IBM, KPMG, Merck and Walmart to collaborate as part of FDA's program to evaluate the use of blockchain to protect pharmaceutical product integrity The FDA pilot program explores innovative and emerging approaches for the tracing and verification of prescription products

Press release

ARMONK, N.Y., NEW YORK, KENILWORTH, N.J., and BENTONVILLE, Ark., June 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM), KPMG, Merck (NYSE: MRK), and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) today announced that the companies have been selected by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be included in a program in support of the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) that addresses requirements to identify, track and trace prescription medicines and vaccines distributed within the United States.

The program is intended to assist drug supply chain stakeholders, including FDA, in developing the electronic, interoperable system that will identify and trace certain prescription drugs as they are distributed within the United States.

"Our supply chain strategy, planning and logistics are built around the customers and patients we serve," said Craig Kennedy, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain, at Merck, which is known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada. "Reliable and verifiable supply helps improve confidence among all the stakeholders—especially patients—while also strengthening the foundation of our business." 

Each company brings unique expertise to the project, which will create a shared permissioned blockchain network that allows real-time monitoring of products. The proposed network is intended to help reduce the time needed to track and trace inventory; allow timely retrieval of reliable distribution information; increase accuracy of data shared among network members; and help determine the integrity of products in the distribution chain, including whether products are kept at the correct temperature.

"With successful Blockchain pilots in pork, mangoes and leafy greens that provide enhanced traceability, we are looking forward to the same success and transparency in the biopharmaceutical supply chain," said Karim Bennis, Walmart's Vice President of Strategic Planning and Implementation, Health and Wellness. "We believe we have to go further than offering great products that help our customers live better at everyday low prices. Our customers also need to know they can trust us to help ensure products are safe. This pilot and U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act requirements will help us do just that."

Blockchain is designed to establish a permanent record and may be integrated with existing supply chain and traceability systems.

"Blockchain could provide an important new approach to further improving trust in the biopharmaceutical supply chain," said Mark Treshock, IBM Global Solutions Leader for Blockchain in Healthcare & Life Sciences. "We believe this is an ideal use for the technology because it can not only provide an audit trail that tracks drugs within the supply chain; it can track who has shared data and with whom, without revealing the data itself. Blockchain has the potential to transform how pharmaceutical data is controlled, managed, shared and acted upon throughout the lifetime history of a drug."

IBM, KPMG, and Walmart, the largest retailer in the U.S., have extensive experience in implementing blockchain solutions to help enhance the safety and traceability of products. Increasingly, customers are requesting more detailed information about products.

"Blockchain's innate ability within a private, permissioned network to provide an 'immutable record' makes it a logical tool to deploy to help address DSCSA compliance requirements," said Arun Ghosh, KPMG Blockchain Leader. "The ability to leverage existing cloud infrastructure is making enterprise blockchain increasingly affordable and adaptable, helping drug manufacturers, distributors and dispensers meet their patient safety and supply chain integrity goals."

The pilot project is scheduled to be completed in fourth quarter of 2019, and results are expected to be published in an FDA DSCSA program report. At that time, the project's participants will evaluate next steps.

About the DSCSA pilot programDSCSA was enacted by Congress on Nov. 27, 2013. It outlines steps to build an electronic, interoperable system to identify and trace certain prescription drugs as they are distributed in the United States. The DSCSA pilot project program is intended to help identify and evaluate the most efficient processes to comply with and apply drug supply chain security requirements. The program will aid in identifying attributes the system will need for enhanced product tracing and verification, as well as electronic means to share the information. The FDA will be sharing new approaches considered through this program with the broader drug supply chain community on the agency's website. Our goal is to ensure that all parties can be apprised of the program's progress and take advantage of any shared learning.

About IBM BlockchainIBM is recognized as the leading enterprise blockchain provider. The company's research, technical and business experts have broken barriers in transaction processing speeds, developed the most advanced cryptography to secure transactions, and are contributing millions of lines of open source code to advance blockchain for businesses. Since 2016, IBM has worked with hundreds of clients across financial services, supply chain, government, retail, digital rights management and healthcare to implement blockchain applications, and operates a number of networks running live and in production. The cloud-based IBM Blockchain Platform delivers the end-to-end capabilities that clients need to quickly activate and successfully develop, operate, govern and secure their own business networks. IBM is an early member of Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. For more information about IBM Blockchain, visit https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/ or follow us on Twitter at @ibmblockchain.

About KPMGKPMG LLP is the independent U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"). KPMG International's independent member firms have 207,000 professionals in 153 countries and territories. Learn more at www.kpmg.com/us. The KPMG and IBM Alliance brings together IBM's technology and KPMG's advisory and tax services, combining in-depth industry knowledge of key business issues to deliver innovative solutions for clients. Visit the KPMG and IBM alliance website for more information. Some or all of the services described herein may not be permissible for KPMG audit clients and their affiliates or related entities.

