How fintechs are helping banks accelerate innovation while navigating global regulations

Financial institutions are partnering with technology firms—from cloud providers to fintechs—to adopt innovations that help them stay competitive, remain agile and improve the customer experience. However, the biggest hurdle to adopting new technologies is security and regulatory compliance.

While third and fourth parties have the potential to introduce risk, they can also be the solution. As enterprises undergo their modernization journeys, fintechs are redefining digital transformation in ways that have never been seen before. This includes using hybrid cloud and AI technologies to provide their clients with the capabilities they need to modernize securely and rapidly while addressing existing and emerging legislation, such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) in the EU.

The financial services industry needs to modernize, but it is challenging to build modern digital solutions on top of existing systems. These digital transformation projects can be costly, especially if not done correctly. It is critical for banks and other financial institutions to partner with a technology provider that can automate enterprise processes and enable them to manage their complex environments while prioritizing resilience, security and compliance. As the January deadline for DORA (which is designed to strengthen the operational resilience of the financial sector) approaches, it is critical that fintechs align their practices to support resilience and business continuity.

How FlowX.AI is modernizing mission-critical workloads with AI

Both IBM® and FlowX.AI have been on a mission to enable our clients to manage mission-critical workload challenges with ease. IBM designed its enterprise cloud for regulated industries with built-in controls and confidential computing capabilities to help customers across highly regulated industries (such as financial services, healthcare, public sector, telco, insurance, life sciences and more) to maintain control of their data and use new technologies with confidence.

FlowX.AI believes that the key to managing increasingly complex environments is AI, and its solution brings multiagent AI to banking modernization. The robust, scalable platform combines deep integration capabilities and connector technology with AI-enabled application development. FlowX.AI is designed to automate enterprise processes and integrate seamlessly with existing systems, from APIs and databases to mainframes. This enables enterprises to build and deploy powerful, secure applications in a fraction of the time traditionally required. Also, as a part of the IBM Cloud for Financial Services® ecosystem, the company is using the IBM Cloud Framework for Financial Services to address risk in the digital supply chain through a common set of security controls.

“Highly regulated industries like financial services are under immense pressure to adapt quickly to shifting market dynamics and deliver exceptional customer experiences, all while navigating increasingly complex regulatory requirements. Our platform is designed to address these challenges head-on, equipping banks with the tools to deliver rapidly and efficiently. By collaborating with IBM Cloud for Financial Services, FlowX.AI aims to simplify the complexity banks face and help them unlock innovation faster, while still prioritizing security and compliance.” – Ioan Iacob, CEO, FlowX.AI

How Swisschain is ushering in the next era of blockchain technology

The financial industry is on the verge of a significant transformation with the digitization of financial assets. In financial services, blockchain technology has made it easier to securely digitize assets to trade currencies, secure loans, process payments and more. However, as banks and other financial institutions are building their blockchain integrations, it can be difficult to maintain security, resilience and compliance.

To meet the evolving needs of the financial industry, Swisschain has developed a hybrid digital asset custody and tokenization platform that can be deployed either on premises or in the cloud. The platform is designed to allow financial institutions to securely manage high-value digital assets and to offer seamless integration with both public and permissioned blockchains. Swisschain’s multilayered security architecture is built to deliver protection of governance over private keys and policies. They offer root-level control, which aims to eliminate single points of failure. This can be a critical feature for institutions using high-value assets.

By using IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services, Swisschain can tap into IBM’s “keep your own key” encryption capabilities, designed to allow clients exclusive key control over their assets and to help address privacy needs. Swisschain’s solution is designed to offer greater levels of scalability, agility and cost-effectiveness, to help financial institutions navigate the complex digital asset landscape with confidence and efficiency. In collaboration with IBM, Swisschain aims to set a new standard for innovation in the digital asset ecosystem.

“Tokenizing financial assets through blockchain technology is rapidly accelerating the digitization of the financial industry, fundamentally reshaping how we trade and manage assets. By converting traditional asset ownership into digital tokens, we enhance transparency, security and liquidity, making it easier for financial institutions to navigate this new landscape. Our goal is to provide the essential infrastructure that bridges traditional finance with digital assets. Collaborating with IBM Cloud for Financial Services has been a game-changer in our mission to lead the next era of blockchain and digital asset technology.” – Simon Olsen, CEO, Swisschain

Innovating at the pace of change

Modernization efforts vary across the financial services industry, but one thing is for certain: banks need to innovate at the pace of change or risk getting left behind. Having an ecosystem that incorporates fintech, cloud and AI technology will enable large financial institutions to remain resilient, secure and compliant as they serve their customers.

With IBM Cloud for Financial Services, IBM is positioned to help fintechs ensure that their products and services are compliant and adhere to the same stringent regulations that banks must meet. With security and controls built into the cloud platform and designed by the industry, we aim to help fintechs and larger financial institutions minimize risk, stay on top of evolving regulations and accelerate cloud and AI adoption.

Source: ibm.com

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How generative AI is revolutionizing supply chain operations

Supply chains are under enormous stress. As supply chain leaders, we’ve seen unprecedented levels of disruption, challenges with our ecosystem trading partner networks, tariff wars, real wars and tremendous turnover in human capital. Senior supply chain leaders are retiring in record numbers. Welcome or not, large scale change is afoot in our profession. And just when we thought things were on their way back to a new “hybrid” normal, a curious new technology in generative AI seems poised to upend the world of operations yet again.

Across media headlines, we see dark warnings about the existential risk of generative AI technologies to our culture and society. Yet as supply chain innovators, we know there is a rich history of applying technologies to continuously optimize operations. Is generative AI likely to drive an “extinction event” for supply chains as we know them? We think not. The fundamental nature of supply chain is evolutionary, and it has been that way since our craft was born out of the Toyota Production System in the 1950s. In supply chain, we take intentional but measured risks; we don’t swing for the fence.

As our profession looks to apply generative AI, we will undoubtedly take the same approach. With that mindset, we see the potential for step change improvements in efficiency, human productivity and quality. Generative AI holds all the potential to innovate beyond today’s process, technology and people constraints to a future where supply chains are foundational to delivering operational outcomes and a richer customer experience. But we must choose to embrace this new technology and make it part of the fabric of everything that we do.

A new and exciting wave of disruption

Let’s get one thing clear right from the start: generative AI is unlike any technology we’ve ever seen before in supply chain. It’s a game changer. Do not be tempted to discount generative AI as another Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Blockchain or other “hype cycle” technology. Over the next five years, generative AI will fundamentally change the way we work in supply chain. It will automate out the dull, menial and transactional work that consumes an enormous amount of low value add time for our professionals. Far from eliminating human value, it will elevate the role of our people and empower them to run the business on a predictive, proactive and forward-looking basis.

