Posted by Mumbai: Piramal Glass has successfully kicked off its first cross-border trade digitisation programme using the #dltledgers blockchain platform.
Asia’s largest speciality glass manufacturer is prioritising technology as a means of unlocking hidden margins and efficiency through digital automation. It has partnered with an enterprise blockchain platform #dltledgers – a Singapore and India based fintech.
The project’s first phase had four main objectives. First, to validate the production use of blockchain in Piramal Glass’ supply chain and export operations. Second, to increase transparency while protecting sensitive data and customer integrity.
Third, to understand if the technology could enable multiple stakeholders to collaborate on initiatives, such as sustainability. And fourth, to establish if blockchain delivers business value in terms of efficiency improvement and ease of use.
According to Deloitte’s 2020 global blockchain survey — “leaders no longer consider the technology ground-breaking and merely promising – they now see it as integral to organisational innovation.”
The Piramal Glass project will now progress into its next phase – focusing on driving visibility and efficiency. It’s objective will be to streamline supply chain processes throughout the company’s global manufacturing operations and build a private, digital network of suppliers and buyers.
The #dltledgers platform will have seamless connectivity with Piramal’s existing SAP systems. It will enable export and import digitisation with multiple, global suppliers and buyers simultaneously.
As the project proceeds, it will expand into more supply chain product flows, new areas like sustainability tracking and tackle processes that depend on time-sensitive document transfer, IP security, and authenticity.
“Piramal Glass is transforming into a digitally-enabled business. The board is aligning digital initiatives with the company’s organisational strategy,” Vijay Shah, Vice Chairman – Piramal Glass and Piramal Group Board Member.
“Our customers and vendors are key to our business. So secrecy, privacy and protecting our stakeholder’s Intellectual Property is of paramount importance. We see blockchain technology is an integral part of our ability to achieve this going forward,” added Shah.
“The most obvious benefits were the increased level of transparency and auditability between stakeholders in the supply chain. As well as a reduction in manual processes,” said Sudip Mazumder, Global Chief Digital & Information Officer (GCDIO), Piramal Glass.
“We were also pleasantly surprised to find that the platform created a sense of urgency, speeding up key business processes, improving collaboration, and even increasing confidence among customers,” added Mazumder.
“Piramal Glass took a very structured approach to this project, enabling the #dltledgers team to work almost as an extension of the Piramal team,” said #dltledgers’ MD India and South Asia, Raji Iyengar.
“Clearly, the leadership here has a crisp vision and an urge to stay ahead in the digital transformation journey. Blockchain-based trade digitisation is a great way to keep the wheels of trade moving, especially in pandemic times,” added Iyengar.
Singapore-headquartered #dltledgers has a global partnership agreement with Microsoft’s cloud offering, Azure.
This enables the platform to scale quickly via a subscription-based “software-as-a-service” (SaaS) model. Designed to be “plug-and-play”, the platform integrates easily with existing processes, with a relatively light touch on existing systems.