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Gartner report finds that businesses aren’t focusing on blockchain despite its potential

Is blockchain adoption all hype and no action?

By | 7 May, 2018

THERE is quite a bit of excitement in the marketplace about blockchain based solutions.

Whether you speak to specialists in insurance, trade finance, payments, audit, supply chain, medicine, or even hotel chains, blockchain has applications in every industry, and in most cases, these solutions have already been conceptualized and tested in isolated instances.

At this stage, you’d think blockchain technology is at some sort of a tipping point, and in a few months, it’ll be part of every industry around you. However, Gartner disagrees.

According to a new survey, only 1 percent of CIOs indicated any kind of blockchain adoption within their organizations, and only 8 percent of CIOs were in short-term planning or active experimentation with blockchain.

Furthermore, 77 percent of CIOs surveyed said their organization has no interest in the technology and/or no action planned to investigate or develop it.

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Wanted: Blockchain engineers

According to the survey, the most common cause cited for the lack of interest in blockchain is the lack of trained and experienced talent.

Among 293 CIOs of organizations that are in short-term planning or have already invested in blockchain initiatives, 23 percent of CIOs said that blockchain requires the most-new skills to implement of any technology area, while 18 percent said that blockchain skills are the most difficult to find.

A further 14 percent indicated that blockchain requires the greatest change in the culture of the IT department, and 13 percent believed that the structure of the IT department had to change in order to implement blockchain.

 “The challenge for CIOs is not just finding and retaining qualified engineers, but finding enough to accommodate growth in resources as blockchain developments grow. Qualified engineers may be cautious due to the historically libertarian and maverick nature of the blockchain developer community,” said David Furlonger, Vice President and Gartner Fellow.

Breaking norms to lead the way

The banking and financial services industry is typically the slowest in implementing new technology. However, with blockchains, they seem to be breaking the norms.

According to Gartner’s survey, CIOs in financial services and insurance companies are more actively involved in blockchain planning and experimentation than CIOs from other industries.

Blockchain technology is important because it helps create a system that is transparent, secure, and yet, much more efficient. If CIOs lead the blockchain agenda, the future could be extremely exciting and rewarding for their businesses – thanks to the extreme competitive edge it provides.



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