We are facing a global threat as never before, this pandemic has reached almost every country in the five continents causing thousands and thousands of businesses around the world close its doors temporarily or in the worsts of the scenarios, indefinitely. In the “new normal”, (as many specialists are calling the pandemic) people simply cannot live as usual: the risk of contagion is keeping us in our houses, changing our lifestyles in unexpected ways. These justified restrictions are, in one way or another, speeding up the radical transformation of certain businesses, like the banking and financial services. In the months ahead, probably the quarantine policies and the restrictions will be softer than today, but one thing is clear: the new normal will come accompanied by the speeding up of the automation and the digitization of the services.

From banking to e-commerce and delivery services, the need for safety, transparency, and efficiency is pushing forward the implementation of new technologies in great scale, massively in record time. We, the consumers (and mainly the younger generations), widely prefer the automation in our daily transactions of any kind: the usage of the cutting edge technology always left in us the feeling of cleaning and trust, and the tech companies know that.

Fintech Startups are disrupting the Banking Industry around the World | Data Driven Investor

Definitively, the transactions for almost any of the recently upgraded services in the new normal, is based in the linkage with banking: in some places, it is not possible to use Uber without a debit card, and the same for most of the delivery services. Even more, e-commerce simply could not work without an account profile backed by a personal bank account. So, one of the critical industries undoubtedly is the banks, and in lesser degree, the financial services.

As I have noted in past articles, the endeavors of the big technology players for speeding up the cloud adoption are very clear, since they have been the recent winners to help mainly small and medium-size banks in their journey for the full digitization of services. As Werner Vogels mentioned in an opinion published by The Banker: “That alternative for many financial institutions is the cloud. You might ask why one of the world’s most regulated industries is betting big on the cloud. The answer is simple. They can compete at speed, protect their customers, and get access to the most advanced analytical services, without breaking the bank”. In the short term, we are going to see them growing up in the portfolio of services provided by banks, and the improving of the existing ones, the new normal demands it.

Another big weapon of the largest tech companies in the AI, historically used and with a bright future within the banking industry. In the words of Chris Skinner: “Technological innovation will accelerate. The infrastructure we rely upon to work from home during the lock-down is delivered by AI-first companies: Google, Microsoft, Apple. In the same way, in our industry, the winners will be those who invest in building vertically integrated AI-first companies. Not only will they build a profitable business, but they will also dominate this industry.”

So, it´s not fortuitous the levels in the stock price of the 3 biggest names in the industry:

At this point, I don’t know if these big tech companies will be the undisputed winners in the race, but at least we know that the bankers, their shareholders and even their consumers trust their expertise to expand the services through adding more computation power and enabling smart systems. The ‘push’ needed to upgrade the capacity of the banking services was done unfortunately by the pandemic, but the increase of the adoption will be a decision of the market as long as it meets the demand for safety, transparency, and efficiency.

Speeding up the digitalization of the tech banking: Cloud and AI as the pandemic winners was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Emergence of Decentralized Finance | Data Driven Investor

Probably some of the major players in the industry are going to wait to reshape their business, because, considering the large amount of services they still have in legacy systems, the migrations and implementations will not be easy, quick and cheap. But, in the other extreme of the table, we have the new blood of the industry (some of them backed by the big names through Joint and Angel Ventures like J.P. Morgan Chase, SoftBank, etc) they are about to exploit every segment of the business using the formidable capabilities of the Cloud, the Artificial Intelligence to reduce the amount of workload and the analytics in the customer service, for example.

Maybe the processes where the banking industry of the future run their business are quite more exciting than the current ones, however, we should understand first how the banking services operate in real life by now, in order to identify the main areas more likely to be redesigned by technology and innovation:

-Corporate Banking

Primary activities include:

1. Loans and other credit products

2. Treasury and other cash management services

3. Equipment lending

4. Trade finance

Secondary activities include:

1. Commercial real estate

2. Employer services

-Key Performance Indicators:

1. Financial performance: measures the level of revenue generated of the assets from its core business

2. Operational performance: mostly made by other parties in the industry as external analyst and regulators, and measures the products, the risks, the channels, the branch, the employee, the customer service, the front-office, the payments and the IT performance of the bank

3. Customer service performance: measures the level and quality provided to the customers and the variables assessed are commonly the satisfaction indices, the number of investigations and ATM´s, the revenue per customer and the customers per bank.

