Blockchain technology may have the same effect on how organizations operate just as the internet did, but this time is moving value not information.
The working of organizations has undergone tremendous change with the development of the internet age. Information access and dissemination have become as simple as a click of a button or touch of phone’s screen. It has affected different ways organizations work in areas such as recruitment, marketing, and management.
The workplace is peeping into another wave of change. However, this time it will be for the ease of accessing and sharing value instead of information. It is the idea behind the technology that fuels the ever-growing cryptocurrency industry, Blockchain.
Here are some of the way this blockchain is bound to change how organizations work
1. Eliminating intermediaries
Businesses today rely heavily on intermediaries and for the right reasons. While the internet turned the world into a global village, it allowed anyone to become whatever one wishes. Consequently, it is impossible to trust that the people your business is dealing with are what or who they present themselves to be.
Businesses have to seek the help of intermediaries such as banks and governments bodies to verify the identity of their prospective clients and employees. They also have to spend money trying to achieve the requirements of regulations such as Know Your Customer, KYC.
With blockchain technology, clients only need to enter their information on the network once. The information will be available to all responsible organizations for verification. Once an authority has verified the details, the information becomes available to the companies on the network eliminating the need for individual confirmations. As a result, it will render the intermediaries unnecessary leading to significant savings.
2. Faster payment processing
Processing payment to suppliers, clients, and workers currently takes 3 to 5 business due to verifications by financial institutions. The blockchain provides a platform where the organization can make direct payments to their suppliers or employees without going through the banking system.
Companies such, the Australian carmaker, Tomcars, is already using this technology to pay its suppliers. Low transaction fees and instant availability are the key benefits of making payments via blockchain. The recipients also avoid several deductions that come with receiving payments through the traditional financial institutions.
3. Availability of quality information
Businesses spend a lot of money hiring employees through recruitment agencies. Such is because there are so many job seekers providing fake details that it requires time and expertise to filter out. The same applies to contractors and suppliers. One even needs to filter online reviews and testimonials.
Implementation of blockchain technology in the business environment will eliminate the need for these extra services. It will be impossible for job seekers to lie about their education and training as an authority such as the college they attended will already have the data on the blockchain.
It will also eliminate contractors providing fake job portfolios. For example, if Company C says it did a job for firm Z in a specific year, it will only take pulling out Firm Z’s records for the said year to confirm it. Remember blockchain records are public and inalterable.
4. Flawless contracts
Contracts are a headache to most companies as contractors and clients are subject to change or falsify the terms from time to time. Dishonored contract terms result in costly court battles and substantial revenue losses annually. Blockchain’s special software, smart contracts will solve this problem.
Smart contracts specialize in ensuring the implementation of the contract’s terms. It triggers actions as soon as a specific requirement is met.
It is no doubt that this technology has some hurdles to overcome before being entirely dependable. Nonetheless, it promises great opportunities of transforming the working of organizations in a manner that reduces the cost of operation and saves time.
