VTB Bank and PJSC Severstal have developed a new scenario for the unified industry register of quality certificates for metal products. The initiative will make it possible to speed up the shipment of metal products, as well as to carry it out without reference to banking days, including weekends and holidays.
This is the second stage of the project to optimize industry-wide interaction, launched on the basis of the infrastructure of unified industry register of quality certificates for metal products. Thanks to the new project, the vendor instantly receives invoice payment information and releases the order for shipment. The initiative will allow companies to ship products before they receive money without the risk that they will not be paid. The register itself is implemented on blockchain technologies of the SAP Business Technology Platform. The initiative was announced within the framework of the 5th International SAP Metals and Mining Summit.
The unified industry register of quality certificates for metal products was launched in 2020. The project is being implemented with the support of Severstal PJSC, TMK, OMK and the Foundation for Development of Tube Industry (FRTP). A script for checking the validity of quality certificates for metal products has already been launched into productive operation, allowing consumers to verify the authenticity of certificates using the certificate number and manufacturer's code.
“The new software solution is a big step forward in the field of both blockchain technologies and the metallurgical industry as a whole. The main advantage of the solution is its ability to accelerate shipments of goods between PJSC Severstal and counterparties by quickly receiving information about payments from VTB Bank. We hope that our cooperation with PJSC Severstal will bear fruit in the near future, and a unified industry register of quality certificates will be in demand,” commented Alexander Botsiev, Head of Sales of Settlement and Passive Products of the Transaction Business Department, Senior Vice President of VTB Bank.
“Previously, together with SAP, we created a unified register of certificates that could become a serious barrier to counterfeit products appearing on the market. A new stage in the development of the project was the participation of VTB Bank in the formation of a service that will bring business relationships between manufacturers and customers of products to a qualitatively new, modern level. With the emergence of such solutions, which are most typical for B2C, the B2B sector is becoming more convenient, which allows expanding the client base at the expense of potential customers, as well as strengthening business contacts with existing ones,” said Sergey Dunaev, CIO of PJSC Severstal.
“Two years ago, at the 4th International SAP Metals and Mining Summit, we announced plans to create a unified blockchain registry to reduce the level of unfair competition in the industry and reduce the losses of companies from counterfeiting and falsification. To date, we have already created a common infrastructure for trusted industry-wide interaction and a precedent for this form of cooperation between companies in the metallurgical industry. We hope that in the future the number of network participants will expand along with an increase in the number of new scenarios for trusted information exchange,” said Andrey Filatov, CEO of SAP CIS.