Despite the tremendous investment our supply chains have received over the last several decades, today they still demonstrate the need for significant reinvention. Many supply chain structures remain functionally siloed and struggle to execute predictably end-to-end. Applications and data are often trapped within departmental boundaries. Multiple ERP instances create challenges with fragmentation of orders and commitments across disparate systems. These combine to create unnecessary costs, increased execution latency and a suboptimal customer experience. There simply isn’t enough time or investment to uplift or replace these legacy investments. It is here where generative AI solutions (built in the cloud and connecting data end-to-end) will unlock tremendous new value while leveraging and extending the life of legacy technology investments. Generative AI creates a strategic inflection point for supply chain innovators and the first true opportunity to innovate beyond traditional supply chain constraints.

Pivoting from ideation to action

A leading supply chain needs to be orchestrated across the value chain. Internal and external stakeholders need fast and accurate information at their fingertips to plan, manage and direct supply chains. To drive personalized actions, insights and visibility, large volumes of data (ERP, WMS, RFID and visual analytics) need to be ingested, normalized and analyzed at high speeds. The need for agile, resilient and competitive supply chains has never been greater than today.

Addressing these challenges requires a platform that enterprises can own, shape and scale per the business needs. At IBM we have embraced a hybrid cloud, component-based architecture that is built on open technologies. Ingesting high volumes of data at speed and contextualizing them to each persona is a given. The “machine” learns, thinks and executes repetitive tasks while allowing supply chain professionals to focus on high impact business events.

The advent of generative AI will transform the ways we think and work. Traditional solutions constrain users in how to engage, utilize and investigate the large volumes of enterprise data. Frequently, the data is hard to even access. While chat bots have attempted to make it easier to get information, they rely on extensive model training and are frequently limited to “how to” questions. Generative AI brings the force of machine learning to everyday tasks by leveraging foundation models that allow users to interact with structured and unstructured data like never before. What took months of training takes just days now. Our supply chain digital assistant allows users to interact with data conversationally to interrogate vast transaction data, such as hundreds of thousands of documents and visual images. Users can go from getting an overall picture of the health of the supply chain to understanding a specific transaction by just asking. They get contextual information as well as factual data (PDFs, visual images, RFID tags information). A question from a supply chain manager (“Where do I have excess inventory?”) or a buyer (“How is my vendor performing?”) becomes a simple question rather than a complex exercise in bringing disparate reports together.

By establishing a common platform for all stakeholders, orchestrating the supply chain becomes intrinsic to everyday tasks and processes. Building on the core foundation, enterprises can deploy generative AI-powered use cases, allowing enterprises to scale quickly and be agile in a fast-paced marketplace.

IBM’s supply chain AI journey

A few years ago, in IBM’s own infrastructure supply chain, we decided that conversational AI could help overcome boundaries between different supply chain domains and provide a collaboration platform with our sales teams, suppliers and partners. On this platform, any authorized user could access critical information in an intuitive way, using natural language. We were able to achieve an easy-to-access, real-time, single view of truth with immediate insights to manage the client experience, operate with resilience and react to market disruptions. Despite major disruptions and dislocations in the COVID and post-COVID worlds, IBM’s supply chain fulfilled 100% of its orders and delivered on its promises.

Integrated generative AI accelerates intuitive conversations between supply chain decision makers and virtual assistants, enabling fast and fact-based actions. These innovations empower supply chain professionals to focus on complex problem resolution, the continuous improvement of our workflow designs and augmenting AI models. Adding generative AI and the power of foundational models to the existing solution is a natural step in the evolution of our supply chain capabilities.

Source: ibm.com

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The Orion blockchain database: Empowering multi-party data governance

Blockchain databases were designed to enhance trust in centralized ecosystems by incorporating tamper-evidence features into traditional databases. They are easier to use and can reduce operational and development costs compared to decentralized ledger technologies. However, existing blockchain databases lack efficient tools for multiple parties to control shared data on the ledger.

Orion is an open source blockchain database that provides unique capabilities, such as multi-signature and proof functionalities, along with extensive key-level access control. These features empower parties to jointly control and validate values written to the database. Orion combines these capabilities with other blockchain properties, offering tamper evidence, provenance, data lineage, authenticity and non-repudiation, all while utilizing a standard data model and transactional APIs. Orion’s technology is highly valuable in enhancing system integrity and reducing errors, disputes and fraud.

In this post, we explore trust requirements across various business environments, identify existing trust gaps and outline how Orion can effectively bridge those gaps. We delve into the key features of Orion and explore its potential applications across diverse domains.

Importance of trust in business ecosystems

Trust is essential for the growth and success of business ecosystems. However, establishing trust in complex environments, such as global supply chains, poses significant challenges due to the involvement of diverse parties. For instance, in response to sustainability trends, product manufacturers may need to prove the carbon footprint of their products to regulators and clients. Thus, ensuring transparency and integrity in calculating the carbon consumption of all components across the entire supply chain becomes imperative. The adoption of mutually trusted technology can assist businesses, customers, partners and government authorities in verifying the existence, authenticity and integrity of interactions among parties. By doing so, it not only serves as a safeguard against potential disputes and fraudulent activities, but also fosters an environment of trust and reliability.

Understanding trust requirements

Different business ecosystems exhibit varying levels of trust among participants, which influences their specific trust requirements. In highly trusted ecosystems, it may be enough to ensure independent, consistent and crash-tolerant recording of the data, while in limited-trust environments we may also want to verify the correctness of the recorded data, ensure authenticity and provide tamper evidence and data lineage. Finally, in low-trust environments we may need to control the transaction execution by supporting multi-party approval and parallel execution of smart contracts, and even reaching a consensus in the presence of malicious parties.

From a topological standpoint, ecosystems can be classified into centralized and decentralized ecosystems. In centralized ecosystems, there is usually at least one party that enjoys a certain level of trust from all participants, whereas decentralized ecosystems lack a single entity that is trusted by all. Currently, the majority of business ecosystems operate under a centralized trust assumption. In such ecosystems, a trusted party (such as a cloud provider, government organization or other influential player) plays a significant role, while other participants within the ecosystem are not required to trust each other directly. For example, organizations typically rely on trust in the cloud provider, expecting them to refrain from intentionally blocking client access to services, despite having the capability to do so.

