5 Ways to Successfully Implement an Enterprise Blockchain Solution
Blockchain is a reoccurring buzz word and is widely talked about in regards to financial technology, however, an equally emerging sector for blockchain is in enterprise. Implementing a rapidly emerging innovative technology with limited domain expertise available and a technology that requires collaboration between multiple entities can be daunting. After implementing several blockchain solutions for major enterprises and experiencing success and failures we have developed the perfect recipe for success when implementing a blockchain solution.
- EDUCATE KEY STAKEHOLDERS
A common issue with most blockchain initiatives is that organizational leaders do not have a clear understanding of blockchain. Blockchain is often only associated with crypto currency such as bitcoin, but is overlooked for other use cases. It is imperative for the blockchain team to communicate the core essence of a blockchain solution to close the digital trust gap.
- DEFINE SOLUTION
Most blockchain failed initiatives focus on technology implementation while ignoring the effectiveness of problem solving. Blockchain technology requires a lot of resource allocation from computing power to personnel in order to justify the blockchain implementation to organization leaders. A clear set of KPI must be defined in order to successfully solve the issue.
- BUILD A HYBRID TECHNICAL TEAM
Hiring talented and experienced blockchain engineers is hard because the technology is novel and the learning curve is steep. It is imperative the you have a hybrid technical team consisting of blockchain developers, backend engineers and DevOps engineers. This will allow blockchain developers to focus on implementing only core blockchain development such as consensus and smart contracts. The other tasks such as API development for the blockchain service and deploying the blockchain service can be done by backend engineers and DevOps engineers. Using a hybrid model where blockchain engineers are not responsible for all of the tasks related to blockchain allows them to focus on core blockchain features and alleviates the problem of hiring blockchain engineers.
- CHOOSE THE BEST BLOCKCHAIN FRAMEWORK FOR THE SOLUTION
Blockchain ecosystems are rapidly evolving and the current blockchain framework that is being utilized this month may not be the recommended framework next month. Choosing a blockchain framework is essential and making the wrong decisions can prevent scalability and the ability to add features. Some of the key attributes to look for when choosing a blockchain framework are T.P.S (transaction per second), size of the open-source community, team or organization behind the framework and if the framework has a modular design.
- CREATE A FLUID COMMUNICATION CHANNEL
A blockchain network distributes data to all participants in the network and thus requires a robust communication channel between various entities. The main communication channels that must be established are with the open-source community in order to maintain/develop the blockchain framework and entities participating in the network. Unlike enterprise licensed software, bugs and support are not through a company but through an open-source community so it is imperative to keep an open communication channel.