In 2019, companies will invest in blockchain: Globant report

“2018 was the year for getting excited about blockchain, and 2019 will bring focus onto pushing forward investments and driving ROI from them.”

This is according to a report by Globant, an IT and software giant based in Argentina. Dubbed the 2019 blockchain technology business guide, the report broke down the impact that blockchain technology will have this year. The report surveyed more than 650 senior-level decision makers, and the results were encouraging.

The report found that 64 percent of the organizations surveyed consider blockchain a tech initiative that will shape their business. It also found that 30 percent of the organizations exploring blockchain technology have already identified a vendor. Ten percent have already deployed blockchain technology with the first vendor and are already on the second one.

Globant’s report further pointed out that organizations stand to gain many benefits by applying blockchain technology. The technology has widely been touted as just a distributed ledger, but it’s much more. One benefit is the building of trust between organizations and their clients. 

“It’s no wonder 71 percent of decision makers agree the presence of blockchain can boost customers’ confidence in an organization’s ability to protect their personal data,” it said.

The decentralization of data is yet another benefit that will define 2019. This will be crucial to many organizations, especially given that the report found 42 percent of employees spend over an hour tracking down digital information daily.

And yet, despite its benefits, organizations are finding it difficult to implement blockchain technology. One of the key reasons for this is the infrastructure needed to implement blockchain in an organization. However, it doesn’t have to be difficult. In 2019, more vendors will spring up, making it easy to implement the technology.

The report also called on all departments to work together to make blockchain implementation seamless:

“When all stakeholders come together around the same decision-making table, you’ll find that strategic blockchain investments offer overlapping benefits across departments and enterprises. Increased collaboration is always the first step.”

Globant develops IT solutions for its clients, mostly in its home country of Argentina, in the U.S and the U.K. Some of its clients include Puma, Ubisoft, Zynga, Santander, AON, Fox, Coca Cola and American Express.