Internal organization and key roles:

1. Front office: the main responsibility is the direct interaction with the clients through different channels. Among the activities are customer management, sales, marketing, and product development. The common key roles are the head of sales, the branch manager and the chief of marketing.

2. Back office (core banking): the main responsibilities are the management of loans, deposits, and credit for the clients. Among the activities are the distribution of services, financial management, and retail products. The common key roles are the COO, the CIO, and the retail product managers.

3. Back office (payments and transactions): the main responsibility is the proper processing of payments and the transfer of funds to the different parties. Among the activities are cash management, merchant services, and the payments. The common key roles are the head of payments and the head of liquidity management.

4. Risk management: the main responsibility is the proper management of risk in its diverse forms. Among the activities are the providing of financial controls, the ensuring of the security and privacy and the continuous asses of the credit, market and operational risk. The common key roles are the CRO, the CCO, and the CISO.

Opportunities for the corporate banking:

1. Creation of a customer-focused service: facilitate banking operations of all kind through the massive access to the market to smartphones, identify opportunity areas using analytics and optimization of processes.

2. Improving the flexibility and operational efficiency: new financial products will be launched entirely online, which eventually will drive agility and competitive differentiation for the banks.

3. Optimization of the risk management and regulatory processes: due to the transparency of the operations it will be easier for the banks combat fraud and money laundering, also, the regulatory activities will be fulfilled in less time and with less friction.

So, now considering the true way that most of the banks are organized, think about the following: where are located the main opportunity niches and advantages for the industry, and of course, where are located the biggest challenges and the stoppers.

From my point of view, the three main potential opportunities are: first, quick and easy access to smartphones of every time younger of prospective customers. Second, the younger the banked population, the more time they will have to save, in this way the assets can grow for a longer time and be more profitable. And third, year after year it would be cheaper for startups and fintech companies to acquire better and safer technology to improve the service. The incentives are on the table, and the bet has been done: the capacity of processability of the transactions, the speed and the easiness of the customer experience, and the security of the environments are critical characteristics of good service, and all of them are given by the systems, in other words, in a near future, the success of the new tech banking services will be determined mostly by the technological efficiency.

Corporate banking: the seeking for the innovation was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Infographic: Journey to the Clouds | Data Driven Investor

Names of big players in the Cloud arena are beating in a fierce fight to gain more market share in Latin American. However, and despite that names like AWS, Microsoft, Google and IBM are renowned globally by their aggressive strategy and innovation, in the region, the tech business environment is emitting mixed signals.

For instance, maybe globally AWS is the biggest player in the general Cloud arena but in Latin America the main vendor is clearly Microsoft. However, Microsoft and AWS have slowed down in their respective revenues in the late 2019, while Google has been pushing forward investing heavily in the region in order to gain market share in the medium term. Also, it seems that AWS is following the same strategy that Google with his new Data center located in Argentina. On the other hand, IBM despite its long history, locations, and services in the region, is struggling to maintain a reigning position in the general Cloud battlefield.

To be more specific, in the Public Cloud segment, Microsoft has won the first position for three consecutive years, but it is closely followed by its main competitor, AWS. That means not only that those two big companies are the kings of this specific segment but also, they have a clear financial advantage to other competitors in the market due to this bigger chunk of the market that finally means, a bigger revenue. Until now, Microsoft and AWS almost quadruplicate their advantage to their closest competitor. Also, we must consider that year after year this gap is deepening.

Latin American market share: Public Cloud

In the Public Cloud battlefield, the business environment is pretty different, because we see here old players with the biggest chunks of the market share. IBM, HPE, and CISCO are the clear dominant companies, however, lately Microsoft has gained some terrain due to its improvement in portfolio Cloud services. The IBM dominance in the last year almost triplicate the numbers of its closest competitor, this is fairly by the expansion that company made in last decades, to its renowned name and brand, and also, to its big capabilities deployed in the region.