However, the presence of a trusted party does not imply blind trust from other participants. Our experience highlights significant room for enhancing trust within centralized ecosystems. Transparency throughout the data lifecycle and the ability to demonstrate data integrity and consistency are critical factors for improvement. These elements play a vital role in streamlining the auditing process, particularly in highly regulated environments. Ensuring the authenticity of data is crucial in preventing potential disputes over authorship in multi-party interactions. Furthermore, even trusted parties often seek to restrict the power of their privileged users to mitigate the risks associated with mistakes and fraud. By addressing these trust gaps, centralized ecosystems can be further strengthened, fostering increased confidence and reliability in business interactions.

Technological choices to address the trust gaps

There are three major types of technologies that can help close the trust gap in business ecosystems. Classical databases with basic recording features are usually sufficient for the proper operation of highly trusted centralized ecosystems. On the other hand, blockchain databases, which extend classical database capabilities with verifications and proofs, are the best choice for limited trust centralized ecosystems. Finally, decentralized ledger technologies typically provide a full stack of trust features and are commonly used in low-trust decentralized environments. It is worth noting that the support of advanced trust features usually leads to higher complexity and may impact the performance and increase the operational cost of the solution. Consequently, it is important to match the needs of the ecosystem with the most suitable technology available. Figure 1 illustrates the topography of trust in the business ecosystems.

Figure 1: Topology of trust

While the use of existing blockchain database technologies can address some of the trust gaps in centralized environments, they fall short in enabling efficient control of shared data among multiple parties. Decentralized blockchain ledger technologies provide these capabilities and can be used in centralized systems, but that’s often inefficient and fails to justify increased costs and complexity. This is where Orion, our novel open-source blockchain database, comes into play. Orion differentiates itself from other centralized blockchain databases by offering a comprehensive set of blockchain properties while empowering multiple parties to govern access to shared data. It achieves this by introducing broad key-level read/write access control and multi-signature capabilities, ensuring that database transactions are approved only when jointly signed by designated parties.

Meet Orion: A centralized blockchain database with multi-party data access control

Orion is an advanced open-source blockchain database that combines the power of blockchain technology with the reliability of traditional database features. It provides a comprehensive solution for secure, transparent and trustworthy data management. By integrating a cryptography-based layer on top of a classical database, Orion offers a wide range of blockchain functionalities, including a highly available, secure, and replicated distributed database with an immutable tamper-proof ledger. The ledger delivers tamper evidence, enabling the detection of any modifications made to the data, even if carried out by privileged users. This additional layer of security ensures data integrity, while reinforcing trust and reliability. Figure 2 illustrates the blockchain functionalities that Orion offers.

Figure 2: Key Orion features

A key distinguishing aspect of Orion is its support for multi-signature (multi-sig) transactions, achieved through a unique read-write key-level access control mechanism. This functionality is crucial for facilitating trusted interactions among multiple parties. Transactions are committed only when signed by several designated participants, ensuring a secure and reliable environment for multi-party engagements.

One of Orion’s most notable features is its ability to facilitate provenance and data lineage. It records every transformation that the data undergoes, enabling history queries to extract information on when, how and by whom the data was modified. By utilizing a graph-DB-based provenance engine, Orion can provide valuable insights into the history and origin of the data, promoting transparency and accountability.

Orion empowers users with authenticity and non-repudiation features, providing solid evidence that the received data matches precisely what was sent by the original source. All transactions are signed, and the server generates a digital receipt that can be used to verify the data’s integrity. This capability prevents disputes regarding authorship and further enhances trust.

Furthermore, Orion seamlessly integrates classical database functionalities alongside its blockchain capabilities. It offers efficient queries, robust resilience and scalability. With a standard key-value JSON store and transactional APIs, Orion guarantees the execution of a set of read/write operations as an atomic transaction, preserving consistency and data integrity. Figure 3 illustrates how Orion’s architecture provides transparent insights that ensure accountability.

Figure 3: Orion architecture

Key applications lead to valuable solutions

Orion caters to a wide range of key applications that address various industry needs and provide valuable solutions for businesses and organizations. One notable application is within the supply chain domain. Orion can serve as a robust repository for storing the carbon footprint data of all product components, provided by part manufacturers. Additionally, it can store the contracting terms between buyers and sellers of these parts, signed by both parties. Furthermore, Orion enables the inclusion of the formula used to compute the carbon footprint of the product, along with links to the carbon consumption data of its individual parts, which can be updated by the product owner. By leveraging Orion, organizations can ensure the authenticity, non-repudiation and integrity of this critical data. Moreover, key-level access control mechanisms guarantee data privacy between the involved parties. If necessary, privacy-preserving techniques like zero-knowledge proofs can be employed to conceal sensitive details, even from the central party. In such cases, Orion can retain only the necessary metadata required to demonstrate the accuracy of the records, which can be kept outside the system for third-party auditors.

In addition to the supply chain application, Orion offers numerous highly beneficial use cases that our clients have identified. For instance, within the financial sector and regulated domains, Orion can facilitate auditing processes by providing proof of authenticity, data integrity and tamper evidence for company records. Our multi-signature capabilities enable the automation of various business contracting processes and support notary services across different domains. Furthermore, Orion can be used for maintaining the authenticity and integrity of evidence collected through insurance claims processes. It can simplify the management of licenses, certificates, educational records and property ownership rights for government organizations. Orion can also serve as a secure digital platform for managing vaccination processes, records and statuses while ensuring trustworthiness. Moreover, it enables the establishment of provenance for goods and compliance with maintenance requirements in supply chains. Additionally, Orion can serve as an off-chain store for decentralized ledger ecosystems, ensuring data integrity across hybrid environments.

Orion has already been successfully deployed as a blockchain platform in several EU-funded projects. In the C4IIoT project, Orion enhanced the level of trust in an IoT cybersecurity platform by providing traceability, provenance and non-repudiation features to track changes in machine and production line configurations. In the COPA EUROPE project, Orion is being utilized to track the production and lifecycle of media assets, facilitating trusted and secure trading of sport videos, rights and participant incentivization. In the i4Q project, Orion is employed to safeguard the integrity of industrial IoT data, including device access policies and critical location information, supporting smart manufacturing use cases. These projects demonstrate the versatility and reliability of Orion as a blockchain database technology in real-world scenarios.

