Finesse joins hands with Netcetera to Unleash Blockchain in MENA

Netcetera working on Proof of concepts with governmental and insurance industry

Sunil Paul, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Finesse, considers Finesse to be the number one trusted software integrator in the MENA region. During Gitex 2018 Finesse was showcasing its Digital transformation solutions that included Artificial Intelligence, IOT (Internet of Things) and Blockchain.

UNLOCK spoke with Mr. Paul who believes that blockchain is strong in the region. As he explained, “The region is investing heavily in blockchain solutions; especially since the UAE and Dubai government initiated their blockchain strategy and have undertaken Blockchain solutions across governmental entities.” He adds, “Other Emirates will follow in upcoming months and years. We have an ecosystem of technology solution partners and Netcetera is one of our top partners when it comes to blockchain solutions with ready-made applications for educational sector and governmental. Their platform can apply solutions in other verticals as well.”

According to Paul, Finesse is well positioned to implement blockchain solutions with Netcetera because of their 200 plus client base of over in financial and government sectors among others.

UNLOCK also spoke with Kiril Milev, Managing Director Netcetera MENA. Netcetera which is headquartered in Zurich has been in the software business industry since 1996 and has carried out over 1700 projects.  According to Milev, “two to three years ago we began exploring blockchain and with our highly talented innovation team headed by Mr. Aleksandar Nikov, we built applications that can meet the local market needs.”

Netcetera is blockchain agnostic and has built solutions on Hyperledger, Ethereum and NEM. As Milev states, “our current solutions are built on NEM as we see NEM has the biggest potential in terms of acceptance and implementation.” To date Netcetera have developed a document management solution called n-blocks. The solution caters to digitization of documents taking it through the lifecycle of documents from creation to signature, and exchange, inclusive of smart contract as a proof of service for governmental entities and businesses. As Milev explaines, “It creates a world of lower costs, less time, and enhances communications in a secure and trusted manner.”

In addition Netcetera recently spun-off a startup called Blokverse which will bring DLT based platform Attainr to the market. Attainr is a secure, full-fledged platform to manage digital education credentials. It addresses the challenges in the field of education with the merits of decentralization: secure, tamper-proof creation and issuance of digital credentials which then can be easily verified by the relying parties. According to Milev,” We currently have Proof of Concepts being done and we have a solution in full production mode in Switzerland for education certificate. In the region we currently have POCs running with UAE governmental and insurance companies.”

Milev believes that companies will have to use blockchain in the future where it adds value, and that the issue of interoperability will be resolved as private and public Blockchains set standards. He adds, “With NEM for example it has both a private and public blockchain and we can put one transaction on the public and private at the same time.”