ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization, which is one of the largest organizations involved in developing and defining the application standards that a legal entity must adopt to comply with evaluation “standards.”
The guidelines set by various ISO standards are voluntary; their application must be recognized within the corporate context by all employees.
Obtaining certification of a specific ISO standard means dedicating oneself entirely to its dictates in business processes and continuous business improvement.
Only in Italy, there are about 160,000 certified companies, and as far as ISO 9001 is concerned, we are in the top 3 places in Europe.
There are numerous standards an enterprise can decide to certify for; obtaining an ISO certification increases the value of an organization, not only by:
- Valuing the company’s continuous commitment to improvement;
- Allowing participation in public tenders;
- Engaging employees in process improvement;
- Allowing for tax and/or insurance relief;
- Being based on concrete and measurable facts within the company.
The experience I would like to share is based on the use of Blockchain technology in ISO standards.
Blockchain is undoubtedly the technology of the future; today, there is a lot of talk about this innovation, both positive and negative, since too often, we get stuck in a generalized confusion due to not too elementary topics such as Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, Smart Contracts, etc.
Its development, therefore, paradoxically, is linked to its credibility.
Blockchains are part of the Distributed Ledger technology family, systems that adopt a distributed ledger that can be read and updated by multiple nodes in a network; to make a change and validate it, the nodes must reach consensus, and the methods by which consensus is reached are some of the characteristics that distinguish the technology.
Bringing an ISO/Blockchain project in parallel means bringing to life the evolution (I would add obvious) of these two paradigms.
Tackling business processes head-on, providing greater transparency, accountability, precision, and immutability of data is just the next step that companies must take to demonstrate 100% of their value in the reference market.
In my humble opinion, the implementation of Smart Contracts related to ISO standards, programmatically adapted to business needs, can provide not only an increase in the productivity of an “ISO Manager” (avoiding useless paperwork and/or files) but also an increase in “certain” data with which to face the market.
It could significantly transform the veracity of external information, making it invulnerable, traced, and unmodifiable, also boosting control over it by the relevant authorities, making the process fast and streamlined. The benefits of technology will also be visible through other aspects such as Authentication, Decentralization of information, tracking of transactions, and security of cryptographic keys.
The Cloud and the usual management software are now outdated; we need something tangible for those who want to take advantage of the services or products of a particular company.
The Client, the Consumer, or the Stakeholder must be able to realize, thanks to this combination of resources, who they are dealing with without having to think too much about it; it goes without saying that the Authority of a Brand can be easily understood.
For about a year, ISO has also standardized Blockchain.
We are talking about ISO 22739:2020, called “Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies,” where the basic terms related to Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies have been defined; they are clear, consistent with technology, and above all, almost tangible standards.
I conclude this reflection by saying that the Italian government has also understood the importance of using Blockchain, defining the most used terms for a specific purpose, namely to make the best use of the innovative achievements of the last decade.
To be precise, it has defined:
Distributed Ledger (art. 8 ter, 1st paragraph, L. 12/2019);
Smart Contract (art. 8 ter, 2nd paragraph, L. 12/2019);
The storage of an electronic document using distributed ledger technology produces the legal effects of electronic time validation as defined in Article 41 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (art. 8 ter, 3rd and 4th paragraphs, L. 12/2019);
Personal Data Processing (art. 3, Reg. EU 2016/679);
These are just a few terms that are currently defined; it is up to us now to demonstrate how this technology, initially used for mining Bitcoin, can be the cornerstone of digitalizing business processes.
Market and Data
_old_Become an author
Wallet
