2019 is an exciting time for fledgling blockchain businesses, Martyn Brougham, Omnitude

Interesting interview with Martyn Brougham Omnitude COO Americas, previously Solutions Director for DHL Supply Chain.

What is your background briefly? 

I started out life in the Creative Supply Chain, servicing global accounts and building a database publishing software business in EMEA and the US. Developed a European Creative Studio network for RR Donnelley, the world’s largest printing company. For the past 11 years have been developing Supply Chain solutions for DHL clients globally.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now? 

By building an extensive understanding of multi vendor, international Supply Chains it has enabled me to focus our efforts on those areas of the workflow that carry the greatest waste and inefficiencies. This has helped prioritise our roadmap and give the best value for our developments early in our journey.  

How have the last 12 months been for Omnitude? 

Exciting, Interesting, Challenging, Frustrating, Rewarding – all in equal measure!

What were the big wins / with hindsight anything you’d have done differently?

Bringing to life the original White Paper has been the most gratifying experience so far, delivering the first modules and core software has not been without its challenges but now we have momentum there is a buzz around the business to begin configuring market specific solutions that deliver the benefits of the new blockchain technologies. Enabling our sales efforts with a working demonstrable solution has been pivotal in converting prospects. Securing business in the Clinical Drug Trials sector is a major play for us that will see some acceleration in the delivery of our roadmap, as well as a live end to end use case to give greater credibility to our maturing business. As we develop we are constantly improving based on lessons learnt and whilst hindsight is a wonderful thing, I’m not sure we would have done anything differently.

How easy is it to pitch what you guys do + Supply side details, is it now a no brainer OR do you still have to walk people through the tech, blockchain etc? 

Currently there is a huge delta in understanding blockchain solutions and what the benefits are. Our clients range across the entire spectrum from knowing nothing to being active advocates of the technology. To avoid the misnomer of blockchain being synonymous with crypto-currencies we are tending to focus our clients on solving real world solutions and generating benefits without referencing blockchain per se. Our Middleware approach appears to be easier for our customers and prospects to digest and understand, and more importantly allows them to realise the benefits immediately. At our core we are a software solutions business – what technology we use is to some extent not important and certainly not more important than the improvements delivered to Supply Chains across the globe.   

What are you excited about for Omnitude in Q2 and beyond? 

2019 will be an exciting time for our fledgling business as we deliver more and more solutions building re-usable components. We will begin to carve out niche market leading solutions and begin to convert clients that we have been building sustainable relationships with. We are the leaders in this Middleware space and seeing our clients derive competitive advantage from our solutions will be extremely rewarding.

Will see wider crypto / blockchain adoption and if so how soon? 

2019 is the year for more pilots but quickly leading on to live enterprise wide robust solutions, so by 2020 it will no longer be regarded as early adoption market but will begin to be regarded as an everyday tool in Supply Chains globally. Some markets will adopt quicker than others but once clear benefits to the consumer materialise there will be a pent up desire to incorporate blockchain into all Supply Chain workflows

How can people find out more about you & your work?

Check out the Omnitude website and register for updates that will follow thick and fast. We will be present at several market vertical conferences this year so drop by and see how we can help you leapfrog your competition.

Here are Martyn’s social links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MartynBrougham

LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martyn-b-8104a4/

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