Afternoon Coffee: SCM Software Market Valued at $13 Billion, UK Land Registry to Investigate Potential of Blockchain

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The march of digitalization is creating a lot of wealth for software providers in the supply chain management sphere. As bizEdge reports, the SCM market will exceed $13 billion by the end of 2017 and reach $19 billion by 2021, according to new research from Gartner.

Blockchain for Real Estate

In another signpost for blockchain adoption, the U.K. Land Registry — the agency that retains the official details of all real estate and land ownership — said in a press release Tuesday it would explore potential uses for the distributed ledger technology, according to blog Artificial Lawyer.

Conveying property is a notoriously complex and laborious process, and blockchain has long been considered a viable means to reduce the costs of managing and transmitting property data while also lessening the industry’s reliance on lawyers to facilitate transactions.

BASF Invests in Contract Management 

Chemical giant BASF has selected Icertis to modernize its global contracting process, according to a press release. The Frankfurt, Germany-based company is aiming to accelerate its contracting process, increase enterprise-wide visibility and ensure compliance.

"At BASF we are committed, through science and innovation, to enabling our customers to meet the current and future needs of society," said Matthew Lepore, senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer at BASF Corp. and sponsor of the project. "The Icertis platform's ease of use and intelligent insights will help us optimize the value of our commercial relationships, increase contracting efficiencies and help reduce contractual risk."

NAFTA Plans

And finally, an update from Washington, D.C.: The Trump administration released Tuesday its roadmap for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Wall Street Journal reported. The plan seeks to preserve “Buy American” provisions and reduce the U.S. trade deficit but omits some of the more ambitious demands Trump called for during his campaign.