Accenture Taps Mastercard, AWS For Supply Chain Solution

Consulting firm Accenture is teaming up with Mastercard, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Mercy Corps and Everledger to develop a supply chain solution that promotes financial inclusion and transparency, the firms said on Monday (Feb. 25).

The supply chain management solution rewards sustainability initiatives among small suppliers. The solution, described as a “circular supply chain capability,” leverages digital identity, payments and blockchain technologies to promote traceability and sustainability.

“More importantly,” Accenture noted on its website, “it closes the loop to connect consumers directly to producers, influencing positive behaviors of each provider.”

Buyers can tip sustainable suppliers via direct payment, according to the Global Banking & Finance Review, while manufacturers, producers, retailers and other players in the supply chain can minimize waste with enhanced inventory management.

“For the 3.4 billion people — almost half the world’s population — [who] still struggle to meet basic needs, we believe that digital technologies are largely untapped,” said Mastercard Executive Vice President of Public Private Partnerships Tara Nathan. “To put more people onto the path from poverty to prosperity, we need to create an ecosystem that streamlines access to education, health, commerce and more. Through our work with smallholder farms in Kenya, India, Mexico and elsewhere, we’ve deployed digital solutions helping to drive commercially sustainable social impact.”

In another statement, Everledger Founder and CEO Leanne Kemp said the firm’s blockchain technology will “facilitate more connected, transparent and sustainable supply chains, which bring about trusted collaborations among stakeholders.”

Last month, Accenture launched its SynOps enterprise automation technology, a solution designed to help businesses more efficiently reallocate human capital to more strategic roles, and embrace automated processes. The tool was launched after Accenture had been testing SynOps internally, applying its automation capabilities to areas like procurement, marketing and accounting, the company said at the time.