April 2017

Industry Stories

Blockchain: What's In It For Your Industry?

Blockchain is set to disrupt almost every industry, and the possibilities it offers are not about to diminish anytime soon. A report titled 'Blockchain Distributed Ledger Market by Type and End User: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023,' noted that the Global Blockchain Distributed Ledger Market accounted for $228 million in 2016, and this figure is expected to more than double to $5,430 million by 2023. This is an impressive compound annual growth rate of 57.6% from 2017 to 2023.

In this blog post, we illuminate on the potential this trust-based technology offers various stakeholders in different industries.

Manufacturing

With the tightening of border controls owing to political conflicts, terrorism, and displaced populations, international trade, especially with relation to the manufacturing industry, is beginning to feel the pressure. A shipment of roses from Kenya to Netherlands now results in a pile of paperwork 10 inches thick. Imagine the complexity involved if a manufacturer is shipping defense, aircraft or industrial equipment instead, says Nitesh Bansal, Senior Vice President and Head of Manufacturing Practice - Americas and Europe, Infosys. "Blockchain can better manage the documentation that accompanies the many equipment parts, simplify the movement of equipment and its maintenance and repair," he says.

The documentation of equipment often spans geographies and is multi-lingual. Watch this Vblog to get Nitesh Bansal's perspective on how blockchain simplifies the process with its immutable ledger, data security, and need-based access of information.

Cards and Payments

"Payments will have many new form factors, such as wearables, mobile devices, (and) new methods for authentication," says Randy Vanderhoof, Executive Director of the Secure Technology Alliance, a solutions provider for critical security challenges. As these form factors increase and become more complex, blockchain will be the technology that ensures transparency and traceability of payments.

"Many other solutions such as e-sign, documentation and identity can be layered on top of blockchain," says Narayan Sivaram, Vice President and Global Head, Cards and Payments, Infosys.

Listen to Narayan Sivaram as he explains why financial institutions need to invest in innovation or join consortiums as part of their collaborative journey to make blockchain a robust technology for consumers and merchants.

Communication, Media and Entertainment

The media, communication and entertainment industry is being increasingly powered by the internet. A growing amount of data is being downloaded and streamed, and blockchain is set to power digital rights management to better guide this data consumption. Blockchain can simplify processes through smart contracts, digital records of transactions, and multi-party records.

Watch this video and listen to Avi Kulshrestha, Industry Head - Communications, Media, Entertainment Europe and OEM Global, explain the uses of blockchain in the telecom industry in clearance for roaming, billing, over-the-air activation of services and transactions.

Watch this video to get an interesting perspective from Anurag Vardhan Sinha, Senior Vice President and Industry Head Americas - Communications Service Providers, and Media & Entertainment, Infosys on the role blockchain can play in software defined networks, by delivering bandwidth on demand, with flexibility and security. As billions of devices are slated to be on the network in the next few years, blockchain can have wide applicability in IoT service management as well.