Latin American market share: Private Cloud

Finally, the variety of industries served both in Public and Private Cloud are basically as follows:

1. Banks

2. Telecommunications

3. Airlines

4. Manufacturing (from industrial to consume products)

So, in the near future honestly, we don´t expect a big change in the industries of the Cloud users, but strong improvements in the services and capabilities deployed in their current core business. Blockchain and AI implementations will encompass mostly of the new innovations; if 2019 was the great of experimentation on those fields, 2020 will be the great year for smart and lucrative implementations.

Now, the big companies in each segment of the Cloud Business should integrate the hottest innovations of the tech industry, and not just maintain their status of “bigger players” because as we know, we are in a market where “the winners take all”. We have faced in recent year a width stage of Research and Development precisely in Blockchain and AI, now the market is claiming for one thing: action.

Are we going to face a complete revolution in digital services due to the improvement of Cloud computing in 2020? Or only will it be another year of “experimentation” and null real business implementation?

Latin American Cloud battlefield: Tech giants fighting in the Public and the Private Cloud was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Looks like the technological disruption in the banking services is just around the corner. The recent massive Cloud adoption is shaking the entire industry from its foundations due to the improvement of the customer service and experience. Also, and as we know, the news capabilities of the IT related services such as AI, Blockchain, IoT and so on can be leveraged entirely as Cloud native based microservices, but that includes the possibility for migrations from legacy systems. So, this very nice relationship could last decades if we consider that we currently are living just the beginning of the massive adoption of Cloud and its variants according to the different business models.

According to a document released in September 2019 by Gartner called “Cloud Heat Map for Banking and Investment Services, 2019”, around 195 deals among banks and Cloud providers were analyzed from 2014 to 2018. The analysis shows very remarkable trends in the IT industry related to the Cloud adoption for banking services.

Infographic: Journey to the Clouds | Data Driven Investor

For example, the Front Office in the banking services (which implies the micro-services of Sales and Servicing, CRM and the Channels) takes around the 32% of the Cloud adoption, the Middle Office (Risk, Security, and Compliance) on the other hand takes the 13%, while the Back Office (Core banking systems, Payment processing, Back-Office collaboration, and AM and VW systems) represent the 31%. Finally, the Cloud adoption for the Infrastructure (Development and testing, Enterprise content management, Infrastructure data center, ERP and Enterprise Data Management) represents 24%.

Under the same analysis made by Gartner and summarizing the Cloud for banking services adoption in recent years, and using the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), the total increase in the main five functional areas is as follows:

1. Infrastructure 211%,

2. Risk, security and Compliance 148%,

3. Payment processing 126%,

4. Core banking systems 97%

5. Channels 93%.

The disruption in the banking services by the massive adoption of Cloud, may it won´t be overnight, but from my point of view, the transition will be soft and slow. What is true, is that the new banking services Cloud-enabled will be smarter, more transparent, more efficient and even cheaper for the final consumer, thus in the short and medium terms, most of the banks (if they don´t want to lose the race) will put their services totally in the Cloud to offer at the highest level to their clients, corporate and commercial, their services.

Additionally, other trends found in the analysis shows something very interesting about the Cloud adoption in the banking services related to the models and the development of business. As I noted in the lines up, the Private Cloud is the most adopted by banks, with the singularity that most of the times are hosted by third parties at external data centers. Also, this business model is related remarkably to midsize banks.

The Public Cloud, despite has lifted some concerns about the security and the lack of privacy also has acquired grown in the adoption due to the hosting benefits as the AI Cloud-based capabilities and the easiness of management.

By last, the Hybrid Cloud though is still popular among the analytics and machine learning services for the banking services, recently has shown a king of stagnation in the adoption. The model of the Hybrid Cloud implementations tends to be more popular in the “treasury and trade finance business unit in the 2019” not in the banking services by itself.

