Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt and transform businesses across industries. As an emerging technology, blockchain enables secure digital transactions and decentralizes records through distributed ledger technology. Businesses looking to stay ahead of the curve are exploring how blockchain can enhance operations, cut costs, and provide new revenue opportunities.
Embracing blockchain requires an openness to changing business models and processes. Transitioning to blockchain integrates technical, legal, regulatory and organizational challenges. With careful planning, blockchain technology can drive innovation for your business. Here are some key ways to embrace blockchain for business transformation:
Assess Blockchain Viability
Before diving into blockchain, assess its viability and fit for your specific business needs. Get a handle on goals you want to achieve and pain points blockchain may help address. Research use cases in your industry to understand possibilities and limitations. A hypothetical blockchain solution may not solve actual business problems. Take time to analyze if blockchain really is the right strategic choice.
Bring in blockchain developers and experts early in the exploratory process. Technical specialists will clarify options across public, private or hybrid blockchain networks. You’ll also want to evaluate in-house capabilities versus partnerships for blockchain execution. Knowing these factors allows creating a blockchain solution roadmap tailored to your business priorities.
Start with a Pilot Project
Jumping into an full-fledged, enterprise-wide blockchain implementation is risky. Starting with a pilot project helps manage risk. Pilot projects establish proof of concept, demonstrate potential value and uncover deployment challenges. Many companies implement targeted pilot projects first to gain insights before determining broader blockchain commitments.
Ideally, choose a pilot project addressing a real business problem. This focuses the pilot for measurable outcomes related to efficiency or cost gains. A supply chain blockchain pilot between business partners is one example. Building on a successful pilot provides credibility to get buy-in for more transformational blockchain phases. It also refines change management approaches for scaling blockchain across the whole organization.
Reengineer Business Processes
Simply digitizing a manual process into blockchain does not necessarily improve operations. Blockchain’s capabilities support completely rethinking business processes. Legacy processes built for centralized databases often don’t translate optimally to decentralized blockchain networks.
Analyze transaction workflows, data flows and authorization hierarchies. Determine how blockchain decentralization can streamline or automate different process steps. This reengineering requires understanding where blockchain can enhance transparency, accountability and accuracy in exchange flows. Refactoring business processes lays the foundation for blockchain capabilities to deliver real business benefits.
Explore Smart Contract Potential
Smart contracts are self-executing transactions coded into blockchain. They can encode complex business rules and data to enable trusted information exchange between parties without intermediaries. Automating contractual promises through smart contracts provides exciting possibilities to reduce transaction costs and risks.
Explore how smart contracts may streamline financial settlements, chain of custody tracking or multi-signature approvals. Programming smart contracts does require legal and technical review for implementation. For contracts with outside parties, assess their readiness to integrate smart contracts into business deals. Taking measured steps into smart contracts will pave the way for more impactful automation of business agreements.
Keep Pace with Technology Advancements
Like early internet years, blockchain technologies and standards continue advancing rapidly. New consensus protocols, privacy techniques and programming languages arise frequently. Storage capacities, smart contract capabilities and development frameworks expand regularly. Keeping current helps evaluate which latest blockchain innovations may improve your business systems.
Actively participate in blockchain industry communities and events. Subscribe to blockchain news outlets to monitor where development is heading. Seek training opportunities for technical teams to gain new skills as technology evolves. Blockchain iterations will keep coming so stay agile and informed to leverage progress.
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Hire Blockchain Developers for Custom Solutions
Trying to keep pace with such a fast-moving technology is difficult. This makes hiring blockchain developers essential for businesses exploring potential applications. Blockchain developers bring technical skills and emerging practice experience that most organizations will lack. Consider three approaches to provide blockchain expertise for your initiatives:
1. Contract Blockchain Development Firms
Bringing in an established blockchain firm provides access to an array of specialized talent. These dedicated teams offer technical skills across major blockchain platforms like Ethereum, Hyperledger or R3 Corda. They have experience with consensus algorithms, wallet integration, smart contracts, supply chain modules and other blockchain capabilities.
Firms can deliver advisory services to help craft blockchain strategies. For solution development, contracted teams offer rapid prototyping and project delivery competencies. A firm well versed in multiple industries can translate your business needs into a tailored blockchain application.
2. Recruit In-House Blockchain Developers
For some organizations, building more permanent blockchain capabilities may make sense over time. This requires hire dedicated blockchain developers into internal technical teams. Seek out developers proficient in major blockchain coding languages and frameworks. Core programming skills should include Solidity, Go, Rust and JavaScript.
Ideally, aim to hire blockchain developers with professional experience from past implementation projects. This hands-on expertise accelerates getting up to speed developing enterprise-grade blockchain solutions. Be ready to offer competitive compensation packages to attract in-demand blockchain developers.
3. Train Existing Developers on Blockchain
Transitioning your own developers into blockchain skills takes patience but builds future capacity. Sponsor blockchain training workshops or online courses to equip staff developers with new capabilities. Connect developers to blockchain open source projects and developer networks to gain practical experience.
Promising developers may take quickly to blockchain’s underlying distributed systems concepts. With management support for continual training, an existing team can cement the new expertise needed for blockchain projects. This “grow your own” approach requires commitment but sustains blockchain knowledge for the long term.
Moving Forward With Blockchain
Embracing blockchain technology signals a strategic commitment to innovation. Beyond just experimenting with blockchain, organizations must actively educate themselves, invest in expertise and reengineer processes. Pilot projects demonstrate early wins, while partnerships provide specialized skills for custom development. With deliberate steps, blockchain technology can transform business capabilities for an emerging digital future.
