In this article, I look at Mphasis’ Blockchain initiatives and at the segments they are focusing on for further development with their financial services clients. Mphasis began its Blockchain initiatives in 2016, initiating internal experiments and POCs to understand the technology and how it can be applied to business challenges.

Mphasis is working with a global financial services company on POCs and an approach to bringing a customer identity solution to the financial services market, in order to address consumer data challenges in a global environment. The customer and Mphasis are working to address multiple issues including:

• Solution construct, design approach, and related technology considerations to select the right Blockchain technology from different options such as BigchainDB, HyperLedger, Ethereum, Multichain, network transaction currency and conversion to fiat, engagement layer and access point technologies
• Industry ecosystem participation considerations – incentives, privacy protections, regulatory compliance considerations, trust and risk, and access point technologies to join the network
• POC prototype and demo – for an initial MVP.

The POC took 7 weeks to demonstrate that the technology works and compliance is achievable. The solution was set up as a multi-node environment that enables the industry participants to transact, by enabling functions such as set-up and administration, search, crypto-payments, transaction administration, analytics, regulatory oversight and access.

Since then, Mphasis has built an ecosystem of Blockchain tools and best practices, and conducted multiple POCs. Clients are narrowing the range of use cases they wish to pursue further and are driving some of those into production.

Mphasis’ Blockchain services & use cases

Mphasis has a core group of 10+ engineers working on Blockchain initiatives who are based in Bangalore. Key attributes of Mphasis’ Blockchain ecosystem include:

• POCs completed to date: 12, of which 50% were client requested and 50% internally undertaken
• Clients engaging on Blockchain: 7 across banking, insurance, and airlines
• COE founded: 2016
• Platforms employed: Ethereum, Hyperledger, Multichain, and Bigchain.

Mphasis focuses on the Etherium and Hyperledger platforms in its Blockchain work, and expects to add a capability in Quorum soon. Key POCs to date include:

• Trade finance for banks: enabling a decentralized network between importer, exporter, port authorities, and banks. Key issues addressed include document verification, fraudulent activity incidence, and document losses
• Mortgage document management: the goal is to store documents on the DLT as a customer goes through the loan application process. This will allow vendors (e.g. insurance companies) to access the documents and speed up TAT, which will reduce cost of origination and improve customer experience
• Record keeping: enabling a single version of the truth, with additional components including IOT and smart contracts
• Patient health records: enabling confidential sharing of patient records and with intended participants
• Baggage-as-a-service: distributed, decentralized system for tracking bags during travel by passenger using mobile device
• Group insurance claims: stakeholders including hospitals, insureds, insurer, and third-parties transact and exchange documents to enable fast settlement of claims
• Contract management: digital signing of documents on a Blockchain network to ensure transparency
• KYC registry: enabling a KYC market utility using Blockchain.

Going forward, Mphasis will focus on:

• Consulting for clients considering Blockchain initiatives
• Delivering Blockchain implementations (POC or operational) with integrated application suites to reduce time to market and increase platform efficiency
• Delivering operational support for Blockchain environments based on its solution experience.
• Continuing to create use cases around KYC registry, mortgage document management, trade finance, baggage-as-a-service, and group insurance claims.

Conclusions

To date, most Blockchain services vendors have been focused on enabling small groups of direct stakeholders to use Blockchain to eliminate the need for third-party support. Mphasis has focused instead on enabling stakeholders to bring in third-parties as customers, and use Blockchain as a highly secure, reliable self-service tool. This should allow data holders, the sponsors of these initiatives, to monetize their investments in customer data and documents. This will allow Mphasis eventually to transition its Blockchain services towards operations support and cybersecurity. By supporting its clients’ efforts to drive revenue growth, Mphasis is able to support compelling use cases for employing this technology.