We’ll see discrete Blockchain solutions where trust is required between parties, such as joint ventures, etc., making headway in the coming 12 to 18 months. A few notable initiatives are already underway. However, despite the hype, we won’t see next gen Blockchain ops systems blowing away the market just yet.
There’s great potential for Blockchain in shipping, but time is needed to develop broader industry standards to avoid eroding the value and creating further exception management and data mapping.
We’re seeing opportunities for standardization in the rates and pricing space daily. The air freight industry is more advanced in this. Our parent company Accelya is working with the International Air Transport Association on several initiatives and action groups, like the CargoXML task force and IATA One Record project focused on digitization in air freight. These types of initiatives make success with Blockchain likely to come from the air cargo sector first.
I think where we’ll see more significant advances in the shorter term will be UX and digital apps for shipping and logistics. They can be developed quickly and will meet the UX expectations of today’s workforce. There is a continuing trend for sophisticated niche solutions designed to perform more complex processes with exceptional ease of use.
Broad systems performing many functions adequately will be replaced by multiple niche solutions performing fewer functions exceptionally. These multiple niche solutions will need to be connected to legacy systems that are difficult to integrate with and provide a seamless single interface to create efficiency and a uniform experience.
More digitization also means more data, more events, and more corrective action to be taken. Operational management will need to shift to be more insight driven, and that corrective action will need to be supported by orchestration capability. This will eventually evolve into predictive insights and prescriptive corrective actions being fully automated, true digitization.