The Orion server, its documentation and client SDK are available on Hyperledger Labs. To delve deeper into Orion’s capabilities, read our paper “Orion: A Centralized Blockchain Database with Multi-Party Data Access Control,” which we presented and published at ICBC 2023

The Orion blockchain database offers a robust solution that enhances transparency, authenticity and integrity across business ecosystems. Orion sets itself apart from other centralized blockchain databases by empowering numerous parties to govern access to shared data. Its broad key-level read/write access control and multi-signature capabilities allow organizations to exercise fine-grained control over data governance and ensure trust in multi-party interactions.

Source: ibm.com

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Why central banks dislike cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies, often depicted as an escape from fiat currency and legacy banking, have become a constant focus of bank and government activity. The most recent Executive Order from the U.S. President is just one example of governments carefully considering how to deal with cryptocurrencies. With all the news, it’s easy to lose sight of the fundamentals of monetary policy and currency, and why cryptocurrencies (or “cryptos”) are not a likely replacement for fiat currencies.

In 2021 the Bank of International Settlements (which is owned by, and provides financial services to, central banks) commissioned an academic research paper entitled “Distrust or speculation? The socioeconomic drivers of U.S. cryptocurrency investments.” The research found that crypto investors were more likely to be digital banking users, male, young, and educated. More surprisingly, it found that cryptocurrency investors and users were not motivated by a distrust in traditional banking and payment services. This touted raison d’être for Bitcoin and other early cryptos seems to be a myth.

Crypto’s limits as a form of payment

Of course, the popularity of cryptos has partly been driven by high valuations and volatility, attracting attention from traders, the media and the public. But this volatility makes cryptos less than ideal for payments. Companies like Tesla and Amazon, after initially stating they would accept some cryptos as currency, have since backtracked. Why would they want to accept a currency whose value can fluctuate so dramatically on a daily basis?

Why, indeed, would anyone? Will cryptos find their way into mainstream payment systems, or will they remain a speculative investment? Much of the answer rests on an understanding of how governments, regulators, and central banks act to protect their economies and citizenry. Why “protect”? Let’s explore that with a brief look at the role of central banks.

How unstable crypto prices challenge central banks

Key roles of any country’s central bank are to:

1. Govern the safety and soundness and stability of the economy and its systems (the authority for this varies by country, but for the purposes of this piece, it’s a sufficient generalization)

2. Help to ensure the country is a safe place in which to invest for the longer term by controlling inflation

The most direct method of controlling inflation and the relative value of a currency is by setting the interest rate provided to commercial banks for their deposits and borrowings from the central bank. This largely determines the interest provided by commercial banks to their depositors and borrowers, which in turn has a direct effect on economic behaviors such as spending and saving.

Some central banks set an overt inflation target: the Bank of Canada, for example, has set one since 1991, and it resets that target with the federal government every five years. Some governments and central banks tie their economy to another economy by setting a fixed exchange rate between their fiat currency with another, such as USD or EUR. Either way, the goal is to control inflation by managing the value of the currency. A central bank’s power to control a fiat currency is largely derived from the sovereignty of the country in which it operates, with a taxable population that supports the economic and banking systems and governing structures.

Now if you, as a central bank, don’t control the value of the currency used by your population, you can no longer control inflation or the safety, stability and soundness of your economic and financial systems. Cryptos are not directly affected by any particular country’s interest rates, at least not more than myriad other factors that send their values swirling.

For a central bank, if the actors involved in valuing and distributing the currency are beyond your control, then you’ve essentially ceded control of monetary policy to those actors and their activities. The system will become susceptible to rapid inflation or deflation. The same unit of cryptocurrency may buy a smartphone today and a sandwich tomorrow. Individuals and businesses will begin to distrust the system, and the economy will suffer.

The potential of centrally backed stablecoins

This is not to say that the technology used by cryptos cannot also be used by central banks to provide, regulate or monitor stable digital currencies for the populations and economies they protect. Central banks and governments, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, are currently exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Some have worked for several years with the cooperation of commercial banks. The topic is now prominent for many legislators and bureaucrats involved with financial systems. In January 2021, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the United States released regulatory guidance around the use of blockchain technologies in financial systems, and some central banks have already established proof-of-concept activities with central banks. The most recent U.S. Presidential Executive Order, and the two bills recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, also demonstrate the concern governments have about digital assets and currencies, and they attempt to standardize definitions and protections. Many believe it’s only a matter of time before currency does become purely digital.

CBDCs would behave differently from the most popular existing cryptos: if they are directly tied to a fiat currency, like a “stablecoin,” their value remains as stable as the fiat currency. If they can easily be traced from user to user, they are no longer viable for money laundering, underground economic behaviors, or the financing of other illicit activities. While the usage of cryptos for illegal purposes is perhaps overstated (usage of cash for criminal activities is still more prevalent), there is a considerable appeal for central banks and governments in luring away legitimate crypto users and devaluing less traceable cryptos.

When you take away the pundit opinions, the recent Executive Order from the U.S. President is really asking for some thoughtful consideration of how digital assets should be regulated. With respect to cryptos, governments are in a tricky position: since so many people have invested (some of them their life savings) in cryptos or other digital assets, governments now have to consider how to protect their citizenry. If governments do nothing to regulate the cryptos market, and they instruct or allow central banks to issue their own CBDCs, the resulting impact on cryptos could be catastrophic for some parties, and could have an impact on the economy as a whole. That impact could sway the electorate to make certain decisions about a government they don’t see protecting them (even if from themselves). If the government does regulate cryptos with a heavy hand, and the valuations subsequently decline, the impact to individuals and the economy could be similarly catastrophic and electorate-swaying.

Notwithstanding the regulatory issues regarding cryptos, banks could gain other benefits by tracking currency flows and usage. Certainly, it could help the central banks’ objectives of monitoring and influencing economic growth.

How will this affect the current crop of several thousand cryptocurrencies? Only time will tell. If you like speculative, risky investments, cryptos may be for you, but choose carefully. The day may come when the actions of those with the mandate to protect their sovereign economies and markets will render some cryptos irrelevant or of limited value, and only good as relics for hobbyists and historians.

The IBM Payments Center™ helps financial institutions and businesses modernize their payments platforms and capabilities to reduce their infrastructure costs. Find out what they can do for you.

Source: ibm.com

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Blockchain and sustainability through responsible sourcing

Mining for cobalt, an essential raw material for lithium-ion batteries, carries a high cost in human suffering. More than 60 percent of the world’s supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with about 45 percent coming from large-scale mining operations. The remaining 15 percent comes from small-scale mines in the DRC, where children and adults labor under harsh and dangerous conditions to extract ore by hand.

