Enigio Chief Sales Officer Alex Waites on Why Digital Trade Still Breaks
An exclusive interview — 10 key insights shaping the next phase of digital trade
Digital trade has had the technology for years.
Yet in 2026, global eBL adoption is still just ~12.8%.
The industry is not waiting for innovation anymore.
It is waiting for execution.
In this context, Alex Waites, Chief Sales Officer at Enigio, spoke with Maritime Analytica on what is actually holding digital trade back — and what will define the next phase.
🔟 Key Insights from the Conversation
1️⃣ The system breaks at the “original document”
“If the original is stuck in transit, everything downstream is stuck too.”
2️⃣ Digital ≠ control
“They mistake digital communication for digital control.”
3️⃣ Trade still runs on paper-era mechanics
“Too many ‘digital’ workflows still depend on paper-era mechanics.”
4️⃣ Time impact is structural
“30–45 days… can be reduced to hours.”
5️⃣ The real cost is hidden
“It’s the chain reaction: delays, demurrage, disputes…”
6️⃣ Courier dependency is a structural risk
“You’ve built a single point of failure.”
7️⃣ Trade cannot scale on one platform
“You can’t standardise the world into one platform.”
8️⃣ Interoperability drives adoption
“Only the issuing party needs to be on the system.”
9️⃣ Paper still dominates globally
“Paper is still the world’s most interoperable format.”
🔟 The real problem is execution
“It’s not awareness — it’s interoperability and readiness.”
Digital trade is no longer a technology problem.
It is a structural one.
Trade still depends on documents behaving like physical assets —
and that is where friction, delay, and cost are created.
👉 The shift is not from paper to digital
👉 It is from moving documents to controlling originals
That is where speed, liquidity, and competitive advantage come from.
Full Interview
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q1. Why does digital trade still break in 2026?
Alex Waites: Because the “original” still behaves like a physical object. If the original is stuck in transit, everything downstream is stuck too — cargo release, payment, financing, the lot. Digital trade doesn’t fail because people don’t want it. It fails because too many “digital” workflows still depend on paper-era mechanics.
Q2. What do most companies misunderstand about “being digital”?
Alex Waites: They mistake digital communication for digital control. Emailing a PDF is faster than a courier, sure — but on its own, it doesn’t solve what trade actually needs: a single original that can be held, transferred, and proven as such. Unless you can prove who holds the original and transfer that control cleanly, you’re still running a paper-era workflow. Just with Wi‑Fi.
Q3. Why are PDFs fundamentally insufficient?
Alex Waites: PDFs aren’t the enemy. They’re actually the closest thing we have to a universal, human-readable standard — which is exactly why we use PDF too.
The issue is that a standard PDF is usually treated as a copy. It doesn’t, on its own, prove exclusive possession or a transfer of ownership. That’s what trade needs when the document is the asset.
A trace:original document is a PDF “plus”: it keeps the familiar look and feel people trust, but adds what paper has and PDFs normally don’t — possession control, tamper-proof integrity, a verifiable audit trail, and structured data sealed together with what you see.
Q4. What is a “digital original” in one sentence?
Alex Waites: A digital original is a document with the legal power of paper — but designed to be verified, controlled, and transferred digitally.
Q5. What real proof do you see from live trade?
Alex Waites: We’ve seen trade flows go from “weeks of waiting” to “hours of movement” once the originals go digital. One example: a major UK retailer cut transaction time from 30 days to 2 hours and removed courier dependency from the process. And a UK bank at the centre of trade finance has seen flows cut from 30–45 days to as little as 2 hours, because their clients can accept digital originals without joining a closed platform.
Q6. What is the biggest hidden cost of paper?
Alex Waites: It’s not printing. It’s the chain reaction: delays, demurrage, disputes, exceptions, and working capital that stays frozen because the documents aren’t where they need to be. Paper turns trade into a waiting game — and the bill for waiting is always larger than people expect.
Q7. Why does interoperability matter more than adoption?
Alex Waites: Because trade is fragmented by default. You can’t standardise the world into one platform — not carriers, not banks, not forwarders, not corporates. The scalable model is the one where only the issuing party needs to be on the system, and everyone else can still receive and take control without onboarding. That’s how you get volume without turning digital trade into a membership drive.
Q8. Do companies need major IT projects to start?
Alex Waites: No — and if they did, most projects would die in procurement. The market wants speed without a two‑year integration plan. We’ve seen customers move quickly because the model doesn’t require every counterparty to integrate or sign up before anything can happen.
Q9. How big is the time difference versus paper?
Alex Waites:Paper flows commonly sit in the 30–45 day range for end-to-end completion. Digital originals can cut that to hours — and in some workflows, minutes — because you remove the physical movement and the waiting that comes with it.
Q10. What’s the C-level takeaway for carriers, forwarders, and banks?
Alex Waites: If your document flow depends on couriers, you’ve built a single point of failure into your supply chain — and no visibility tool can fix that. The practical move is to make originals digital, make them transferable across the ecosystem, and stop treating interoperability as “nice to have”. That’s where scale comes from.
Q11. What’s the one number that should worry shipping leaders?
Alex Waites: Global eBL adoption is still at 12.8%. That tells you the problem isn’t awareness — it’s interoperability, operational readiness, and completing end‑to‑end across organizations. We recently hosted our most popular webinar yet on practical eBL adoption, with an expert who worked a decade at Maersk and an independent trade expert, because this is exactly where the industry is stuck — and where it’s starting to move.
