Tech giant IBM and blockchain company Chainyard have jointly developed a new blockchain network for supply chain management. IBM announced the platform in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Aug. 5.

Alongside IBM, the Trust Your Supplier network’s founding members are also American brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev, tech companies Cisco, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric, British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and telecoms company Vodafone. The product is built on the IBM Blockchain Platform and aims to eliminate manual time-consuming processes and help reduce the risk of fraud and errors.

Per the release, Trust Your Supplier creates a digital passport for supplier identity on the blockchain network that enables suppliers to share information with selected buyers on the network. By deploying the platform, users purportedly can reduce the time and cost associated with qualifying, validating and managing new suppliers. Renee Ure, chief supply chain officer for Lenovo’s data center group, said:

“Blockchain has the ability to completely transform how companies onboard and manage their supplier network for the future. Through Trust Your Supplier, both buyers and suppliers will see the procurement benefits of blockchain through reductions in cost, complexity and speed.”

IBM continues expanding blockchain projects

The Trust Your Supplier network thus joins an array of other blockchain-based projects from IBM. In mid-July, the company tripled the number of blockchain patents secured in the United States since 2018, boasting over 100 active patent families.

Also last month, American tech giant Seagate in collaboration with IBM entered the pilot stage of its blockchain project designed to fight counterfeit hard disk drives (HDD). The project aims to help manufacturers, integrators and business partners to better authenticate the provenance of HDDs by using IBM’s Blockchain Platform.