchain adoption becomes more appealing to upstream and downstream stakeholders, as well as horizontal entities like banks, insurers and regulators, when the ecosystem is built with clear benefits for them as well as the organizing entity. Nia Provenance is designed from the ground up with a mindset inclusive of suppliers, inspectors, insurers, shippers, traders, manufacturers, banks, distributors, and end customers
• It is designed to span multiple industries. Although the platform has its origins in agribusiness, Nia Provenance looks to be up to the task of SCM applications in manufacturing, consumer goods/FMCG, food and beverage, and specialized applications such as cold-chain pharmaceuticals.

Summary

Supply chain provenance is a core application for blockchain, and one that we expect to be a clear value delivery vehicle for blockchain technology through 2025. The combination of – as Infosys puts it – traceability, transparency, and trust that blockchain provides is a compelling proposition. Nia Provenance offers a solution across a broad variety of industry applications for organizations seeking lower cost and greater security in their supply chain operations.