Big Four professional services firm EY has extended its relationship with SAP to collaborate on the advancement of Blockchain deployment across industries worldwide. The partnership will see EY promote SAP’s Leonardo digital innovation system through the firm’s Ops Chain, one of the first Blockchain-based solutions designed for the platform.

According to a recent report by Gartner, as many as 30% of service centric companies will move the majority of their ERP apps to the cloud by 2018. As a result, consulting services aimed at helping professional services providers leverage new ERP solutions from companies such as SAP are in demand. Larger consultancies are presently either moving to acquire firms well positioned to take advantage of this trend, as with the deal for ICE by KPS, or building their own organic presence in the SAP market.

Blockchain technology is meanwhile being leveraged across multiple industries to provide new standards of security, time and cost efficiencies. The technology of a Blockchain, taken as a whole, can be compared to an accounting ledger which contains a record of transactions. Instead of recording transactions on paper or on a local ERP software the Blockchain relies on a ‘Distributed Ledger’.

Responding to the two trends, professional services giants EY has subsequently announced that the firm is extending its relationship with SAP, in order to further advance the deployment of Blockchain solutions across industries worldwide. EY was awarded the 2017 Partner Excellence Award for Safeguarded Quality by SAP, who also presented the firm with the 2017 Pinnacle Award Customer’s Choice Partner of the Year prize at their annual global partner awards. EY also received awards for their SAP efforts in the North America and Indian markets. Under their existing alliance, the organisations were already collaborating to integrate Blockchain applications and services into the new SAP Leonardo digital innovation system, which aims to help accelerate enterprises’ implementation of Blockchain across their business operations.

As ERP systems scramble to integrate Blockchain into their services, the new SAP Leonardo system has taken in the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning and Blockchain digital innovation method encompassing services and technologies. The EY Ops Chain solution is set to support the system with end-to-end supply-chain processing building on enterprises’ existing infrastructure, enabling companies to integrate digital contracts, shared inventory and logistics information, pricing, invoicing and payments. The EY Ops Chain is one of the first Blockchain-based solutions that will be integrated with the SAP Leonardo.

Paul Brody, EY Global Innovation Leader, Blockchain Technology, said, “Blockchains are quickly becoming routine tools for business processing that companies can use to manage and take action from the huge amounts of data their systems collect and process. This data is often collected across a disconnected, fragmented infrastructure. EY Ops Chain on SAP Leonardo will help companies quickly develop and deploy Blockchain solutions that connect business operations across their systems, on a platform already widely used by companies worldwide.”

Juergen Mueller, SAP Chief Innovation Officer, said, “Blockchain helps deliver secure and simplified data sharing in complex multi-party processes. With SAP Leonardo, we provide a toolbox for our customers to access and innovate with all the latest technologies, such as SAP Leonardo Blockchain capabilities. By joining forces with EY, we will work together on Blockchain use cases for our customers to help them streamline their complex transactions in the digital economy.”