Starbucks a coffee chain firm headquartered at the United States was seeking to execute blockchain based technology in their business, and the news started getting popular during the Starbucks initiative ‘bean to cup’ in 2018. The initiative aimed to work closely with the farmers of Costa Rica, Rwanda, and Colombia and to use a coffee tracking system powered by blockchain.
The blockchain based project planned to allow customers to track its coffee production and eventually would open wider financial opportunities to coffee bean farmers in several ways.
The Starbucks later observed that their pilot program needs to be open source which could help them to access their findings easily. So this made Starbucks approach Microsoft for their Azure Blockchain service.
Now finally, the Starbucks Company has joined hands with Microsoft, the tech giant company and will be implementing the Azure Blockchain service to monitor its coffee production, GeekWire reported the news on 6th May 2019.
During Microsoft’s Build developers conference scheduled on May 6th, both the companies revealed about various initiatives that they were working jointly and also about Azure Blockchain. The other projects mentioned were predictive drive-thru ordering system and executing several Internet-of-Things equipment across various cafe locations of Starbucks.
Azure Blockchain service of Microsoft was revealed on May 2nd, according to the source. Azure Blockchain service is BaaS (blockchain-as-a-service) platform which backs Quorum, the Ethereum based platform of JPMorgan Chase. The Azure Blockchain platform is entirely blockchain managed service whose aim is to help the management formation and to control the consortium blockchain networks so that businesses can focus over their workflow logic and application design.
Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, while speaking over the partnership said that
“They are coming together to completely take what that iconic experience that is Starbucks and incorporating digital throughout is.”
Earlier in March, Starbucks Vice Chairman Howard Schultz had mentioned:
“I think blockchain technology is probably the rails in which an integrated app at Starbucks will be set on top of.”
Schultz at the event said that he believes that they are moving towards a new era, and blockchain technology is going to offer a higher level of virtual currency and will include a consumer application.
Meanwhile, he also stated that the world’s leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin would not be a part of their initiatives.
Even before, Starbucks and Microsoft had collaborated, and over the time they have created a good relationship. The current Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson was even a former Executive of Microsoft before associating with the leading coffee supply firm in 2015; he served for the global sales division and Windows division of Microsoft.
Satya Nadella has even welcomed its partnership with Starbucks’ software engineers and their business team. He said Starbucks includes one constant theme which has increased software engineers hiring at firms beyond the industry that are adopting high technology-based solutions.
Starbucks is also making use of various cloud-based products of Azure to secure and connect over dozens of equipment across 30,000 coffee stores of Starbucks, beginning from coffee machines to grinders and blenders.
IOT- machines of Starbucks will gather more information such as the beans type, quality of water and the temperature of a coffee cup. If all machines are linked to the cloud, it will help Starbucks to update the menu quickly and will make them more proactive.