It’s those working conditions, along with environmental damage to areas mined, that have focused the world’s eyes on the high-profile automotive and electronics industries. Their products — electric vehicles (EVs) smartphones and laptops — depend on lithium-ion batteries, and thus, cobalt.

What’s driving sustainable sourcing initiatives

Companies that take sustainability and social justice seriously work to keep cobalt mined by hand out of their supply chains. Similar concerns hold true for other minerals that pose responsible sourcing risks, including lithium, nickel, copper and the “3TG” group (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold), and for materials that create a hazard for the environment when disposed of incorrectly.

Deploy the IBM Blockchain Platform across multiple environments

The drivers for responsible sourcing of raw materials are strong, ranging from corporate governance to consumer, shareholder and other stakeholder demands to scrutiny from governments, regulatory bodies, financial markets and NGOs. However, until recently, proving responsible sourcing to all these interested parties was an elusive goal, posing significant reputational, legal and commercial risks.

The benefits of blockchain for responsible sourcing networks

Today, the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN), built on IBM Blockchain Platform and assured by RCS Global Group, is providing the transparency, trust and security that are needed to demonstrate responsible sourcing for cobalt. What’s more, the underlying infrastructure that we’ve built for RSBN can be used to jump-start any sustainable sourcing initiative.

The proven benefits of using blockchain technology for sustainable sourcing networks include:

◉ An immutable audit trail that documents proof of initial ethical production of a raw material and its maintenance at every transfer step from mine to end manufacturer

◉ Secure, tamper-evident storage of provenance information and certificates of responsible production

◉ The ability to share a proof of fact while protecting confidential or competitive information

◉ Decentralized control so no single entity can corrupt the process, promoting trust

◉ Lower costs through digitization of a paper process, potential reduction in audits and lower transaction costs

◉ Scalability to accommodate new participants and new industries

Blockchain and RSBN: How it works

Traditionally, miners, smelters, distributers and manufacturers rely on third-party audits to establish compliance with generally accepted industry standards. For RSBN, RCS Global Group provides this assurance through its mineral supply chain mapping and auditing practice, assessing network participants against standards and best practices set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI).

RSBN uses blockchain’s shared, distributed ledger to track production from mine to battery to end product, capturing information on the degree of responsible sourcing at each tier of the supply chain. Downstream companies can access the verified proof that they support and contribute to responsible sourcing practices, which they can then share with auditors, corporate governance bodies and even consumers.

At every step, participants control who is allowed to see what information. Once added to the ledger, certifications and other documents cannot be manipulated, changed or deleted. These properties make blockchain a trusted platform for sharing data across different companies while helping prevent fraud.

Delivering business value across the supply chain

Networks such as RSBN encourage and enable collaboration between suppliers and customers across complex mineral and other conflict-sourced raw material supply chains, with business value accruing to all that participate. For example, here are benefits realized by RSBN participants.

Automotive manufacturers are gearing up to introduce many more electric vehicles (EVs) into the marketplace over 2021 and 2022, creating new demand for li-ion batteries and the cobalt they require. By engaging in responsible sourcing initiatives like RSBN, they can market their products as sustainably produced as well as sustainable on the road. Responsible cobalt sourcing also contributes to corporate citizenship efforts related to fighting poverty, supporting human rights and preventing environmental degradation.

Mines and smelters sit at the top of the supply chain, where responsible sourcing efforts begin and where the real challenges lie. Keeping hand-mined cobalt out of product batches requires process changes, financial investments and a commitment to fight corruption. By demonstrating their results through audits and certifications, these companies are positioned for favored status as suppliers to battery manufacturers.

Consumers have spoken. In a recent IBM study, 77 percent of consumers surveyed said that buying from sustainable or environmentally responsible brands is important. EVs, smartphones and laptops are high-visibility products whose value is closely tied to their rechargeable, long-lasting li-ion batteries. Being able to demonstrate responsible sourcing can help win customers, establish reputational value and prevent backlash such as legal action.

Get started quickly on your responsible sourcing solution

RSBN is a ready-to-join network built on IBM Blockchain Platform and assured by RSC Global. RSBN founding members include Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen Group, global battery manufacturer LG Chem and cobalt supplier Huayou Cobalt. Volvo Cars, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and other companies that operate in “conflict sourced” minerals supply chains are also members.

Companies that want to make sure the raw materials they use have audited and documented responsible sourcing standards confirmed can join RSBN either as an individual company or with their whole supply chain and begin realizing value quickly. Alternatively, IBM Blockchain Services can leverage the assets and infrastructure that underpin RSBN to co-create a responsible sourcing network for other industries and raw materials. Talk to us today about how you can get started demonstrating your organization’s responsible sourcing compliance.

Source: ibm.com

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Expanding choice for blockchain workloads with R3 Corda Enterprise on IBM LinuxONE

It’s an exciting time for IBM LinuxONE. Over the past several months, we’ve been doubling down on new hardware, Red Hat OpenShift and new Cloud Paks for LinuxONE, and new confidential computing capabilities. More than ever, our clients of all sizes looking to win in the era of hybrid cloud are focused on key areas: resiliency, performance demands, security, flexibility and modernization.

Other areas of growth for LinuxONE are emerging workloads and industries like blockchain and digital asset custody. While the importance of safeguarding business and customer data is well known, the nature of blockchain use cases often include the initiation, transfer and custody of financial assets for your business and your customers—which further increases the importance of building applications with security and privacy first.

News from R3’s CordaCon

Today at R3’s CordaCon conference, IBM joins R3 on the virtual stage to announce a new open beta program to bring R3’s enterprise blockchain platform, Corda Enterprise to IBM LinuxONE next month both on premises and the IBM Cloud, delivered using IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services. The R3 on IBM LinuxONE beta program will open on November 2, 2020. General availability (GA) is expected in Q1 2021.

For IBM, bringing R3 Corda Enterprise to LinuxONE is another example of us opening up the platform to deliver the flexibility and choice clients want with the security they need. Not only do blockchain and digital asset custodians face the same traditional security threats as every other business, they also have concerns around data residency, standards compliance and needs around deployment flexibility—all concerns that must be resolved at the infrastructure level.

IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services are designed following a zero-trust security model, not trusting anyone by default, even those within the network perimeter. With IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services, client data is fully protected, while at rest and in flight, even from those with elevated system credentials who should not have access. This is done using technology to enforce that those with elevated system credentials cannot access your data. And, IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Service gives you access to IBM’s industry-leading hardware security module (HSM), certified to be the industry’s first and only FIPS 140-2 Level 4 certified Hardware Security Module (HSM) available in the public cloud.

