Omnichain in the News: Omnichain CEO Pratik Soni sat down with Food Engineering to explain how the company’s Blockchain-as-a-Service solution uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and distributed ledger technology to optimize supply chain performance.
If you’ve been in operations and using technology for some time, you may remember the hoopla when the Windows 3.0 OS came on the scene. You probably had been living in a world where the very stable UNIX OS and Oracle or IBM databases were the main underlying system technologies, and real-time operating systems with deterministic networks were the norm for process control. At that time, Windows 3.0 (built on DOS with networking as an afterthought) and Ethernet were not serious considerations for the plant floor.
Blockchain is like one of those underlying technologies. While it’s relatively new, there’s also been a lot of hype about it—in fact, it uses networking and distributed database technology with encryption, security and much more. But should you jump on the bandwagon now? Just how integrated is blockchain technology with applications? Is one blockchain compatible with another? Is it secure? Should you wait until the dust settles out?
Another BaaS offering comes from Omnichain, which is intended to tame supply chain issues. Omnichain offers an end-to-end software platform that enables food and beverage manufacturers to establish their own blockchain network and distributed ledger of supply chain data—from farm to fork/cup, says Pratik Soni, founder and CEO. It’s a solution that is ready to deploy out of the box through a BaaS delivery model, which streamlines implementation time and costs. “From a single decentralized platform, our clients—along with the other stakeholders in their value chain—can obtain visibility into holistic supply chain data, improving transparency and accountability among all parties,” says Soni.
Ominchain’s BaaS, however, may be the first such system with AI capabilities. With distributed ledger as the foundational data layer, the solution offers food and beverage manufacturers more than insight into product provenance. Using the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning, it can take all that supply chain data logged on the distributed ledger, run predictive analytics and deliver intelligent recommendations in how to hit targeted outcomes. These may be objectives like improving demand forecast accuracy, increasing supply chain efficiency, or reducing costs and waste. “Our clients are able to derive more value and execute on their data to simplify, orchestrate and automate their supply chains,” adds Soni.