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Supply chain finance (SCF) has become increasingly common over the last decade, building off advances in technology in industrial monitoring and information sharing brought about by the proliferation of IoT and blockchain technology.
SCF allows buyers and suppliers to use a trusted third party, typically the buyer’s banking or other financial institution, to access capital that would otherwise be locked in their supply chain while goods are being delivered or throughout other transactions.
The nature of an immutable, shared blockchain has major implications for supply chain finance, as reported byChristiaan de Goeij和Michiel Steeman在付款人身上。BlockChain系统通过提供有关供应链中的关键点的单一真实性，如信誉，供应商库存，购买订单收据和批准，发票收据及批准等，因此允许在降低成本下显着增加结算速度。整个供应链中的IOT扩散将有助于识别和自动化与装运，交付和质量控制相关的任务。身份验证和不销售通常需要多个独立验证的列表也是不可变的理想目标，共享记录非常适合区块链。
As adoption of new technologies grow, supply chain finance will become more available to smaller and more diverse suppliers.罗伯克斯罗伯克斯notes that cloud-based technology has allowed buyers with limited means to more easily set up SCF systems that provide streamlined on-boarding for multiple suppliers and analytics to help optimize negotiated pricing agreements and other favorable terms. The next step, as smart contracts and other tools for automation and financial transactions on the blockchain become more robust, will be allowing funding from alternative sources like credit unions and individuals to programatically pool their funds and offer many SCF services currently only available through banks. This will further reduce the overhead and administrative costs and inject millions of dollars into the SCF ecosystem while making it easier than ever for small suppliers to accelerate cash flows and grow their business. As IoT tracking for delivery an inventory become ubiquitous, even faster transactions and payments become possible between buyers and suppliers with strong relationships, like purchase order prepayment and automated refunds for damaged goods or delayed delivery.
作为促进各级供应链融资的技术，边际收益越来越重要，如图所示Hackett Group的Karan Lai。He notes the vital importance of efficiency in booking and approving invoices and understanding the intricacies of a business’ global supply chain to account for variances in foreign currency transactions and potential delays or errors in invoice processing at weak points that have the potential to cascade up the supply chain.
Obtaining favorable payment terms is another crucial activity in optimizing returns from supply chain finance for buyers — since suppliers are using buyer’s credit instead of their own, terms beyond a traditional NET 30 agreement are well justified, and as blockchain technology increasingly commoditizes funding sources, negotiation that includes the third-party payer will become more common and favorable as well.
讨论这一点：