About MerckFor more than a century, Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and communities around the world – including cancer, cardio-metabolic diseases, emerging animal diseases, Alzheimer's disease and infectious diseases including HIV and Ebola. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

About WalmartWalmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better - anytime and anywhere - in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, over 275 million customers and members visit our more than 11,300 stores under 58 banners in 27 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2019 revenue of $514.4 billion, Walmart employs more than 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com, on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart  and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart.

Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USAThis news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA (the "company") includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline products that the products will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company's 2018 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC's Internet site (www.sec.gov).

https://newsroom.ibm.com/2019-06-13-IBM-KPMG-Merck-and-Walmart-to-collaborate-as-part-of-FDAs-program-to-evaluate-the-use-of-blockchain-to-protect-pharmaceutical-product-integrity

Huawei Wins "Best 5G Core Network Technology" Award at 5G World Summit Jun 13, 2019

Press release

[London, UK, June 13, 2019] 

Huawei's 5G intelligent and simplified core network solution has won the "Best 5G Core Network Technology" Award at the 5G World Summit 2019 in London.

5G is set to transform whole industries and promote new applications and business models. The 5G core network is the hub for building ubiquitous connectivity and scheduling network resources. It connects things in addition to people and provides differentiated and deterministic network service capabilities. This enables 5G to better serve the industrial Internet and industry digitalization.

Huawei's 5G intelligent and simplified core network supports all-cloud-based key technologies such as three-layer decoupling, stateless design, cross-DC deployment, microservices, and A/B test. The network is built on leading cloud native, connectivity+, and edge computing technologies and is the industry's first core network to support 2G/3G/4G/5G NSA/5G SA in-depth convergence. It provides the Single Voice Core simplified voice solution and CUPS-based distributed architecture. Based on CUPS, it supports one-stop user plane plug and play, on-demand scheduling of heterogeneous edge computing resources, fast integration of third-party applications, and building of an open edge ecosystem, providing differentiated services and enabling thousands of industries.

Ma Liang, director of the Huawei’s Cloud Core Network Product Mgmt. Dept., remarked, "We are honored to win this award. Huawei has continuously invested in 5G core network R&D to gain industry leading expertise in 5G technology. We collaborate with carriers and industry partners to continuously develop 5G applications in vertical industries, enable a thriving industry ecosystem, and make full preparation for the mature commercial use of 5G.”

As of June 2019, Huawei has won 46 commercial 5G contracts globally, and has launched a series of cross-industry collaborations based on network slicing and MEC in smart grid, VR/AR, IoV, remote surgery, smart manufacturing, and other fields, greatly expanding the 5G global ecosystem. Huawei is committed to advancing this technology to better serve our customers with state-of-the-art solutions.

https://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/news/2019/6/huawei-best-5g-core-network-technology-award

Tmall and VF Corporation Deepen Partnership in China

Press release

Hangzhou, China, June 13, 2019 - Tmall, China’s largest B2C platform under Alibaba Group, has formed a strategic partnership with VF Corporation (“VF”) to expand the global leader’s offerings of branded lifestyle apparel, footwear and accessories in China.

Under the agreement, Tmall Innovation Center (“TMIC”), the dedicated retail innovation arm of Tmall, will provide VF data-driven consumer analytics from the 654 million annual active consumers across Alibaba’s marketplaces, enabling it to tailor products for Chinese consumers. VF is the parent company of apparel brands Vans, The North Face and Timberland and is the first TMIC high-level partner in the apparel category.

“With Tmall’s unparalleled customer insights, strong technical support and in-depth market knowledge, we are eager to work with the world’s leading companies to help them bring their best products into the China market in the most-effective and efficient way. Through our partnership with VF, we are committed to helping VF create products that can precisely match the appetite of the Chinese consumer,” said Liu Bo, general manager of Alibaba’s Marketing Platform Business.

The partnership will focus on identifying new consumption trends, pre-launch testing, consumer profiling, and post-launch tracking to optimize product design, range and assortment to uncover unmet needs of Chinese consumers.

“We’re very excited to partner with TMIC to further unleash the power of consumer insights and analytics,” said David Wagner, executive vice president of Global Strategy & Growth Platforms for VF. “TMIC’s data-driven insights have enabled VF brands to better serve the Chinese customers, who make up one of the most-important markets for our business and brands.”

The deeper partnership follows a series of successful collaborations between VF and TMIC.

Drawing on insights from pre-launch testing, VF’s accessories brand, Kipling, launched a new style of backpack that became the bestseller on Tmall among the brand’s products that have debuted in 2019.

Earlier this year, Dickies, the workwear brand under VF, also collaborated with TMIC to come up with tailored products featuring elements of street culture for Chinese consumers, to meet increasing demand for the category, as highlighted by TMIC’s analytics.

In addition, TMIC helped the Vans brand optimize its product range for Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival this year by increasing the inventory of products favored by Chinese consumers while reducing the quantity of others, leveraging findings from TMIC’s testing and surveys.

