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Jan 03 2019 — Interest in blockchain technologies has increased in the last year. As technology acquires general interest, we are ready to see another year when more innovators can launch services that seek to revolutionize information sharing on the supply chain at a time when consumer control is on the rise. One of these platforms is SUKU, a blockchain-based ecosystem, with the goal of making supply chains more efficient, transparent and collaborative by offering a supply chain platform as a service to businesses.
The company is aimed primarily at small and medium-sized enterprises with an open and decentralized on-demand software distribution model, consisting of applications and services that are used by participants in the supply chain. After laying the foundations, Citizens Reserve, the company behind this new platform, is now looking to improve its capabilities with technology partners in an ever-changing ecosystem.
FoodIngredientsFirst he spoke with Eric Piscini, CEO of Citizens Reserve, who has extensive knowledge of blockchain skills thanks to his previous work related to Deloitte.
SUKU structure
The SUKU platform includes several levels, including an infrastructure layer, which adapts to all servers or data sets from the technological point of view, as well as a blockchain layer that is a mix of audience and Ethereum Quorum.
"The Ethereum audience provides a public facility and Quorum provides the authorized blockchain that gives us better performance, functionality, better privacy and security, and we have combined or bridged these two to create our unique solution," explains Piscini.
Click to enlargeThe SUKU layer is the main platform and the basis for any component of a supply chain. In particular, SUKU is developing a track and trace module that will enable it to follow different components within the supply chain and various activities in it, as well as integration levels to be able to connect the core with many market solutions. existing. An additional layer includes a set of applications and services, similar to an app store concept, but with a focus on the supply chain. This level includes supply chain management and warehouse management capabilities, which the company is developing in collaboration with several partners.
Customers today want to be able to make informed choices when they buy a product or program. The reasons for this are environmental awareness and security, as well as the need for a transparent supply chain. This also applies to the B2B space, according to Piscini.
Increasing globalization and pressures to reduce costs and improve efficiency have increased the complexity of the food supply chain and raised concerns about black swan events – high impact but low probability events, noted a recent FoodIngredientsFirst article. These conditions increase the vulnerability of food businesses to adulteration of products through both fraud (for economic gain, such as the horsemeat scandal) and the threat (for psychological or ideological reasons).
Among the recent US food safety of E. Coli scares lettuce, in September 2018 Walmart announced that it praised the benefits of lettuce and spinach monitoring through the supply chain through the use of blockchains. Walmart and Sam & # 39; s Club are urging their suppliers of lettuce and spinach to contribute to a blockchain database that can identify contamination quickly and efficiently.
Their suppliers received a letter requesting that they trace their products back to the farm using blockchain technology. Walmart says that vendors should have all these systems in place by September 2019. All green leafy vegetable suppliers should be able to track their products on farms (depending on the production lot) within seconds. Suppliers will be required to acquire digital, end-to-end tracking information using the IBM Food Trust network. Meanwhile, in November 2018, it emerged that the French retail giant, Auchan, had implemented the TE-FOOD blockchain-based food traceability solution in France, with further international roll out planned in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Senegal.
Beyond the problems of food safety, the current SUKU project aims at blockchain capabilities in guaranteeing traceability also for environmental concerns.
"We are planning to work on soy, for example, many Chinese buyers are interested in buying sustainable soybeans and making sure they do not come from deforested areas.There is a major challenge in the soy industry because they are eliminating the 39; Amazzonia to grow soy, "says Piscini.
The benefits of Blockchain
Blockchain has become a bit of a recent order. However, Piscini emphasizes that people may not know how or who are using the blockchain.
"From a business perspective, we are moving away from large centralized platforms where a key player controls the entire platform and we are moving towards a more decentralized way of managing those platforms," he says.
"It's a tendency to decentralize the business model, and this for me is a long-term trend," notes Piscini, adding that evolving players like SUKU can help the decentralization process.
Click to enlargeThe platform offers a triple advantage: transparency, efficiency and supply chain integration.
"We are able to provide better transparency and provenance to the participants, so that they can know where food, vaccines, electronics and even electronics are coming from." That's the number one, "he says. Pools.
"Number two is better efficiency and especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because they get access to supply chain solutions that they do not currently have access to, because it's too expensive or because it's too complicated to use some Supply chain solutions today. "On the other hand, with internal management, it will be leaner than what you can find now."
The third advantage of the SUKU platform is that it offers integration between different solutions. The world of the supply chain has many different types of supply chains. The US companies, says Piscini, to date, have as many supply chains as their suppliers. But in the SUKU platform, you can combine different applications and services and roll out the entire supply chain business on demand.
To "merge the whole ecosystem", SUKU has created a "token" of utility that can be used in several ways within the blockchain platform. One can pay transaction fees, decide to access premium services and use the token similar to a credit card to meet their needs.
The platform is starting within the first quarter of the new year and is now about to choose its collaborators, both in the development of the technological aspects and in the construction of the blockchain ecosystem.
"We are currently connecting two types of companies: technology partners are one, these are companies that are creating solutions from their platforms, which is a thread," says Piscini.
"The other thread is identifying the right players to join the platform.We have activities around four different sectors: vaccine, electronics, soy and oil and gas.For these four sectors, we are working with several business partners to manage the their supply chain ", he adds.
When someone joins the platform, it becomes a blockchain node and is given a "challenge" to define what their role is in the ecosystem and how they can be integrated.
"It depends on who you are in the chain: a manufacturer, a supplier or a contributor.When you join the platform, you become a node on the platform, a blockchain node.We can offer and manage a node for anyone who wants to participate in 10-15 minutes ", he explains.
Blockchain competitors
With the increase of interest in such technologies, the number of blockchain technology providers is increasing. However, not all players offer the same services, with some companies doing, joining and integrating the system a long and expensive commitment, not cut for small and medium businesses. This is one of the aspects that differentiate SUKU, according to Piscini, targeting SMEs and accelerating the integration process.
"Our approach is that we know we can not build everything in the supply chain, we need to build the base and build it over time, we need to open the platform to whoever wants to participate – this is a very new approach," he comments.
In his view, the key to the growth of the use of technology lies in decentralized platforms: "We have people from different sectors who come to us almost every day, saying they want to do it for their industry, from tires to management of the oats fields "Dice Piscini.
"Forward to us is a real life platform and it is an exciting path to translate the platform into many different sectors", he concludes.
By Lucy Gunn and Kristiana Lalou
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