IBM recently announced the launch of IBM Rapid Supplier Connect, a blockchain-based network designed to support healthcare organizations and government agencies to quickly identify and bring on board non-traditional suppliers who have volunteered to address the shortage of equipment, medical supplies needed for COVID-19 relief efforts.
The network is also designed to help speed up the screening and on-boarding process for new vendors, plus it can monitor surplus inventory and help decide where it should best be used. Rapid Supplier Connect is accessible to qualified buyers and suppliers in the United States and Canada at no cost until August 31, 2020.
Suppliers, buyers, hospitals, and many others are joining the network at the present. Northwell Health New York’s largest healthcare provider, responsible for more than 800 hospitals in New York State, has joined the Rapid Supplier Connect blockchain network. And the Worldwide Supply Chain Federation has also joined the network, bringing in over 200 American suppliers from its 3,000 members of the global community.
Phyllis McCready, VP, and chief procurement officer at Northwell Health said
“Northwell Health has had adequate supplies to protect patients and our staff during the increase in New York COVID-19 patient cases,” He added, “It is through creating our own GPOs and supply chain, and joining forces with non-traditional suppliers that we have maintained an adequate stockpile of PPE and other equipment and supplies, so we are pleased to join IBM Rapid Supplier Connect.”
As the COVID-19 threat spreads, a true insight into a complex and uncertain supply chain is never easy with challenges from the present situation. IBM Rapid Supplier Connect is developed in conjunction with Trust Your Supplier Blockchain-based Identity Platform designed by Chainyard, IBM’s own Supply Chain, and Sterling Inventory Visibility Services. Project N95, Dun & Bradstreet, RapidRatings, KYC SiteScan, and Thomson Reuters will also support the platform with other functionalities.
Last month, together with other leading players such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, IBM launched the “Covid-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium” to pool an ‘unprecedented’ amount of computing power to ‘help researchers better understand Covid-19, its treatments, and potential cures everywhere.’