 Hello everyone and welcome to another DSC Insights with Juan Miguel Perez, the CEO and co-founder of FinBoot, who is Digital Supply Chain Institute member, very active in the arena of blockchain within supply chain. We really wanted with this session to focus and share the insights from the side of the industry and the needs, as well as technology. There has been a lot of conversation lately about blockchain's application for supply chain. It has been going back and forth easier and harder, but what we wanted to do is to try to put more light on what is really applicable now through open conversation with Juan. So Juan, thank you very much and welcome. No, thank you guys for having me. So let's dive immediately into those practical aspects because what we try to do is really focus on the areas which comes directly from the business. And I would like to ask you one thing from your learnings and experience in FinBoot. What are your clients' top priorities when it comes to supply chain? Yeah, so I think, look, over the past five to 10 years, we've seen a bit of a shift in the way organizations are managing supply chain. More and more data is being required by all stakeholders. So suppliers, one more visibility, clients, one more visibility, even consumers, one more visibility. So what that has resulted in is a dire need for organizations to, one, will share more data, but two, to do so in a context that is trusted and that is secure. So I think the top priority right now is look, how can we create this ecosystem where information is flowing while we maintain the same margins, the same efficiency, the same delivery. I think that's one key area and there's perhaps a second vertical around sustainability, which particularly over the more recent years has kind of written to the top of the priorities of anyone trying to run a global supply chain. So it seems like priorities are shifting in a way and that the technology on the other side is a trusted partner for the data, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I think, look, so you, as I said, need to share more and more data. We also need to make sure that that's reliable data, right? So the one thing any stakeholder wants is, okay, if I'm going to get access to this information, how was this validated? Has this been confirmed? Is there any accountability? Is anyone saying yes or no? I'm the one who's confirming that information and I'll be accountable for any consequence out of that data, right? So it's not just sharing data for the sex, for the sex of sharing, it's also sharing with security, with trust, with accountability. This is really great and then brings us to another question I wanted to ask you what trends among your clients have you observed in terms of demand for increased traceability and collaboration all along supply chain and from your learnings and from hands-on experience, you know, who is driving it, right? Producers, manufacturers, customers, regulators, marketers maybe? Yeah, no, that's an excellent question, right? Because again, we've been working trying to deliver digital technologies for supply chain for a number of years now and one of the key questions you get, hey, is this a brand pool or a brand push, right? So are the brands at the end of the value chain going to force everyone else to get on board, do these, transform their supply chains or are they going to be at the end of that process and they're going to be just the consequence of they're going to be pushed into it? Now you've got all of this information and I think there's no there's no absolutes on this, right? It's a bit of a mix, right? So I think A, what we need to recognize is that change and transformation is progressive. So one of the difficult things that our supply chains have is that they involve many, many, many stakeholders, right? So you're not going to align everyone and once everyone's aligned you start deploying the solutions, right? I think the approach that we've taken with our clients and the approach that has proven to be more successful is let's create a small ecosystem first, validate, earn a return on our investments on digital and then scale that up. In terms of where that starts, right? So as we were saying, it's a brand, it's in the middle of the value chain, it's at the very beginning. I think it may vary depending on the industry and there's not specific answer to this but typically if you start somewhere in the middle, so we're thinking more manufacturers, the producers, right? You've got more avenues to grow because then they can grow upstream and they can start engaging with their suppliers. They can show what the benefit to their suppliers will be to come on board these ecosystems and they can do the same downstream, right? So finding and those relationships with their with their clients. So I think when you start in the middle of the supply chain, perhaps some of the challenges with scalability of those ecosystems are simplified, but again starting in some of those endpoints could also be an option. This is a great insight that with technology now today you can start not from, you know, like let's say the end sides but you can even start sometimes in the middle depending on what your need is and that brings me to another thought is what are the traceability solutions and how they can aid supply chain collaboration and trust and really indeed realize the increased efficiency from your point of view. So I think one key trend in the market that I'm seeing is the whole digital product passports idea, right? So everyone wants to create, okay, I've got my final product and that could be in a number of different industries but I've got my final product and I want to have this digital passport that provides all of the information for that product, provenance, quality, again, all of the data sustainability information as well, all of the data that I want to communicate with the buyer of that product and even with the regulator with some sometimes of assets as well, we're going to contain there, right? So then in order to create those passports we need to trace that production, right? We need to say, okay, if we're going to see provenance, then we need to connect with suppliers and we need to connect with tier one, two and three suppliers because the information is coming from deep down in the supply chain, right? So that's what makes, again, traceability a requirement, right? So our main output let's say would be those digital product passports would be that product information that we want to share and in order to get there I need to connect my value chain and I need to connect with my stakeholders. So seeing that traceability really changes the game with utilizing technology and then going towards the passports as you say in one aspect is how would you then summarize the main business benefits and efficiency of digital traceability in say chemical sector for instance, right? Where traceability and trust are vital especially now having in mind the trend and everything was going on globally related to ESG reporting and net zero ambitions, right? This is an ideal way to connect both in one aspect but how would you summarize that? Yeah, no, no, absolutely. And I think look in terms of business impacts and that's one of the core areas where we focus with our