TradeLens was founded on a bold vision for global supply chain digitization as an open and neutral industry platform. This vision centered on the ability to enable true information sharing and collaboration across a highly fragmented industry globally.
Unfortunately, such a level of cooperation and support has not been possible to achieve at this point in time and A.P. Moller - Maersk (Maersk) and IBM have announced the discontinuation of the TradeLens platform.
We would like to express our sincere thanks for those that interacted with TradeLens since 2018. We are honored to have been part of your digitization journey.
We were at TPM in Long Beach, California last week, the go-to event for beneficial cargo owners and shipper organizations to assess the latest ideas and offers in container shipping services for their supply chain.
This year's event topped all previous registration levels — a good sign for the industry. But what was also very noticeable was the presence of tech: From the panel discussions and case studies to the IT guys wearing t-shirts and jeans, TPM 2019 was buzzing with new shipping technology, ideas and implications.
Platforms were mentioned a lot. So was interoperability. And that's key for extracting maximum benefit from all the tech on display; all of these new platforms are going to have to be easily linked. Industry standards will be required in order for interoperability to be cost effective and to maintain the speed of information that the industry expects.
If you made it to TPM this year, you know what we are talking about. If you weren’t able to make it, here is the low-down on our interactions.
Blockchain for shipping Mike White (center) discussing how permissioned blockchain has been deployed through the TradeLens platform
Blockchain panel discussion
Mike White, GTD Solution Inc. CEO and joint Head of TradeLens, joined a panel on Monday to discuss blockchain and its progress towards adoption in the industry. Also on the panel were: Rob Bailey, Co-Founder and CEO, of MState; Lionel Louie, Chief Commercial Officer, CargoSmart; and Andrew McLoone, Director, Operations, at BDP International.
The panel quickly came to a consensus that blockchain is an important element to ensure trust in the supply chain but that platforms were where the real benefits will emerge. Platforms have the ability to change business workflows and this is where the tangible benefits to all those in the supply chain ecosystem will be realized.
“In order to build platforms, interoperability will be required. And for this to happen the industry must agree on standards” —Mike White, CEO TradeLens
End-to-end customer journey
TradeLens was also part of the end to end customer journey that Maersk ran at the conference. Here we got to interact one-on-one with a diverse set of BCO customers. Demos were shown and a lot of questions were raised, especially when we got into the platform business model discussions.
Planning for TPM 2020 is already underway and a lot will happen in a year.
We think next year's theme could be: Platforms in Practice.
We sat down with senior global trade experts, Diana Jones, Director of Solution Architecture, and Juanjo Ruiz, Strategy and Business Development at TradeLens to discuss the proliferation of electronic bills of lading (eBL) and the disruption of blockchain as an emerging technology with a substantial opportunity to support banks with unlocking a $3.4 trillion trade gap in the trade finance market. The following is a Q&A on these topics.
Citi Completes First Pilot Transaction on the TradeLens Platform in Asia Pacific
September 19, 2022
Bangladesh/Hong Kong – Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) Asia Pacific has completed its first pilot paperless trade finance transaction using the TradeLens platform. Leveraging blockchain technology supplied by TradeLens, the pilot illustrates the effectiveness of the technology to improve supply chain efficiency by significantly reducing document processing lead times.
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