New blockchain benchmarks: Are you keeping pace?

Blockchain: By now almost every organization understands the technology’s going to gain widespread adoption. But if you haven’t started the conversation in your own company you’re one of the few.

A lot has changed in the past year as far as business’s attitude towards and action plan for blockchain.

To see how you stack up, take a look at how your peers weighed in on blockchain with these new benchmarks courtesy of Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey.

Where we stand now

Is your exec team on board? Time to get the rest of the C-suite to understand what blockchain can do for you. A full 83% of companies say their exec team sees a compelling business case for blockchain, versus 74% a year ago.

Are your trading partners making progress on blockchain? Even if your own company hasn’t started, your suppliers, customers and even competitors have! That’s what 82% of your peers say, compared to 77% in 2018.

What will you do with it? More than three-quarters (81%) say they plan to replace their current system of record thanks to blockchain. Only 69% felt that way a year ago.

What’s standing in the way?

The good news on this front: Your peers foresee fewer obstacles. The top four that still have them most concerned:

• Implementation (30%) – How will they adapt or replace existing legacy systems?
• Regulatory issues (30%) – What will blockchain do to our compliance?
• Potential security threats (29%) – With all the threats out there, will blockchain makes us more vulnerable?
• Lack of in-house expertise (28%) – Do we have anyone with both adequate skills and understanding of blockchain?

What will we get from it?

Your peers are taking a broader view of the benefits of blockchain than they have in the past. Here are some of the benefits you might consider as well:

• increased security and lower risk (23%)
• new business models and value chains (23%), and
• greater speed toward production or delivery (17%).

So if you have yet to start any adoption, here are some first, no-risk moves you might make:

1. Figure out the ways blockchain will be able to help your business and department. Granted, there’s a lot of hype out there. The folks at Blackline magazine encourage you to look at case studies to see how blockchain is playing out in the real world. (Companies had spent $1.4 billion on blockchain all the way back in 2017, so there’s stuff out there.)
2. ID the current gaps in your process. Blockchain isn’t going to transform your finance department if it’s still mired in spreadsheets and manual processes. So taking this time to plug those holes, streamline and ensure you’re running as efficiently as possible with little room for human error will set you up when the time’s right to tap the technology.