What this means: IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services provide you with a cloud environment that is engineered for technical assurance of data privacy (in other words, administrators should not access servers or data), as we use technology to enforce those boundaries. This means that you can run your R3 Corda Enterprise workload in the IBM Cloud, with no technical ability for cloud administrators to gain access to your encryption keys or data.

Today’s announcement isn’t an anomaly. We’re also working with clients in the digital asset custody space like OnChain and Hex Trust—as well as clients who need to protect important IP like CDG and Mainbloq. It’s also the same technology that is found in our IBM Cloud for Financial Services and Apple CareKit’s IBM Hyper Protect Software Development Kit (SDK) for iOS—demonstrating that when it comes to open and secure, LinuxONE is part of our clients’ hybrid cloud strategies, from startups to the Fortune 100.

“Corda Enterprise deployment on IBM’s LinuxONE is another exciting step forward within the Corda ecosystem. Specifically, it stands to augment CorDapps such as Ivno that require secure, resilient, and performant node-hosting strategies; ultimately benefiting the wider Corda client base,” said Ryan Gledhill, CTO, Ivno.

Source: ibm.com

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3 critical responsibilities of digital asset custodians

Blockchain technology is moving beyond experimentations and use in payments. Recent advances in cryptographic, security and distributed ledger techniques have opened the door to the widespread use of decentralized ledgers to create sovereign currencies, stablecoins, digital securities and other types of tokenized contracts.

At Hex Trust we provide an enterprise platform which allows financial institutions to use blockchain to integrate digital assets into their business operations in a highly secured, scalable and compliant solution.

While we agree with market estimates that widespread implementation could still be several years away, Hex Trust believes that the size of the digital assets market could reach US$ 10 trillion by 2023, causing a big shift in the overall structure of financial markets. Banks and other financial intermediaries will soon be forced to devise and implement new digital asset strategies.

Custodians: the foundation of a successful digital asset solution

The role of custodians will be a critical building block for the new financial markets infrastructure and will be necessary for the widespread adoption of digital assets. We believe there are three critical responsibilities for digital asset custodians: safekeeping, connectivity and compliance.

Safekeeping

Securely custodizing digital assets protects the private keys and develops secure workflows to support transactions in and out of custody (deposits and withdrawals). So far, custodians have relied on cold wallets created and managed in air-gapped environments to provide the clients with an acceptable level of security. Conversely, most hacks have concentrated on hot wallets, used to provide clients with quick access to their assets. Multi-signature wallets and wallets based on threshold algorithms such as state space search (SSS) and  model predictive control (MPC) mitigate some of the risks of hot wallets. In addition to storage of the private keys, custodians must build their technology architectures to manage cybersecurity risks when interfacing with a public blockchain to facilitate transfers of these assets.

As the blockchain market becomes institutional, the current wallet implementations will not be scalable enough to cater to the requirements of financial intermediaries. A new approach will be required to offer custody solutions which can scale and process thousands of transactions per second with the necessary levels of security.

Hex Trust’s custody platform, Hex Safe™, was specifically engineered leveraging IBM Hyper Protect Virtual Servers and IBM LinuxONE to enable trusted cryptographic transactions and to deliver the highest level of  security and scalability. In addition to a holistic protection compliant to FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) 197 and FIPS 140-2 Level 4 HSM (Hardware Security Module) standards, the IBM Z environment has memory enclaves with common criteria EAL (Evaluation Assurance Level) 5+ rated separation between partitions. Hex Safe integrates additional security measures to enhance the security of assets such as automatic encryption, hardware-bound signing, and immutable customized compliance workflows, protected by tamper-proof secure boot and Secure Image Build, defend the system from malware contamination or coding attacks.

Connectivity

At Hex Trust we believe that a key responsibility of digital asset custodians lies in simplifying the underlying complexities of blockchain technologies and creating a standard access layer to connect capital and service providers across the ecosystem. This is a critical building block to extract the maximum value that blockchain networks can offer to its users and an opportunity to design a new financial market structure fundamentally different from the current one.

Hex Trust is spearheading this transformation by providing its clients an open platform that can be used to securely store assets and to access services offered in the digital asset ecosystem, focusing on integrating brokers, prime brokers, exchanges, lending and borrowing platforms, staking solutions and other custodians.

In addition, Hex Trust is committed to providing a secure bridge between the traditional financial world and the new digital asset ecosystem, allowing banks and other traditional financial institutions to access and serve clients in the digital asset space. As an example of this effort, Hex Safe integrates a SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) interface to create a seamless communication channel with traditional financial institutions.

Compliance

Following the dramatic rise in cryptocurrency investments and trading activities over the last few years, regulators are setting their sights on this growing part of the financial services industry. An example of the regulatory interest is the new guidance published in June 2019 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on how its 37 members should regulate cryptocurrency exchanges. Unlike regulated financial institutions, most cryptocurrency exchanges, and other digital asset operators, do not currently have a legal or technological framework to obtain, hold and transmit identifying information for their transaction counterparties. In addition, while there has been clear progress in various jurisdictions with respect to digital assets, service providers operating in different countries have different regulatory expectations with very limited global consensus on cross-border activities.

At Hex Trust, we believe that digital assets custodians will play a critical role in facilitating the adoption of regulatory and compliance frameworks in the industry. This role consists of various responsibilities including monitoring clients’ transactions to prevent AML/CTF (Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing) activities, reporting identified and transaction information to regulators, protecting clients’ data and providing clients and regulators with tools to perform their compliance activities.

Hex Safe has been specifically designed to meet the complex compliance requirements of our target clients — banks and other financial institutions. Examples of features include on-chain and off-chain account segregation, full audit trails, integrated AML/KYC (Anti-Money Laundering/Know Your Customer) tools to prove ownership and source of funds, and regulatory and internal reporting capabilities. Further, data privacy regulations can add additional levels of complexity, as custodians must be able to collect and transmit data without accessing and storing sensitive third-party data.

In line with our collaborative approach to the digital asset market, Hex Safe has already integrated third-party tools to enhance our blockchain analytics functionalities, with a long term objective of connecting various compliance platforms to satisfy the requirements of our clients and the jurisdictions they operate in.

Looking towards the future of the digital asset market

As blockchain technology and digital assets become mainstream, the role of the custodian is evolving from  simply providing a secure wallet to providing bank-grade security and transactional capability, securely connecting services and capital across the market, and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and legislations in various jurisdictions. These responsibilities pose a complex challenge to invested entities and will ultimately define the future of the market infrastructure. Hex Trust, with IBM infrastructure, is well-positioned to lead the transformation in this area and offer digital assets players the first bank-grade solution to access the digital asset market.