Possibly the general public, and even the final consumer is not aware of the massive adoption of the banks and their bet for the Cloud-enabled services, but what is true is that the market is experiencing a big improvement in the quality and security of the banking and other financial services. Every day big players of the banking environment are making efforts to build new capabilities on the Cloud to attract wishing customers for the novelties, also, the adoption will mean in the medium term the reduction of some operative costs associated with the maintaining of the legacy systems. At the end of the day, the romance among the banks and the IT and Cloud providers will be dictated by the preference of the consumer for the smartest, the fastest, the most reliable and securest banking applications.

Cloud & Banking Services: A Very Profitable Romance was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

According to the Hosting Tribunal, around 60% of the workloads globally will be directed to Cloud environments for 2019. And that is not truly surprising if we consider that the global Cloud market is set to reach almost 260 billion USD at the end of the current year.

Immediately after to look at those big numbers, a necessary question appears in my head: what that means to mortals like you and me? First of all, indicates that all sizes companies are accelerating their journey to Cloud very fast, and not only that; companies around the world are willing to spend much money in it.

Infographic: Journey to the Clouds | Data Driven Investor

At this rate, in the near future the growing interconnectivity among people and companies, the high demand for smart and all-in-one sites to provide all kinds of online services and the integration of other technologies such as the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence in Cloud environments for commercial purposes, will shape forever the current state of the digital era and the entire Internet as we know it.

So, in this context, one of the oldest and most renowned tech companies in the world has entered into the market of innovative technology and disruption with a very hot value proposal: the IBM Hybrid Cloud. The IBM Hybrid Cloud is competing largely with other big names of the industry not trying to steal their market niche but precisely the opposite: providing interconnection and IT services to companies that currently use other Cloud environments. The reason is very clear, according to forbes.com[2] by next year (2020), 22% of the total workloads to Cloud represent hybrid strategies.

Other major players in the Cloud race are AWS, Azure and Google. Each provides powerful and flexible services. There’s no doubt, however, the IBM Hybrid Cloud bets precisely for this specific business niche, considering the vast universe of companies that have chosen the multi-cloud and the hybrid environments the ideas are way more than reasonable. Moving to the Cloud now is a tendency and will be mainstream in the short term.

I believe deeply that moving to Cloud is a must for the following reasons:

• Market constantly demands greater and more powerful applications to provision for a growing variety of online services, This is feasible, affordable and possible a Cloud environment.
• Competition builds pressure to migrate to Cloud and adopt new technologies to gain market share faster.
• Moving to Cloud accelerates the digital transformation and even the digital culture inside a company.
• The Cloud environments simplify the entire operation on providing services, also cuts streams of spending and focuses on certain costs.

To understand better the capabilities of the usage the IBM Hybrid Cloud I remark the next three key points:

1. Innovation with the ultimate technology from and to any source
2. Get the access required to more types of data, analytics, and AI anywhere
3. Improve return on existing investments

Finally, IBM has developed a comprehensive strategy around migration and innovation to help customers to move to Cloud. It also helps existing customers who are already in the Cloud, to move to Hybrid Cloud to facilitate the interconnection among several Cloud providers and maximize the service of each one. To understanding the market easier, the journey to Cloud is given by a specific order and steps:

1. Migrate: lift and shift applications and workloads
2. Modernize: update containers and microservices
3. Build: build new native applications
4. Manage: integrate and manage multi-cloud

The battle to gain customers around the adoption of Cloud will be definitively hard in the years to come, however, is well known that the excellent customer service is a brand signature of IBM where customers are asked: How can I help you? Instead of: What can I sell you?

How Moving to Cloud Makes Smarter and More Profitable Businesses in the Digital Era? was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

IBM Hybrid and multi-Cloud: The betting for the future

IBM, like any other major player in the race for the automation of data and analytics, has a specific strategy to compete with other big names in the multi-billion-dollar Cloud market[1]. Meanwhile AWS has the main advantage the customization of the client experience and flexibility, Azure, on the other hand, has the easy use and integration of tools for service, IBM has opted to differentiate its service from the others providing a platform capable to keep hybrid multi-Cloud environment where customers can deploy services and applications in both public and private Cloud.

