IBM has launched a new blockchain system with Chainyard and other healthcare companies, according to an Aug. 5 news release.
Trust Your Supplier is a decentralized network designed to improve supplier qualification, validation, onboarding and life cycle information management. The network aims to eliminate manual and time-consuming processes while also reducing fraud and errors.
Members on the blockchain can share information with one another. Additionally, Trust Your Supplier can connect existing procurement business networks by relaying supplier data required for exchanging purchase orders and invoices.
Currently, IBM has more than 18,500 suppliers globally. Around 4,000 of those suppliers will begin using the blockchain network in the next few months. Trust Your Supplier will become commercially available in the third quarter of 2019.
Other companies involved in the blockchain project include Anheuser-Busch InBev, Cisco, GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric and Vodafone.