When’s the Right Time to Integrate Blockchain?

Today’s business leaders are making decisions regarding the trajectory of their organizations in one of the most fascinating times in history. With security and data privacy concerns on the rise, the digital transformation in full swing, and new technologies entering the arena on a daily basis; navigating an organization to success is primed for opportunity and founded on due diligence. In doing so, organizations are leveraging the resources of trusted advisors to help navigate the development process.

In the midst of this massive technological growth, organizations around the globe are considering new technologies to enhance their data management processes, build more intuitive mobile apps, remove risk and gain more insight and analytics to key processes. And one technology continues to position itself as a foundational technology to address many of today’s growing challenges. Noted in our previous article “Is Blockchain Hype, or World-Changing Technology” we discussed how blockchain is finding its way into not only startups looking to transform the landscape of modern business, but also in major multinationals that are looking to develop an edge in their competitive space.

Before we dig into the implementation of blockchain in your organization, let’s quickly recap how blockchain is making its way into nearly every industry today.

Where Blockchain Fits

Before you write off blockchain as just some hyped technology to facilitate cryptocurrency, let’s look at some of the unique applications of blockchain in today’s modern business environment. First, it’s important to note that blockchain is not only hot in the start-up space. Thirty-five major multinational organizations including Apple, Facebook, Toyota, Ford, Walmart, and others have implemented blockchain to sign their organization for success. This mainstream adoption can prove to be somewhat of a litmus test, validating the future of blockchain technology.

When we see major organizations adopting new technologies it not only shows there is some value in the solution, it also shows that these organizations are attempting to future-proof themselves, to protect against disruptors stealing client share through offering a superior product, service, or process. Observing that blockchain has made its way into the mainstream, in nearly every vertical industry, points to the validity of the future of blockchain. 

Blockchain Integration Considerations

In the following section, we’ll dig into some of the common considerations we’ve seen and addressed as organizations work through the implementation stages of new technologies.

Defining the Use case

First and foremost, the implementation of blockchain technology should answer a business challenge. Are you struggling to maintain a secure and reliable data management and transmission Process?  Are you looking to innovate a traditional industry practice that will bring in new customers, revenue, and growth into the future? Defining the use case, and articulating how blockchain can address this challenge, can be the first step in defining the implementation roadmap. Further, defining the use case can provide keen insight into the design and deployment timeline. If this integration is a high priority and doesn’t require a major lift you may find implementation move up in your timeline. 

Assessing Resources

Another major consideration would be to assess internal and external resources. Is your team tight on cycles? Do you have the development resources to dedicate to a new project? This often means taking developers off of an existing project or straining them by putting them on multiple projects. One pitfall that is common to development teams is being overstrained on resources, spread amongst too many projects resulting in sub-optimal results in the various projects they are attempting to manage in parallel.  If you’re finding this to be true, considering pulling in a dedicated development team for the short term to assist in the implementation of a new technology into your product stack. 

Project Scope

Considering project scope is another key factor to assess when it’s the right time to bring blockchain into your organization. Will blockchain be supporting a critical function of your organization requiring a major development lift? Or rather, will this implementation be a mobile app-based addition to your solution set? In either case, by defining the project scope, an organization can quickly define a healthy approach to implementation that aligns with the scope and resource requirements uncovered in this stage of the development process.

Define ROI

Of course, recouping a return on your development efforts is going to be another major consideration in the implementation lifecycle. With a healthy deployment, when will you expect to see returns on this new technology implementation? Is the outcome of the implementation intended to reduce risk, produce more secure data transmission, or more efficient processes? Or rather, will this new technology bring in new clients? In either case, assessing the financial returns of this implementation is key to defining an implementation timeline. 

Hopefully, this brief overview has helped provide a more clear picture of the steps involved in bringing a new technology such as blockchain into your organization. It’s our assessment that blockchain is here to stay. It’s well-positioned to accelerate innovation while reducing risk and providing more detailed data management processes.

Are you considering bringing blockchain into your organization? Let us know what you consider to be the right time to bring blockchain into your organization below in the comments!