But what exactly means this betting of IBM in the Cloud market?

To avoid losing ourselves in the loop of ideas and details, first we should define some concepts prior to explain the IBM strategy:

Infographic: Journey to the Clouds | Data Driven Investor

Public Cloud: is defined as a computing environment where the members use the services of the platform on a pay per use basis.

Private Cloud: is defined as a computing environment where only members have access to the services of the company or organization on a limited basis.

Hybrid Cloud: is defined as a computing environment where a company or organization provides services on both public and private Cloud.

Multi-cloud: is defined as a computing environment where the architecture of services provides multiple public and private resources.

Examples of successful hybrid Cloud implementation by IBM to corporate customers:

National Health Service: public cloud architecture enabled to make it easier for patients to get heart transplants.

American Airlines: a booking application built and deployed connected to public Cloud reservation systems in the data center.

ExxonMobil: a third-party application of payments built in a public cloud.

Bradesco: one of the biggest Brazilian banks, upgrade its capacities building an application on the private Cloud connected to their mainframe.

So, the advantage of IBM in the battle to gain more market in the Cloud race is basically provide a full platform to based on the idea of interchange the modality of several Cloud services through public and private. According to IBM recent reports, companies are basing its architecture into different Cloud providers, resulting in the difficulty to integrate and operate different platforms at a time. The purpose of the hybrid Cloud of IBM is precisely this: make easier the portability and operation of different Cloud environments.

Build true utilities and advantages in order to differentiate from the competence is hard, mainly because it looks like the objectives of Cloud market globally are the same: get the maximum capacity of the integration, security, and speed in the services with the lowest cost possible. Among the top advantages and utilities IBM provides as a differentiator in the current Cloud market are:

1. Scalability: scale the level of service on both public and private Cloud on-demand

2. Resiliency: instant recovery on critical applications and service with a strength cybersecurity platform

3. Software as a Service (SaaS): access to several sources of business applications and services focused on client experience

4. Flexibility: development and deployment in the platform as business architecture require

5. Global: considering the worldwide presence of IBM services, the access to Cloud data centers are guaranteed

So, the strategy of IBM to disrupt the global Cloud Market looks like clear in comparison to its closest competitors: become a major Multi-cloud provider with access to a powerful and suitable services as security, open-source based architecture to business purposes, integration and executive management of high level, technical support worldwide through data centers in several locations and the expertise and decades of experience in IT services. Also, it should be noted that most of the current customers of IBM whose are upgrading its Cloud computing capacities are corporate and big names in their respective industries: IBM has been well known to provide very specific services to very precise industries such as banks, oil & gas, airlines, hospitals among others. The forced question is after all is, can IBM remain as a major player in the Cloud race to face aggressive and multifaceted competitors? Many of us think so, considering the long and proven experience that gives IBM a brand name by itself, however, we are in a technological race where winners take all, and its competitors are truly engaged to provide equally, the best client experience ever. If IBM wants to become again a disruptive competitor, needs to make more flexible, accessible and easy to use its services: exactly as the closest competitors are doing right now and focusing overall in the client experience.

By the way, what are the customers demanding?

According to IBM reports, about 10–20% of applications have been moved to the Cloud, the other 80% of IT services remain the analogical environment, and these services are precisely those who are the companies looking to move to the Cloud, but the moving must not represent only a simple migration, but a complete shift in the business applications. The Cloud computing services are more than useful, necessaries to get the real upgrading in the service.

Companies of several industries are engaged in a race to optimize from the supply chain to payments in order to make more efficient the daily operation, managing data and workflows across 10 to 16 different Cloud providers, automatizing and digitizing process. The opportunity for IBM is there to enable different solutions using all the powerful tools from AI to the blockchain, analytics, and cybersecurity. In some words, clients are looking for getting enterprise-grade security in a hybrid cloud environment, make simpler and faster the portability to data and applications across several the Multi-cloud and finally, build consistent Cloud management and automation across the same Multi-cloud environment.

