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GS1, IBM and Microsoft Announce Collaboration to Leverage GS1 Standards in Enterprise Blockchain ApplicationsBRUSSELS, Sept. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- GS1®, the global business communications standards organisation, today announced a collaboration with IBM and Microsoft to leverage GS1 Standards in their enterprise blockchain applications for supply chain clients. GS1's global standards for identification and structured data enable blockchain network users to scale enterprise adoption and maintain a single, shared version of the truth about supply chain and logistics events—increasing data integrity and trust between parties, and reducing data duplication and reconciliation. Data stored or referenced by blockchain networks can be structured for shared communications and interoperability through the use of standards. For example, the GS1 and ISO open standards of Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) and Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) enable standardised exchange of data and item-level tracking. "What attracts many organisations to blockchain technology is the possibility of sharing data across corporate boundaries while maintaining a high degree of rigor and accuracy," said Robert Beideman, Vice President – Retail, GS1. "We hope to make this possibility a reality for businesses by working with dedicated technology and industry partners—and together promoting a common business language." Standards in the Supply Chain GS1 Standards offer global businesses like Walmart the ability to expand blockchain networks to suppliers, distributors and other ecosystem partners, unlocking the business value of data sharing, transparency, visibility and trust. IBM and Walmart have successfully used blockchain technology in a pilot test to enhance the traceability of two food commodities in two different countries: mangoes in the U.S. and pork in China. "Our pilot projects in the U.S. and China demonstrated that blockchain can strengthen existing food system safeguards by improving traceability. Using blockchain, we were able to track a product from retail shelf back through every stage of the supply chain, right to the farm gate, in seconds instead of days or weeks," said Frank Yiannas, Vice President of Food Safety, Walmart. "Building blockchain traceability solutions on a common set of standards can help us scale across our complex, global supply chain and build networks based on transparency and trust." "One of the key benefits to blockchain in the enterprise is the trust it delivers, which enables more efficient and complete sharing of the critical data that drives enterprise transactions. By removing the barriers that can be caused from disparate entry systems, that trust is solidified even further, said Brigid McDermott, vice president, blockchain business development, IBM. "That's why we are working with clients like Walmart and collaborating with other industry leaders to implement GS1 open standrds into the work that we do." "The challenge with trade finance and supply chain today is that participants are forced to use disparate digital systems bridged by paper-based processes, with little or no common standards. These digital 'islands' work well when everyone is on the same network, but as soon as there is a lack of connectivity with certain participants using different solutions, things quickly revert to paper and manual processing," said David E. Rutter, CEO of R3. "We see distributed ledgers as the means to provide that connectivity between participants across business networks." "Leveraging existing GS1 Standards to structure event information will enable blockchain-based supply chain implementations to be more interoperable and will simplify the capture and description of events that are written against smart contracts," said Yorke Rhodes III, Global Business Strategist, Blockchain, Microsoft. "Collaborating with partners to implement solutions on blockchain using standards already in place for item-level tracking is the quickest path to production." For more information about GS1 and GS1 Standards, please visit www.gs1.org. About GS1 About IBM About Walmart About Microsoft About R3 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gs1-ibm-and-microsoft-announce-collaboration-to-leverage-gs1-standards-in-enterprise-blockchain-applications-300518489.html SOURCE GS1 |