clients is let's make sure that this investment in digital has an impact in your either top line or bottom line that it has a financial return, right? And I think typically or more traditionally we always look at okay, am I saving costs or can I have an increased profitability or increased revenue streams with these implementations and you can still see some of that with traceability solutions, right? So the increased efficiency in the way the supply chain is going to operate that is going to result in cost efficiency, right? That's going to result in cost savings and then these digital product passports, these enriched data, this information that you can now add to your product that's valuable data. That's something that the market is asking for and if you can provide it, you can also create a revenue opportunity there, right? But particularly in sectors like oil and energy or in the chemical industry, sectors that are again more commoditized. One of the biggest challenges that the chemical industry has is that their products are very different to differentiate, very difficult, sorry, to differentiate, right? And that's by design, that's what has helped that industry grow tremendously. But then it has become a super competitive landscape, right? So one of the key business impacts that some of our clients have seen is the ability to differentiate their products in the market. If we can't find a physical differentiation, a molecular differentiation in these chemicals, can I find one at a product level? Can I find one from the digital data that I'm sharing with my clients? And that is core because that at the end will impact your revenue streams as well, right? So cost savings, new revenue streams, and differentiation of your products, those are core business impacts that we've seen. So having in mind everything we shared, I think business leaders are the ones who sign off on new technology and integrate and implement for the process. And usually when these things come, we have early adopters, it's a small percentage of those and we have those who hesitate and then follow. So how would you say business leaders can justify the value of impact of this kind of solution? So having in mind industry leaders in rich directions, they are going, right? What would you say to those leaders that they can utilize and justify to close their eyes and go forward towards new horizon? Yeah, no, absolutely. And again, a key part of what you're saying and you're absolutely right is the decisions on software and the decision of technology is 100% a business decision, right? There's no room for exploration and experimentation, sorry, but that again, there are certain labs and there are certain kind of innovation areas that are exploring that, but when it comes to this is a digital solution that I'm going to implement in my supply chain, the decision whether to go or not is fully a business decision. So when justifying that, CIOs, which are typically the ones making that decision, they got to justify that. They got to justify their investments to the C-suite, to the boardrooms, to say, well, why are we going in this direction? Why are we investing in digital traceability? And why are we investing in one area or one vendor as opposed to another? And I think the business impacts that we were mentioning are great to kind of provide that support. And then there's particularly two areas that CIOs are specifically concerned on, which is the time to value. So once that identified, okay, my business impact is part of differentiation, but when will I get a tool scale? When will I get to that point? And the other one is, again, how quickly can my implementation scale or can be reconfigured to then move from one business area into another, right? So it all goes back to time to value, right? So everyone wants things to be completely functional and in production at the shortest period possible. And they also want to create a basis that can scale up in their organizations, because this is not something that is just going to be used for one particular product. It's something that can grow horizontally within these organizations. Thank you, Juan. And touching on leadership and decisions and business impact, I think we cannot close our eyes on new technology coming and basically new trend coming, which is Web3, right? So how do you see Web3 affecting supply chains in the future, particularly in the terms of traceability, collaboration and trust? We are talking now about the certain solutions, which we can say are these generation ones, but there is already the next generation of technology which is bringing us forward. Yeah, again, that's another great point, right? Right now we've got digital traceability solutions that they have an understood kind of business impact. They're well-defined and they're being implemented and they're being scaled up. But as you say, the same industry leaders that are taking those decisions today, they're also looking, okay, what's coming over the next two to three years, right? What's coming over the next three to five years and even longer periods of time. And Web3 is a fairly recent concept, but that is starting to get more clarity, right? And in particular, the concept of Web3 goes beyond business, right? It goes through kind of that evolution of how we're going to start interacting with the web in general, even as individuals. We'd like to see it in that scope or that environment of what Web3 can do for businesses, right? What Web3 can do for companies at the end. And in that area, in that ecosystem, it's very much linked to the digital traceability ecosystem, right? Because Web3 just redefines the concept of property ownership and custody over the information that at the end, it's no longer just information, it's becoming actual assets, right? So tradeable assets, right? So these digital protocols, they go from being a data store to being something that you can put in a marketplace, right? And then you can start monetizing that as well, right? So that evolution of, well, if I'm starting to use this underlying blockchain technology, which is what's powering these digital traceability solutions, if I do so with that design that I can then use the same environment, the same digital traceability ecosystems to get access to that future of Web3 that is coming over the next two to three years, I basically have a plan, let's say, in my digital transformation for the next three to five years. Thank you very much, Juan. I think we have really covered in a short period of time a lot of practical aspects and views. And thank you for being open in that sense from what you shared. I think traceability, collaboration and trust are taking to become one of the main pillars of supply chain of the future. And it's not only anymore about technology, but it's also bringing the process and people along in a sense of creating a new way of collaboration. So I do hope that we'll have another conversation as well in the future to, let's say, experience the Web3 application. But until then, once again, thank you very much. And I would like to thank all of you who are engaging with DSCI Insights and to also share with you that we'll keep on continuing sharing the valuable content which comes from business practices and stay tuned for more new topics. Thank you.