[1] The current market value of the Cloud business worldwide is around 214.4 billion USD according to the consulting firm Gartner: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-04-02-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-revenue-to-g

IBM Hybrid and multi Cloud: The betting for the future was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Reshaping the Shipping Industry with Blockchain I

Why the “transparency, traceability and efficiency” matters in the logistics business?

Considering that the logistics process of import and export is not limited to parcel companies (as DHL, UPS or FEDEX) but most of the global cargo currently is shipped by local and small-medium companies such as freight forwarders, independent brokers and tiny cargo agencies, the process is more complex than it seems. I mean, send a pair of shoes from the US to your cousin who is living in a remote town of Mexico or Central America using the parcel service of a giant company which has offices everywhere, is not really complex, right? But when you have to ship for the first time a large amount of raw material or tons of dangerous cargo by sea to a far country, the easy task suddenly can become a true nightmare.

The problem is not the agility or level of expertise you can handle the raw material or the dangerous cargo, the problem is the complexity itself of the current process to import or export something. Evidently, there are major differences among country to country about the degree of difficulty to ship something, that´s true because regularly as a country is likely to use an automated process, is easier the process of import or export. Anyways, logistics must and can be a better industry, and it definitively will, thanks to technology.

5 Industry Transforming Blockchain Applications | Data Driven Investor

But, why exactly the process of handle large amounts of cargo represents a murky and a costly experience? From my experience, because the process involves necessarily other murky and costly subprocess. I mean, when you ship something from “A” to “B”, probably you don’t know the whole complex process your cargo is going to pass. One of the easiest ways to ship large amounts of cargo is to hire a service door to door with your local forwarder: you purchase the goods and then order to the forwarder begin the process of shipping by picking up the cargo in the factory, then the cargo should be documented with the carrier and paralleled, fulfill tax obligations in the local custom house. After that, if the cargo was successfully documented both with the carrier and then with the customs authority, your cargo will begin the sailing. And 3 or 4 weeks later, the cargo finally will arrive at the custom of the point “B”, only to face again a murky and costly process. For newbies in the matter and even sometimes for experienced professionals, there’s not much clarity when the cargo goes from one hand to another, but at the final of the process (after the cargo was successfully cleared from the custom house and delivered) probably more than 7 or 8 companies intervened… and you never realized that until your freight forwarder sends you the invoice for its services in which appears suddenly costs you were never aware of. This is, unfortunately, the current way that the logistics business is made.

why the “transparency, traceability and efficiency” matters in the logistics business?

As we know, ship large amounts of cargo can be complex due to the nature of the business: several sub-process triggers in parallel and sometimes, without the awareness of the shipper. The main problems of the logistics industry are in the first place the lack of transparency in the process of transportation, the real-time traceability of the cargo and the little or sometimes null proficiency in customer service, payment system, booking, etc.

Certain technological resources can improve and boost the entire process (and eventually reshape the industry) as the blockchain principally. From my point of view, the implementation of blockchain n the logistics process can beat the main troubles the industry is facing on. Adopting the blockchain schema can provide perfect visibility and transparency about the costs and sub-process of the entire operation, also, as the blockchain works in an immutable digital ledger the option of perfect traceability of the cargo comes true. Finally, when the process and sub-process involved are totally clear, and there’s complete and immutable visibility of it, the whole operation becomes proficient.

As we have seen, the continued implementation of technological tools in several industries can change the way they operate. This specific change represents itself an industrial revolution that will impact positively the daily life of people. In other words, when several industries are capable to become almost totally automated and smart, the technological transformation is effective and good for society despite some collateral costs involved.

The most iconic case (until now) of a company using the blockchain in order to improve the shipping process is BitNautic. BitNautic is a company based in Switzerland which permit all the shipping industry as freight forwarders, charterers, carriers, importers, and exporters operate the entire logistics process in and Ethereum blockchain matching demand for shipping services. The BitNautic system allows its customers to book online, pay directly with its own cryptocurrency, track the cargo, sign smart contracts and handle easily the process of documentation.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and do not necessarily reflect an opinion of DDI and its editors. The should not be seen as an endorsement of a technology or service from DDI.