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IBM and Verum Capital help businesses leverage blockchain

IBM and Verum Capital, a Swiss-based blockchain advisory boutique, are collaborating to help businesses accelerate the use of digital assets by scaling and securing blockchain solutions.

The rise of the digital economy

According to Research and Markets, the global digital asset management market is growing at 16.5 percent to reach $8.5 billion by 2025. In Switzerland, two banks are now fully licensed to offer blockchain-based financial instruments and traditional banks are increasingly offering crypto services. In the DACH region, more than 50 banks have applied for a license to offer similar services.

More and more, leading financial institutions are bringing traditional investment products onto blockchain. This shift toward decentralized finance is important for the future of the digital economy. By offering blockchain-based financial products, financial institutions can grow business through inclusion. At the individual level, blockchain-based services can support the unbanked but also the micro-investor who can gain access to the rate of return typically reserved for institutional investors with large sums of money. At the organizational level, financial products that are built using the blockchain become affordable and flexible enough to serve the SME segment. Now small businesses can also benefit from bond issuance on blockchain, for example.

Digitizing assets

Traditional company shares, bonds, loans or non-traditional and non-bankable assets such as artworks, real estate properties, private securities, even gold can be digitized, tokenized, and traded on a variety of platforms. An advantage of tokenizing assets is that it creates a fractional ownership scheme for physical assets that had previously been considered indivisible. The underlying asset could then be offered to a larger number of buyers who have increased liquidity on the secondary market. Tokenization allows the digital economy to become much more efficient, transparent, and liquid, while it also becomes a more inclusive marketplace.

Key success factors

Storing and trading digital assets securely using blockchain is a step forward in unleashing the transformative potential of the digital economy.

There are two key success factors for the widespread adoption of digital assets: hypercritical availability and scalability, as well as simultaneous industry-leading security.

Until now, this trade-off has presented a significant obstacle. Users had to choose between availability and security when handling their digital assets. IBM is solving this trade-off for financial services providers through cutting-edge digital asset custody that makes the location of the asset irrelevant (no matter where the asset is actually stored). The technology has incredible potential to improve digital asset availability without sacrificing security.

Verum Capital and IBM — strong synergies

IBM’s digital asset custody solutions are the basis for the collaboration with Verum Capital. Together, Verum Capital and IBM can offer clients highly secure and scalable digital asset infrastructure solutions, as well as the essential advisory services that will enable them to develop new business opportunities using blockchain.

As the leading blockchain advisory, Verum Capital is joining IBM’s unique ecosystem to ensure that these institutional-grade digital asset services can best be used in the financial services sector.

Since 1977, tens of trillions of dollars of wealth have been secured using hardware security modules (HSMs) invented by IBM. Featuring hardware security modules, IBM LinuxONE servers, for example, enable pervasive encryption of all application data in-flight and at-rest. They run IBM Hyper Protect Virtual Servers, a solution that provides a secure computing environment for highly sensitive data.

Once again, IBM is at the forefront of a technological solution for wealth storage and transaction, and together IBM and Verum Capital are the perfect fit for the positioning of this next generation technology.

Based on our extensive experience working on strategic blockchain projects within the financial sector,  we know how incredibly valuable it is for clients to have the choice to deploy a solution on-premises, as part of a private cloud environment, or as a service, allowing digital asset and blockchain firms to scale with the growing demand.

The essential infrastructure that IBM continues to develop is a very valuable building block for our team of blockchain consultants. When we advise our clients, develop pilot projects, and manage full-scale implementations of blockchain technology, we choose to work with IBM’s infrastructure and products because businesses are very comfortable relying on IBM.

Source: ibm.com

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No two supply chains are the same – IBM Sterling has a platform for that

Historically, most supply chains are closed systems locked behind four walls. They are a stitched-together series of heterogeneous systems, networks and applications, with many different data formats. Because no two supply chains are the same and are comprised of many systems beyond their control, developers and partners tell me that one of their biggest challenges is orchestrating solutions to enable end-to-end transactional flows, like order to cash, seamlessly.

At IBM, we believe the only way to create end-to-end supply chain solutions is with an open platform that you can extend and enhance. This platform should provide building blocks so you can customize and configure solutions and bridge to other networks and services involved in the supply chain – and enable you to bring in data and insights from other domains to solve supply chain problems unique to your business.

What open means for supply chain

This commitment to open technology is in our DNA and that’s why I’m excited to tell you about the new IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite that we’re launching today. It’s part of our broader multi-enterprise business network (MEBN) strategy that acknowledges there are many types of networks and applications that must work together across different enterprises – with applications and expert services on top of data to bring added value – to not only solve problems but get ahead of them.

As part of the launch, we’re introducing the Sterling Developer Hub and Developer Advocacy Program to provide support across the entire development lifecycle and as you engage in the ecosystem.

How open works for you

The IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite delivers the following new extension points:

◉ Business service creation with public APIs. You can access public APIs for data ingest and query. A canonical map for data insulates the services from the particulars of the data origin, and new data origins don’t require changes to your applications.

◉ Open AI to build your own AI agents. The IBM Sterling Supply Chain Business Assistant gives you access to our AI agents, which are pre-trained in supply chain, as well as the ability to build your own supply chain business agents and introduce machine reasoning skills against external data sources. This allows you to teach the AI platform about problem domains specific to your supply chain.

◉ Assets for interconnecting with API-driven systems. Most new apps, services and networks are API-driven. As part of our network-of-networks strategy, the developer platform has iPaaS-based reusable assets to help you create the connective tissue to interconnect with other applications and services that are important to your supply chain.

◉ IBM Cloud Paks to run services wherever your business is. You can use the IBM Cloud Pak for Data to host custom analytics, AI and data science services using our InfoHub as a data source. You can also use the IBM Cloud Pak for Integration to interconnect your networks with other networks and systems. With Red Hat OpenShift you can run these Cloud Paks anywhere – in any cloud or on premise.

Source: ibm.com

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Fueling the next-generation of supply chains

In today’s global marketplace, businesses can win or lose on the strength of their supply chain. To deliver market-leading agility, supply chain leaders have spent years digitizing processes, optimizing workflows, and introducing analytics to better understand past events so they can take more informed actions in the future.

