Overview

pVertrax is a privately held software company based in CT. They focus specifically on the supply chain distribution of bulk liquid energy, e.g. crude oil, refined oil, and natural gases liquids (NGLs) such as natural gas, propane and other derivatives. Vertrax offers a portfolio of supply chain and inventory management software products and services. These applications track the movement of the liquids from production through the complex journey to the end consumer. They have a trucking Transportation Management Platform with live Mobile Logistics that automate the transport of these potentially highly volatile liquids through the supply chain. Vertrax also offers a sonar-based IOT platform that measures liquid inventory at all storage points in the supply chain. /p

Supernova Award Category

Data-Driven Digital Networks (DDNs) and Business Models

The Problem

pCustomers have expressed that apart from access to live and accurate inventory data using sonar-technology, their biggest issue is that there is no visibility in the supply chain. All participants are essentially blind to each other and only have information within their IT systems when the asset moves through it. Whether you are a retail energy provider or an energy supplier, there is no detailed and easy way to track the liquid energy asset through the supply chain. This results in highly inefficient decision making, compromised customer service and eventually profit loss. /p

The Solution

pIt was clear that a high-tech blockchain solution would allow all parties along the supply chain to have accurate and real time inventory levels.  Vertrax was able to level strategic partnerships and create an IBM Hyperledger blockchain that would successfully reside on the AWS cloud.  Thus, Vertrax did not need to add another cloud environment and still embrace their desired technology./p

The results

pUsing a large retail propane customer as a proxy for the wider bulk liquid energy distribution supply chain - we have onboarded their supply plan and several of their value chain participants. Using the blockchain data from these participants we have now developed smart analytics such as a hierarchical dashboard (corporate down thru' to the regions and branches) that provides insight - to the retail propane marketers - into both their Supply vs Demand equation and complete tracking of inventory as it moves through the value chain as well as impactful alerting of possible supply chain disruption./p

Metrics

pBy providing visibility into the propane distribution supply chain, regional marketers are able to more accurately manage their supply vs. demand equation. Conservative metrics show a saving of 3-5% of cost of liquid product to the regional marketer – all flowing to the bottom line./p

The Technology

pVertrax was seeking the highest-level security, permission-based privacy and fast transaction speed from a B2B blockchain platform. They understood that their clients (if they were looking to leverage Vertrax Blockchain internally) would need it to work in a multi-cloud environment (AWS, Azure, IBM Cloud, private clouds, etc.). They have since built, and are live, with the Vertrax Blockchain 1.0. This is the first IBM Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platform running on AWS./p

Disruptive Factor

pThe alternative technology to develop the supply chain platform is practically unfeasible to develop and deploy across all participants. The disruptive nature of the Vertrax Blockchain allows participants to accurately gauge their inventory and the tracking of liquid assets thru’ the supply chain. The speed of onboarding participants onto the Vertrax Blockchain is also impressive. Supply chain participants will have to join the network in order to maintain their relationships with each other./p

Shining Moment

pThe eagerness to learn more about the Vertrax Blockchain from numerous participants – from large strategic Oil Gas companies to smaller retail distributers – is validation that this technology has a big place in supply chain management in many industries – not just Oil Gas./p