Can the business cases really be that elusive?

It has often been heard that it is difficult to find business cases for enterprises to deploy organization wallets and with them move to the new generic way of interchanging verified data. The more immediate question has probably been asked in the data service provider camp. And some businesses may see the change as a threat to their bottom lines.

For me – with a background in payment automation, e&m-banking, the Real Time Economy program, e-invoicing, e-receipts, My-data and since 2018 a firm believer in the general-purpose organization wallets – the big picture is very clear. 

How big the costs will be and how the huge overall benefits will trickle down to businesses, public sector organizations would urgently need more scenario building.

It should also be analyzed how much the improvements in productivity, risk management, security, privacy and the Single Market in Europe will lower prices and taxes for the households. And how much this lower inflation will lower needs for salary increases and thus increase competitiveness. 

The following signposts have been important for us in the Findynet consortium:

• As to costs the distributed data and wallet based prototype for trading unlisted shares. Findynet did this together with the Trade Registry, Nordea and OP-banks, Tax and TietoEvry. It took 4 months for 4 coders to deliver a complete package for issuing, trading and reporting. Real eye-opener for anyone who has struggled with hugely expensive trading systems. 

• As to overall benefits the Self-Sovereign Identity book by Drummond Reed&Al. It lists the multi-billion-class benefits in 25 different areas – mostly from a corporate point of view. The CEO of IBM is quoted saying that the Trust Infra is needed especially to address the worst challenge enterprises meet: cybercrime. Estimated in the book to cost 6 trillion USD every year – and rising.

• The next input came from McKinsey: 3-6% GDP-growth (depending on country) by 2030

• The EU commission conservatively  estimated a 2% GDP-growth

• "Begleitforschung Sichere Digitale Identitäten," led by the European School for Management and Technology (ESMT), on behalf of the BMWK presented  a savings potential for German enterprises in their production value chaines amounting to – after implementation and yearly costs – to 84,7 billion Euros https://idunion.org/2025/01/10/cost-savings-through-organizational-digital-identities/

• GAN/Ayra estimates that “Building Trust yields at least 10% revenue growth and that AI is accelerating the trend

• "According to the IMF, Europe's internal market barriers +++many if not most can be lowered with interoperable organisation wallets+++  are equivalent to a tariff of 45% for manufacturing and 110% for services. This simply cannot be. This must change now. That is why I have tasked EVP Séjourné to come up with concrete and bold proposals next month". Ursula von der Leyen

• And this is all before!!! the organizational wallets are used for safely and efficiently employing AI-agents for work in procurement, logistics, marketing, selling, customer services, staffing, government reporting and improving sustainability.

 The improvements on offer are naturally so overwhelming that it may take time to understand a believe in all the billions. But it is very clear that huge and that the economies in the Western world cannot afford being delayed by search for the last business cases.

The migration  to the data driven economy should be firmly pushed forward by public-private  adoption of organization wallet applications and readying verified data streams between these.