The global digital supply chain market is projected to grow from $3.92bn in 2020 to $13.68bn by 2030, with digitalisation seen as key to ensuring the necessary agility and robustness across operations to cope with today's rapidly changing landscape. The headlines suggest that blockchain technology is set to play a crucial role in this growth, enabling data to be shared in a fast, secure way among different organisations.
Yet blockchain is just a data store – in itself, it is not the 'silver bullet' that will unlock the next wave of transformation. The real key to success lies in the gathering of the data in the first place and the building of the records that will underpin digitalisation. Unless organisations gather the right data in the first place - and harness it effectively - even the best new technologies will fall victim to the age-old problem of 'garbage in, garbage out'.
Given the complexity of modern supply chains, the number...