Reshaping the shipping industry with blockchain I was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

After having been for more than seven years in the shipping industry I know one or two things about logistics and international trade. And one of them is precisely the urgent need of the industry for automation and digitization. Without questions, the technological tool is the blockchain.

In a very complex industry derived by the number of steps and procedures that require nowadays to ship something from one country to another, and also, in a industry that no one company is such big to offer perfect door to door service (sometimes in a single shipment intervene around 10 different companies, considering the custom brokerage, the inland transportation, the air or sea carrier and the freight forwarder) it is difficult to be in real time accurate informed about the precise location of the shipping.

For that reason, sincerely I believe not merely the blockchain will turn the shipping industry in a better and in a more transparent industry, but it will turn the current industry in a new one with the possibility to become totally digitized and automated.

5 Industry Transforming Blockchain Applications | Data Driven Investor

For now, the big players in the shipping industry are researching and exploring several ways of how blockchain can improve the global supply chain. Basically, the main ways that blockchain can be implemented in the logistics business are as follow:

-The certification and authentication of goods, documents, and signatures.

-The real-time tracking of shipments.

-The money transfers for payments.

Probably I´m not telling even the half of realistic uses that big players in the business will use.

Recently I read a document made by DHL and Accenture called “BLOCKCHAIN IN LOGISTICS. Perspectives on the upcoming impact of blockchain technology and use cases for the logistics industry” (find the document below in the references), which expose and define the lines of research and development this old and well-known giant of logistics, the perspectives of business in the medium and long term. The document also speaks out about the ways of the logistics and shipping industries will be impacted.

The transcendence of the document is huge because exposes perfectly the authentic interest of the big players have put in the blockchain (and, certainly billions and billions of USD in it). Until now, we have seen only startups and small companies applying blockchain solutions to solve logistics and shipping problems. But, when the big players in the business, such as DHL began to implement (globally or locally) the blockchain solutions to real life logistics issues, it will be a complete game-changing.

As a conclusion, I can say at this point that is not very clear how and when DHL will begin to offer logistics services based on blockchain, but what it is true, is that sooner or later they will do and the way of usual operations in the shipping industry, will change forever the logistics business.

References

https://www.logistics.dhl/content/dam/dhl/global/core/documents/pdf/glo-core-blockchain-trend-report.pdf

Blockchain and the shipping industry was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

But, the most important thing of this big improving in the applying of AI massive scale (and also, the most worrying at the same time) is that quietly other companies in other industries different to tech, will begin to apply the same AI technics on a massive scale, turning them in the biggest and most successful in its industry. In my opinion, the next industries which will apply AI successful and globally are the oil & gas, manufacturing and probably, education.

4 Books that Challenge Your View on Artificial Intelligence and Society | Data Driven Investor

So, in summary, my point is, those companies which apply in a massive scale AI in its respective business model, will be on the very top of their entire industry. The key for the next commercial and technological revolution is without a question the proper use of AI.

The IBM CEO and President of IBM Ginni Rometty said recently, “The 100% of jobs will be impacted within ten years worldwide”, and I honestly think this statement is not accurate if we think in how business is developed in the third world and in developing countries; I mean, even the biggest and hottest companies leaders in its industries in poor countries are far away from the companies in rich countries. Companies in poor countries need better technological infrastructure and of course, the most important thing, money to invest in. So, not all companies, even the leaders in its industries are interested in the applying of AI. It is unrealistic that AI changes the 100% job positions around the world within ten years, but one thing is true: those companies which learn how to apply properly the AI resources in a massive scale will be at the peak of their industries.

The risks ahead

There´s a consensus generally accepted which says the AI will involve all industries in the medium-long term and the impact will be beneficial for the humankind. The benefits of the massive applying of AI are clear for companies: automation, making smarter and faster decisions, continuous improving the labor force, etc. But what will happen when humane labor will become less and less relevant? The answer is easy: machines and systems will replace humans in roles with high intensity of work and in duties which a high degree of repetition. For rich countries, the drama is minor if we consider the birth rate is low and the average income is high if we compare it with poor countries. The drama becomes a nightmare for the third world and even for developing countries. Currently, the main source of jobs in those countries come from activities with a high degree of intensity of work, such as the manufacturing principally.

