Capgemini is one of the world’s leading providers of consulting, outsourcing and I.T. services located in Paris, France. It was founded in 1967 by Serge Kampf in Grenoble, France. Paul Hermelin is the current CEO of Capgemini since 2001. Capgemini is a multicultural company, having over 180,000 employees in over 40 countries and has had a reported revenue of €12.54 billion as of 2016.

Capgemini currently serves two-thirds of the biggest financial institutions in the world. They help their clients measure up to the industry’s disruptions with innovative business and IT solutions. Now that blockchain has recently become more known, Capgemini has realized its potential and how it can revolutionize the digital world. Capgemini is now helping these institutions carry out blockchain solutions for their businesses. Anirban Bose, the Global Head of Banking and Financial Services at Capgemini has said, “Blockchain is a game-changer in the industry and no financial services firm can afford to ignore it.”

Capgemini has a created a white paper about blockchain and it talks about how distributed-ledger technology have the potential to be a major disruption in financial services. It could make current processes a lot of more secure, cost-effective and efficient. But, as with a lot of upcoming blockchain technologies, it can be a bit difficult to find out which platform is suitable for a particular firm. Capgemini has created a 9 step approach for evaluating blockchain platforms. These steps are:

1. Security

Security should be the primary concern when it comes to seeking a blockchain platform. It is important to check for the protocol design, its cryptography and any potential threats from hackers to the business.

2. Decentralization

One of the reasons why blockchain is gaining a lot of attention is because of its decentralization aspect.

3. Privacy

A blockchain platform should be able to protect the information of their customers. A financial firm should be able to look into the platform’s cryptography and how it can protect the privacy of its customers.

4. Scalability

Scalability is one of the most important characteristics a blockchain platform should possess. It should be able to accommodate a large workload without compromising anything.

5. Usability

A blockchain platform should be user-friendly and have easy to access tools.

6. Extensibility

Integration capabilities and supplementary applications should be looked into when choosing the right platform. It should be able to accommodate updates on functionality and future needs.

7. Cost

Each blockchain application will have a start-up cost and additional costs like training, legal and compliance. Financial firms should look into these costs and the potential ROI.

8. Operational Impact

It would take quite a while for every financial institutions to switch into a blockchain platform therefore integration into operations should be taken into consideration when selecting a platform.

9. Community Support

The resources, organizations and services of the firm should be able to sustain the blockchain application that firm selects. Developing support models and taking inventory of different community support groups are some of the steps that need to be taken to evaluate it.

Capgemini has done extensive analysis on how blockchain applications can be transformative in the financial world. For more information, you can read all about their white paper here.

By D. Petilla, BIG Writer