Despite enormous investments of time, budget and resources, some first-generation digital supply chains are still optimized in functional silos. Collaboration across functions and organizations for them would still be plagued by traditional manual processes. And supply chains of that type could still be struggling to meet the needs of the business and the expectations of customers.

The next chapter of digital transformation will require supply chains that are dynamic, responsive and interconnected across ecosystems and processes. Moving forward, you will need to take even bolder strides to drive efficiencies and be resilient to disruptions.

The ultimate goal? Build intelligent, self-correcting supply chains that deepen your competitive differentiation today and are designed for whatever the future holds.

What smart means for supply chain

That’s why I’m thrilled about the IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite that we’re launching today. It’s an open, integrated platform with embedded Watson AI and IBM Blockchain that easily connects to your supplier and customer ecosystem. It helps you address persistent supply challenges by providing end-to-end visibility, real-time insights and recommended actions to turn disruptions into opportunities for customer engagement, growth and profit.

How smart works for supply chain

The IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite helps you build an intelligent, self-correcting supply chain with:

◉ Real-time intelligence and actionable recommendations. Applications and control towers, embedded with AI and trained in supply chain, provide end-to-end visibility, real-time alerts and recommendations that can be automated for self-correcting actions to help drive better business outcomes. Clients using individual Sterling applications, such as IBM Sterling Fulfillment Optimizer with Watson, in their supply chains today have lowered shipping cost per order by an average of 7 percent. IBM also used these capabilities in its own global supply chain to reduce disruption mitigation time from days to hours, becoming 95 percent more efficient at tackling recurring supply chain challenges.

◉ Trusted connectivity – built to scale, backed by IBM Blockchain. Our blockchain-enabled, multi-enterprise business network provides frictionless, secured connectivity and collaboration with customers, partners and suppliers. You can quickly engage with more than 800,000 preconnected trading partners executing 3 billion transactions a year.

◉ Open to developers to create tailored solutions. The IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite allows systems integrators and developers to build, extend and integrate tailored supply chain solutions that can interoperate with other business networks and applications. It also enables you to bring in third-party data so that all connected applications and networks can benefit from it. The Suite’s Developer Hub provides a global community of developers, open-source programs, and a library of knowledge resources to help solve your unique supply chain challenges faster.

◉ Hybrid-cloud integration to extend existing supply chain investments. Instead of requiring time-consuming and expensive migrations, the Suite’s enterprise-ready containerized software, along with IBM Cloud Paks, allows you to extend the value and reach of your legacy applications and data. This hybrid approach means you have the freedom to choose where to run your workloads and the ability to link them to value-added services in the IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite. For example, IBM Sterling Order Management containers for Red Hat OpenShift will allow you to continue to run your software in their own datacenter – or in any cloud.

The bottom line: When you have greater transparency and a better understanding of what’s happening across your supply chain – coupled with intelligent applications for key supply chain activities – you can radically improve efficiencies. Achieve lower cost to serve with less chance of over or under correction. And make more informed decisions faster. Quite simply, you deliver better business outcomes.

Source: ibm.com

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Supercharge your next tech project with virtual co-creation

You know your business inside and out. You’re aware of its IT needs and challenges, and you want to take advantage of state-of-the-art technologies. Perhaps you’re looking to get supercharged on the latest tech trends and see how to employ them in your organization. What if your IT team could join forces with infrastructure specialists to co-create enterprise-scale solutions quickly?

Co-creation is the concept of generating shared business value through partnership between a company and its customers. It can be used to brainstorm new products or services, solve problems or boost performance. In the IT industry, businesses might co-create IT solutions by working together to identify potential projects, define their scope and chart a plan for implementing them.

Co-creating with IT infrastructure experts

The IBM Systems Co-Creation Lab provides a collaborative environment where you and IBM IT infrastructure experts work side-by-side to create first-of-a-kind strategies and solutions. IT architects from around the world design and develop applications with you in technologies like hybrid multicloud and AI.

Co-creation workshops with IBM have helped organizations across industries to quickly innovate IT solutions:

◉ A major apparel retailer used co-creation to explore a new AI application for fashion recommendations with AI vision capabilities.

◉ A financial services company pursued a co-creation approach to help modernize its storage infrastructure for greater cyber resiliency after an outage impacted its business.

◉ A large bank used co-creation to discover how cloud and AI could help it address regulatory and resiliency issues, enhance its mobile platform and expand retail operations.

Co-creation workshops led by IBM Systems Worldwide Client Experience Centers can be hosted at your location, IBM Business Partner sites, IBM locations around the world or virtually. Virtual workshops, such as our 90-minute virtual Discovery workshop, have successfully helped businesses quickly explore and launch new IT solutions.

Technology focus areas for our co-creation workshops include:

◉ Infrastructure modernization

◉ AI, machine learning and deep learning

◉ Hybrid multicloud and Red Hat

◉ Enterprise security

◉ Storage

◉ Analytics

◉ Blockchain

Working in one or more of these technology areas, you can choose from four types of co-creation workshops, depending on where you are in your IT project.

The Co-Creation Lab workshops

Discovery workshop

A discovery workshop is an opportunity for CIOs and other business executives to work with IBM infrastructure experts to identify market opportunities, discuss their business challenges and brainstorm use cases for potential technologies. This workshop can help you gain deeper insight into your infrastructure and find innovative ways to grow your business by working smarter and faster. A no-cost discovery workshop is a multi-hour event, and you’ll come away with a report identifying the results of the co-creation discovery process.

Design Thinking workshop

Enterprise Design Thinking methodologies help teams learn how to focus their work around users’ needs. A Design Thinking workshop is an opportunity for various stakeholders across a business to align on a business opportunity and use case. Using tools like storyboarding, empathy mapping and retrospectives, this multi-day workshop helps you evaluate current business and IT processes and define the minimum viable product (MVP) for a solution your organization wants to put in place.

Architectural consulting

In an architectural consultation, you work with an IBM Systems Co-Creation Lab architect to determine the design and scope of your project, and to validate a use case with stakeholders. This workshop brings together your knowledge of your IT strategy, users and ecosystem with an IBM architect’s leadership and guidance on architecture design for your project.

MVP build

When you’re ready to develop a functioning solution, an MVP build gives your development team the opportunity to work with agile experts from IBM Client Experience Centers who can help you learn fast, test hypotheses and iterate quickly as you build and deploy your MVP. Your developers and IBM developers work side-by-side to build and deploy the solution. Employing agile and DevOps practices encourages rapid, iterative user feedback, test-driven development, continuous integration and delivery.

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