So, the obligatory question is, what will happen when AI replace quietly the humane labor with machines and systems? Until now the answer is not clear, but it doesn't seem to be very optimistic.

AI in sight

Meanwhile, there´s a true battlefield out there in which a bunch of companies are fighting to death in order to become the dominant player in each industry. Some others barely have a presence on the internet. But, from a moment to another, the dramatic increase of internet as a platform for business will be such, that in very few years all kinds of business from all industries will be based, in a way or another, on the internet.

As a momentary conclusion, I just can say to those companies which learn how to apply in a massive scale their business model based on AI, quietly will impose their will in their industries sooner or later.

References

https://uk.pcmag.com/forward-thinking/118030/ibms-ginni-rometty-ai-will-change-100-percent-of-jobs

Internet

AI and the industries of the future was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Por diseño lógico entendemos las categorías que aglutinan los datos. Mientras que el diseño conceptual es el tema sobre el que circunda la funcionalidad y objeto de la base. El diseño conceptual es la guía abstracta de la estructura lógica, la cual a su vez también se representará mediante un diseño predeterminado. Y a pesar de que las bases de datos tengan por objetivo ser prácticas, eficientes y funcionales para la extracción y representación gráfica, la cuestión del espacio, el orden, los pictogramas y los colores tiene gran importancia en la esquematización de los datos, y a nivel conceptual, en la estética de la base. Sin embargo, el diseño de las bases relacionales debe cumplir ciertas condiciones que aseguren su funcionalidad más allá del aspecto estético y que se han anquilosado en el “inconsciente colectivo”:

1.- Claridad, coherencia y comprensión.

2.- Integridad de los datos.

3.- Representación precisa de las problemáticas reales a afrontar.

4.- Evitar la redundancia.

5.- Facilidad de consulta.

El diseño conceptual y lógico de las bases de datos son apenas ideas que pueden no salir de la mera realidad virtual, pero el diseño en el que descansa el esquema (“el esqueleto”) de las bases de datos de suyo tiene existencia física y estética. Porque precisamente, del esquema nacen todas las representaciones gráficas cuantitativas.

El desarrollo cada vez más audaz y complejo de software especializado en diseño de gráficos para modelaje de datos, está llevando a la visualización de los gráficos a un nuevo nivel analítico y conceptual en tanto que el diseño lógico -dadas las nuevas herramientas en interface brindadas por los lenguajes de programación- integra cada vez más elementos para el análisis y comprensión de complejos conjuntos de datos y serie de tiempo. A partir de que las interfaces para diseño gráfico integraron, a partir del lenguaje de programación, elementos para cumplir con tareas matemáticas, estadísticas y econométricas el efecto en la visualización de gráficos útiles pasó de la mera suficiencia a la estética y apreciación de mapas de calor, histogramas, listas de distribución, gráficos de dispersión, etc.

¿Qué profesional de la estadística o de la economía no goza y siente satisfacción al mirar un histograma concluyente y bien logrado? ¿es posible negar que los mapas de calor animados construidos con “Python” y “R” son sencillamente bellos y funcionales? Desde mi humilde opinión y experiencia, lo que producen los gráficos de modelaje de datos no es ya la mera satisfacción de la funcionalidad, sino deleite estético.

Por más cursis y arriesgadas que sean mis palabras, no subestimaría ni un poco a las hermosas gráficas y los bellos mapas. En tanto que me producen emoción estética (ya por su funcionalidad lógica y conceptual) bien podrían ser definidas como obras de arte…Sin embargo, no queda claro cuál sería el parámetro para justificar la calidad artística de una obra (que las más de las veces no pasa de la realidad virtual) nacida de la pura abstracción matemática… ¿su belleza o acaso su funcionalidad?

Contacto:

oscar_chavezvera@yahoo.com.mx