OriginTrail Becomes Official Partner of GS1 Slovenia
OriginTrail has partnered with GS1 Slovenia to promote GS1 standards and blockchain technology in global supply chains. After becoming a full member of the GS1 Slovenia association in January 2018, and securing complete compatibility of the OriginTrail protocol with global GS1 standards in April, OriginTrail has made an official long-term agreement with GS1 Slovenia to collaborate in the area of global identification and development of platforms and systems, which provide traceability based on GS1 standards. OriginTrail and GS1 signed a letter of intent to cooperate in the field of business support using GS1 standards.
GS1: Making a Difference with Over 5 Billion Barcode Scans Every Day
Since pioneering barcodes in 1974, GS1 has evolved into a global organization, which operates in more than 100 countries. GS1’s global management board includes industry giants such as P&G, J&J, Walmart, Deutsche Post DHL, AEON, Metro AG, Nestle, Mattel, and Mondelez, and e-commerce giants eBay, Amazon and Alibaba. Besides being the language in which international commerce and business are done, GS1 goes beyond barcodes. Supply chain standards save time and money by reducing administration and slashing paperwork. Largely unseen, yet tremendously important, GS1 standards ensure key processes run smoothly in some of the world’s biggest industries like retail, healthcare and transportation & logistics.
A Long-Term Partnership to Promote Development Based on GS1 Standards
Zdenka Konda, the director of GS1 Slovenia, commented the following about the partnership: “We have pledged to work together with OriginTrail to pursue common long-term goals and interests in the field of global identification and development of GS1-based tracking support systems and platforms. GS1 Slovenia will provide expert assistance in introducing GS1 standards for identification and data exchange, and the development and application of traceability systems based on GS1 standards, in particular GS1 EPCIS. We will participate in the preparation and implementation of traceability projects with OriginTrail customers. With OriginTrail, we will exchange experiences and challenges from its practice in order to solve problems using GS1 standards. Think of our standards as the DNA of the supply chain. They enable a complete, real-time inventory picture covering all product, transactional and location data.”
OriginTrail: Ensuring Data Integrity with Blockchain Technology While Easing Adoption
Tomaž Levak, Co-Founder & CEO of OriginTrail, explained the importance of blockchain-based technologies for supply chains: “Over five years of solving interoperability challenges in complex supply chains, we found that the most successful and quickest implementations don’t interfere with legacy IT systems or change processes in organizations. Instead of coming up with entirely new propositions to interoperability challenges, businesses appreciate solving them by relying on available widely adopted standards. For these reasons, OriginTrail made full-integration with GS1 standards from the very beginning a top priority and considers them as one of the most important pillars for the faster adoption of the protocol. Closer cooperation with GS1 Slovenia will give us an even better opportunity to ensure that all data exchanges are done in the most optimal way and a chance to take a more active role in the GS1 ecosystem by sharing our experience from the field.”
Next Steps
The next steps in the partnership are ensuring compliance with pilot project implementations and further technology exploration of OriginTrail’s protocol with existing GS1 technology solutions. GS1 Slovenia is scheduled to attend OriginTrail’s event — the Trace Alliance Congress — in Ljubljana on October 11–12, 2018 as a strategic partner supporting content creation.
We are proud and delighted to establish this partnership, which is not only beneficial from a business development and protocol adoption perspective, but in terms of knowledge sharing and the creation of new best practices in the field of introducing blockchain technology and efficiency standards to global supply chains.
