Everyone in
ICT & Logistics is talking about ‘big data’: companies are collecting
more and more data, but are not yet making sufficient use of it. Meanwhile, the
next challenge is already looming: sharing all that data. Particularly in the supply
chain, a smooth, flawless exchange of data is vital to
ensure that the flow of goods runs as efficiently and effectively as possible.
The Neutral
Logistics Information Platform (NLIP) has launched a new initiative
: iSHARE. This is intended to become a ‘framework of agreements’ that makes it possible
to identify, authenticate and
authorise. In other words: with iSHARE, companies will soon be able to
verify exactly who they are sharing data with, check whether those individuals or
companies really are who they claim to be, and then to determine which data those
individuals or organisations are permitted to use and what they are allowed to do with it.
iSHARE is
not a platform, assures project leader Vincent Jansen in a talk at ICT
& Logistics. Perhaps it will be a sort of plug-in, like iDeal, which enables a
enables a secure and controlled exchange of data, but that may
change. iDeal is, in fact, nothing more than a set of agreements
that enables banks to communicate with one another. In any case,
data sharing must become simpler. “At present, companies are often still required to
providing login details to individuals and other companies to grant access to data.
That will no longer be necessary,” says Jansen.
Jansen remains
deliberately vague about what iShare will look like. This is to be determined in consultation
with private and public sector organisations. It is no coincidence that
NLIP launched a poll at its exhibition stand to gauge the wishes and expectations of the
sector. Based on these expectations, a single solution is to be developed in 2016
be developed, so that iSHARE is ready for implementation in 2017.
The NLIP does not wish to develop something entirely new, but rather to build on the
various initiatives that already exist for data sharing.
However, the
comparison with blockchain technology, however, soon springs to mind. In
in fact nothing more than a system of agreements – but I
– whereby companies can gain access to data stored in
stored in various databases. Anyone authorised to do so can
the internet to access all that data quickly and easily, just as if it were
collected in their own database. Several people in the audience asked
asked whether iSHARE wasn’t actually working towards a blockchain concept, but
Jansen isn’t ready to commit to that just yet. “If we were to switch the entire sector over
to blockchain tomorrow, that would be a huge step. With iSHARE, we might well be able to
take a first step. I can imagine that it will eventually
towards blockchain, but that’s something we’ll have to explore as a sector. We can’t
cannot force it through.”
Marcel te Lindert - journalist logistics and supply chain
