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When thinking of digital transformation, we first think of companies that have the most impact on our daily lives. Supermarket chains, courier companies, software companies and applications that can enhance the modern conveniences we enjoy today. We have chosen to focus on Amazon, which is the eighth largest retailer in the world. Theory shows us that there are several reasons for Amazon to deliver packages itself.

-To gather more knowledge about the customer
-Lower dependency on third parties
– Faster delivery results in better competitive position

In their current fulfillment centers, as stated on Amazon’s website, Amazon uses their own developed Amazon Fulfillment Technologies (AFT) ‘to build and operate software, hardware, and processes that run the global network of fulfillment centers that distribute many millions of units of inventory, employ tens of thousands of people, to ensure that customers get what they want when Amazon promised the ordered products would get to them’ (Amazon, 2016).

The following video will explain why an automatic UAV system is the right technology to enhance their current business.

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The new system fits the strategy of the company because it allows certain customers to choose a timeframe for the delivery beginning in 60 minutes from order time, since that is the minimum time it would take to bring the package from warehouse to customer because packages are sent individually. Therefore, this system enables Amazon to focus more on when, where, and how the customer get their delivery, making it more customer centric, which fit to their vision. UAVs are able to go to places which are not accessible by car due to bad roads. The new system allows the entire earth to order packages without the disadvantages of bad roads. This way, Amazon can increase their market or expand their business to otherwise inaccessible people. The customer should also be able to send the package to a specific GPS location since people in third world countries might not have an address. This fits the need of Amazon to serve the entire world.

Based on three scenarios we have calculated the new delivery costs, savings per year and ROI of the new system. In table 1, one can read the financial consequences of integrating UAVs in the current fulfillment centers, which are astonishing.

Table 1: Estimation of delivery cost and saving for delivery by UAVs.

Since, unmanned aerial vehicles already exist, the challenge of this system does not lay at the physical vehicle. The challenge is to develop a network of UAVs that fly autonomously and is integrated in the current delivery system. Amazon should hire developers that develop the most efficient routes for the drones to fly while considering weather conditions and physical obstacles.

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The need for Amazon to deliver their own package come from the need of a.o. the customer as a source of information, lower dependency on third parties and increase of the delivery speed. Amazon currently uses their AFT on fulfillment systems and technologies to bring the package to multiple distribution centres. The current systems are able to divide large packages from small packages. The new system extends this current system by implementing the delivery system for small packages. The new AEV system should extend the current system to deliver packages autonomous to the front yard of the recipient. For a successful development and integration of the new system, the most relevant recommendations are:

Link the system to the current AFT;

Hire new type of employees namely, developers to develop the routing and so-called sense and avoid software for Amazon’s AEVs;

Include customers and government into the development and testing stages of the AEV system.

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Finance and tech have always been two vastly different worlds. So how come that two giants in the industry , Microsoft and Bank of America, recently announced a partnership at the Sibos financial service event in Geneva? This can all be explained by the following two words; blockchain development. Blockchains are chains of blocks (obviously) where each block contains data varying from bank ledgers to testaments.To give an explanation of how it works I give the following example

Let’s say you have your testament stored in a blockchain. First your testament will be encrypted of course (you don’t want everyone to know that your brother gets less than your sister because you always had a fight with him) and then send to thousands of computers within the network. These computers in the network store your encrypted testament making it a chain of blocks. If for example your brother wants to change this testament by hacking one block, this will be noticed in the network because one testament is different from all the 999 other testaments stored in the network. So if your brother wants to change this testament unnoticed, it has to hack all thousand computers and change the testament at the same time. this is almost impossible making the blockchain network very secure.

This technology was originally developed for a digital currency, (later known as bitcoin) where the data stored was only limited to owners and coins. In 2014, a 18 year old Canadian introduced a different type of blockchain storing contracts instead of currency. Although this seems a little extension of the current network, the consequences of this little update can be huge. What makes the storage of the contacts such a big deal is that people can create and safely store public contracts cutting out the mediating person. So for example if person A wants to buy a house from person B, they create a public blockchain where they can arrange and safely store the contract making the real estate agent unnecessary.

By cutting out the mediator, the users not only save time and money, but also give simple access to a trusted market. Where nowadays people in the third world can’t compete on the global market because of the lack of trusted institutions, all they need in the future is a working internet connection. While this new innovation might be an advantage for the third world due to the lack of trusted institutions, people who work for trusted institutions in the western world fear that they could be replaced. So where Bank of America is now investing in blockchains to make their banking system better, ironically they might invest in their own extinction. Although it could take years before this system will be used worldwide and recognized (with the strong wall street lobby this could take much longer), but if this scenario becomes true it would be much better for the world.

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