Established in 2017, Tmall Innovation Center (TMIC) is focused on improving the effectiveness of and efficiencies around launching new products by marrying the platform’s consumer insights with analytical and research capabilities. TMIC has collaborated with 100 leading enterprises, covering 800 individual brands. The household names which have already benefited include P&G, Unilever, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, Shiseido, Mars and Samsung.

Supported by Alibaba’s data technologies, Tmall, the world’s largest third-party online and mobile commerce platform for brands and retailers, has long been an effective channel for showcasing new products and a one-stop shop for consumers seeking the hottest new items online. During this year’s 618 Mid-year Shopping Festival, which is currently taking place, 1.5 million products have been or will be launched on Tmall.

About Tmall
Launched in 2008, Tmall (www.tmall.com) caters to consumers’ ever-growing demand for high-quality products and premium shopping experience. A large number of international and Chinese brands and retailers have established storefronts on Tmall. In the 12 months ended March 31, 2019, Tmall was the largest third-party online and mobile commerce platform for brands and retailers in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume, according to Analysys, and continues to grow quickly. Tmall is a business of Alibaba Group.

https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/news/article?news=p190613

Capgemini ouvre une école dédiée aux métiers du futur qui formera 400 ingénieurs et consultants par an

Press release   11 juin 2019 

Paris, le 11 juin 2019 – 85% des métiers de 2030 n’existent pas encore[1]. Face à ce constat et à la pénurie de talents dans certains cursus, Capgemini crée son école en France – l’Ecole by Capgemini – pour accueillir jeunes diplômés, ingénieurs expérimentés ainsi que ses propres collaborateurs et les former aux métiers d’avenir. La filière 3DEXPERIENCE, du nom de la plateforme éponyme de Dassault Systèmes, est la première à être lancée en partenariat avec l’éditeur de logiciels et les Arts et Métiers.

Différentes filières seront développées autour de métiers et/ou technologies à fort potentiel et en constante évolution. C’est le sens de la campagne lancée le 10 juin pour faire connaître l’école autour du thème : « On ne connaît pas le futur mais on vous y prépare ». Ainsi, les domaines identifiés aujourd’hui vont de la gestion du cycle de vie du produit à la cybersécurité, en passant par l’expérience client, le cloud, l’intelligence artificielle et la digitalisation des fonctions finances, RH, etc. Ce sont autant de domaines dans lesquels Capgemini se démarque par ses offres éprouvées et pour lesquelles la demande des clients est très forte. Ces domaines seront amenés à évoluer au gré des innovations technologiques et enjeux business futurs.

A terme, ce sont 400 ingénieurs et consultants qui seront formés chaque année par ce biais. Avec un poste proposé à l’issue de chaque parcours, l’Ecole by Capgemini sera une nouvelle porte d’entrée pour rejoindre le Groupe tant pour les jeunes diplômés qui souhaitent compléter leur formation avec des compétences de pointe, que pour les ingénieurs déjà en poste qui aspirent à élargir leurs connaissances, à se reconvertir ou souhaitent booster leur carrière.

Gage d’excellence des formations prodiguées, chaque filière est élaborée en partenariat avec des écoles de renom et des partenaires technologiques leaders du marché. Sachants du groupe Capgemini, référents du marché, experts issus de l’un des éditeurs partenaires, ou encore enseignants de l’école sponsor de la filière, les profils variés des formateurs contribuent ainsi à la richesse des filières proposées. Par ailleurs, un socle commun à toutes les filières permettra à chaque apprenant de renforcer ses « soft skills », plus que jamais essentielles à tous les métiers. Pendant une durée de quatre mois, chaque parcours de formation conjugue théorie et mise en pratique.

La première filière qui voit le jour s’articule autour de la plateforme 3DEXPERIENCE de Dassault Systèmes, en collaboration avec les Arts et Métiers. Cette filière couvre la maîtrise des compétences solution sur les métiers industriels ainsi que les savoir-faire pour répondre à la satisfaction opérationnelle des clients. L’objectif est que les apprenants acquièrent les concepts fondamentaux de la plateforme 3DEXPERIENCE, (processus d’innovation collaborative, gestion du cycle de vie du produit, Usine Numérique et jumeaux numériques), comprennent les enjeux de transformation numérique des clients et sachent implémenter la plateforme 3DEXPERIENCE pour mettre en œuvre les nouveaux processus industriels.

Pour Jérôme Siméon, Président de Capgemini France et membre du Comité Exécutif du Groupe : « Les révolutions technologiques en cours ont des implications économiques et sociétales qui induisent une transformation profonde des métiers et des modes de travail. Avec l’ouverture de son école, Capgemini, dont les métiers sont au cœur de ces mutations, propose une manière inédite de former les talents aux nouveaux métiers à fort potentiel ».

Les candidatures se font sur le site web de Capgemini : https://www.capgemini.com/fr-fr/carrieres/lecole-by-capgemini/

https://www.capgemini.com/fr-fr/news/capgemini-ouvre-une-ecole-dediee-aux-metiers-du-futur-qui-formera-400-ingenieurs-et-consultants-par-an/