There’s no denying that enterprise blockchain is disrupting and transforming traditional business models. It’s enhancing data security, enabling greater transparency and trust, improving operational efficiency, increasing traceability, helping to reduce costs, and significantly improving data integrity. Yet despite its emergence as a critical technology for organisations, challenges surrounding implementation and a lack of in-house capabilities have previously hindered adoption. Now though, more businesses are looking externally to experienced blockchain services providers to help them overcome their enterprise blockchain challenges.
Enterprise blockchain challenges to adoption
A recent Deloitte report showed that 88% of company executives surveyed believed that blockchain would achieve mainstream adoption. A further 55% even indicated that blockchain is in their top five strategic priorities over the next 24 months. Further, according to Deloitte, whereas “blockchain was once classified as a technology experiment, it now represents a true agent of change that is affecting the entire organisation.”
But even though the technology is clearly being recognised as a key business tool, challenges to adoption remain.
In another report from Deloitte, 32% of respondents indicated that a lack of regulatory clarity was one of the biggest hurdles to greater adoption of blockchain technology. This is because as the pace of blockchain development and adoption increases, some governments are still slow to update regulations and guidelines due to the perceived complexity and originality of the technology. As a result, companies may be fearful of future legal implications related to non-compliance and may decide against investing in blockchain for the time being. Is this something your business is concerned about?
To overcome this hurdle, enterprises are increasingly expanding their internal governance teams, joining consortia, sharing resources and even partnering with external providers. By partnering with blockchain services providers that offer strategic blockchain consultancy services, organisations are benefiting from much-needed assistance on compliance, governance, and audit advice from experts in the field, and even those affecting regulations.
Perhaps one of the biggest enterprise blockchain challenges currently hampering investment in the technology, and the research of new ideas, is an understanding and awareness problem of blockchain throughout many businesses. As a relatively new technology, in many businesses, blockchain hasn’t quite yet gained widespread recognition outside of the innovation lab or the IT department. Other internal business departments may be struggling to fully understand the benefits it brings for their operations. Limited internal resources when it comes to experienced blockchain developers, solution architects or otherwise can also be an issue, which can make building a solution and integrating it into your business difficult.
According to 2019 data from Statistica, 28% of respondents said that a lack of in-house skills and understanding was a barrier to blockchain deployment. In a separate report by PwC, 55% of CEOs indicated that they are not able to innovate effectively with blockchain because of a skills gap within their organisation. Given that enterprise blockchain is a relatively new innovation, blockchain teams are small and there’s a shortage of talent. This is highlighted in a study by Hired.com, which found global demand for blockchain engineers was increasing, up at 517% year-over-year.
To help solve the skills shortage, blockchain accelerator MouseBelt launched the Blockchain Education Alliance in October 2019, with the aim of driving innovation with the technology and supporting education, research, and entrepreneurship at universities and beyond. Elsewhere, Canada’s York University School of Continuing Studies announced in May that it would be adding two new university-level blockchain programs in September 2020 to meet job demand for skilled workers. And these are just two examples. Many more courses, qualifications and programmes are launching in universities, schools and businesses across the globe to accommodate the growing demand.
Alongside a big push on expanding innovation teams and hiring-in blockchain talent, enterprises are increasingly utilising the skills and expertise of blockchain services providers to help fill the knowledge gaps in their organisations.
Turning to the implementation and interoperability of blockchain, the Deloitte report further shows that 35% of senior executives believe that implementing the technology into their company is another enterprise blockchain challenge. In most instances inflexible platforms and inoperable blockchains are to blame for this perception, by facilitating the notion that to leverage blockchain technology means long, drawn-out and expensive projects to completely overhaul and replace legacy systems. But with the right blockchain platform, this just isn’t the case.
By utilising flexible and interoperable blockchain platforms designed to be highly adaptable, Protokol are helping enterprises implement blockchain solutions that interoperate and easily integrate with existing infrastructures. We work alongside your existing IT infrastructure to reduce the time, resource and cost associated with implementing blockchain solutions. In this way, adaptable blockchain platforms also deliver a greater return on investment for businesses.
The security and privacy of data stored on the blockchain is another factor that many organisations consider. 50% of executives surveyed in the Deloitte report noted concerns related to privacy when it comes to utilizing blockchain technology.
Enterprises are overcoming their concerns around privacy by exploring private blockchains that require authentication before access is granted. At Protokol, we’re building custom blockchain solutions utilising public, permissioned and hybrid blockchains to help organisations ensure that their critical data remains protected, and is only shared with intended parties.
A perceived inability to scale is another limitation to blockchain adoption, with 29% of respondents indicating as such in a report from PwC. Along with scaling issues, for some blockchain platforms, challenges too around throughput speed are hindering adoption.
With painfully slow transaction speeds on some less capable platforms, enterprises should instead look towards faster, more scalable blockchains that are capable of handling both the volume and scale of transactions demanded by an enterprise application. Scalable platforms with customisable blocktimes and a high TPS rate such as the ARK blockchain platform mean that enterprises benefit from a high-performing and reliable blockchain solution that vastly outperforms its competitors and scales to any business use case.
The cost of the technology is another hurdle to adoption. Researchers from Juniper Research found that 38% of executives consider this a concern regarding blockchain deployment. However, this number drops to 26% once the issue of deployment has moved past internal discussions, suggesting, as the report points out, that initial fears were overstated.
Despite the perceived challenges around blockchain, the technology remains a critical priority for companies in 2020. Rather than missing out on the technology’s transformative potential then, businesses should seek external support to help them tackle the challenges they feel are hindering them from adopting blockchain.
As an expert enterprise blockchain provider, we at Protokol can help your business address your challenges relating to adopting blockchain technology in your organisation. Whether you’re looking to upskill or support your internal teams (through training, consultations, or simply outsourcing blockchain projects), are in need of a provider to build a custom blockchain solution, or are searching for a fast scalable platform, that can handle the demands of your use case, Protokol can help.
How Protokol can help
Protokol is a blockchain services provider that’s helping solve enterprise blockchain challenges through custom blockchain solutions. Using flexible and adaptable blockchain platforms as a foundation, we create custom blockchain solutions that are fast, scalable, easy to implement, and that fully integrate with your existing infrastructure. In this way we reduce the time, effort, and cost associated with leveraging blockchain technology in your business, and reduce the barriers to entry for enterprise blockchain.
With our blockchain services, tools, and solutions that not only help solve real business challenges but also deliver a measurable return on investment, Protokol are helping enterprises across a multitude of industries easily and efficiently implement blockchain technology into their business.
Why not take the first step today and let Protokol help your business overcome any enterprise blockchain challenges you are experiencing. Book a free consultation with our blockchain experts and let us help you explore how to unlock the opportunity of blockchain for your business.