Tag Archives: data

Using Spreadsheets as Your ERP? Your Supply Chain Could Take a Hit

By Tom Brennan
3 Comments

The cannabis supply chain – from seed to sale – is rife with intricacies including regulations and compliance. It requires coordination from multiple vendors responsible for different aspects of the end product. And as the industry either grows or retracts, use of data is vital to right-size supply to demand, enhance operational efficiencies and boost cost effectiveness.

However, there’s an industry-wide, data-management vulnerability among many cannabis companies, and it’s this: many are using spreadsheets in different aspects of data collection, management and analysis. This becomes a shaky foundation on which to manage processes, especially for applications like quality management. And to be fair, it’s not just this industry, but arguably cannabusinesses have more on the line in light of the ever-changing regulatory environment.

Many cannabis companies have some systems in place for order processing, inventory management, production management and the like, but they often still use spreadsheets to fill the intelligence gaps among various systems that don’t talk to one another. Managing supplier quality often falls into one those gaps.

The Problem with Spreadsheets

Most businesspeople understand spreadsheets. They know how to build and use them. Spreadsheets are incredibly powerful tools that are used to run more business processes than perhaps any other software product in the world. When a cannabis business first starts out, spreadsheets offer an affordable data management capability. But there comes a time when the business will need a more sophisticated, end-to-end enterprise solution.

Consider a recent incident in which the use of spreadsheets went terribly wrong. The British Government recently misplaced nearly 16,000 COVID-19 test results due to an Excel spreadsheet error. As a result, potentially infectious people may not have been notified by contact tracers that they should self-quarantine.

Companies can outgrow spreadsheets quickly as their business grows

In the ERP space, spreadsheets have been an issue since the 90’s, but this recent incident serves as a reminder that an overreliance on spreadsheets is still alive and kicking. One of the problems is that spreadsheets are often pushed beyond their intended use. Microsoft Excel has become the software Swiss Army Knife. There’s a development environment inside the software, and the system is often used as a database, not just as a calculation engine.

Companies outgrow spreadsheets when the volume of data fields increase, multiple users need access to the data, iron-clad audit trails are needed and when processes become more complex.

There’s also a breaking point. Cannabis companies may enter a dangerous zone of “too many spreadsheets,” when data security and integrity are at risk. Interestingly enough, this also happens in large companies, as they often have a mish-mash of on-premises legacy systems, acquired systems and new cloud-based systems – and spreadsheets are then used as the data consolidation tool for all these applications.

Applicability to the Cannabis Supply Chain

Visibility into the cannabis supply chain requires detailed track and trace capabilities across many suppliers. Anything left out means guesswork and more opportunities for mistakes. In other words, cobbled-together spreadsheets are the last thing cannabis businesses should rely on. Aggregating data into a spreadsheet from various systems and paper-based processes invites errors and can result in insights that are weeks or months out of date. Worse yet, there’s no drilldown capability when questions arise and no easy roll-up of information for decision-making.

Modern cloud ERP software can integrate an entire supply chain with ease

When supply chain quality must be sustained, the role of a common and integrated cloud platform for quality and ERP cannot be understated. Such a platform can capture sales, operations, inventory and purchasing data, and also integrate with production and quality control. This makes your quality processes and data integral to ERP and eliminates the data fragmentation, control and auditability issues associated with spreadsheets. In addition, companies can leverage operational insights from data reporting and analytics to find areas where they can enhance productivity, optimize inventory, improve planning accuracy and build better forecasts.

Moving to the Cloud

Modern cloud ERP provides this type of seamless platform. It’s easier to implement and does not consume as many IT resources as traditional on-premise ERP systems. Better yet, the more recent versions of cloud ERP are built using low-code technology which enables business users to customize screens, modify workflow processes, build their own apps and embed AI without needing expensive IT consultants or waiting for busy IT staff.

In other words, the flexibility that’s been the lure of spreadsheets is now available in cloud ERP, but the system utilizes proverbial governance guardrails that keep business users from swerving off the road and completely wrecking the system. For example, templates for apps and workflows are provided as a starting point. Business rules and “drag and drop” customization capabilities offer guided options, clearly defining what can and cannot be changed.Rootstock will be presenting during the Cannabis Quality Virtual Conference episode, Supply Chain Quality, on October 27. Click here to learn more

And as a result, quality steps aren’t skipped; audit trails remain intact and data is protected with rock-solid security permissions and data backups. And unlike spreadsheets, new ERP systems are designed for multiple users and remote access via mobile devices. In short, with the latest generation of ERP, companies can leverage the best of both worlds – an end-to-end cloud platform that provides data integration across an organization’s operation and the flexibility and ease-of-use of spreadsheets.

Supply Chain Case in Point

One customer we worked with previously coordinated its supply chain via email and Excel spreadsheets. It cut and pasted requisitions into individual supplier spreadsheets and emailed those out, and it kept a master spreadsheet to keep track of all supplier performance. Team members had to sift through spreadsheet columns and rows to find information they needed.

Today with a cloud platform, the company built an online community so processes could be automated and conducted via real-time connection and communications. Another immediate benefit was the customized supply chain dashboard. All relevant data across their entire supply chain was displayed in one place and in a user-friendly manner.

The dashboard showed production forecasts over a certain period of time. The company could detect whether the supply chain was on track or having issues with certain suppliers. It could see planned requisitions and monitor them until fulfillment was complete. It could also monitor the performance of various suppliers, whether they had on-time deliveries or not – and trace back items received. The company essentially has a snapshot of the overall health of its supply chain and all the underlying activity.

Let’s face it. 2020 has been a difficult year, but perhaps it’s the year that companies finally forego spreadsheets and enlist an industrial-strength cloud platform.

How Barcode Labeling Improves Traceability & Security

By Travis Wayne
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One of the biggest challenges that cultivators, processors and distributors face in doing business is the requirement to track the product at every step in the production process, from seed to sale. When you add the wide range of label sizes and requirements across the supply chain, labeling can feel overwhelming. While business systems such as METRC, BioTrack, MJFreeway and others are key, integrating accurate and secure barcode labeling with those systems will streamline the end-to-end process while meeting traceability requirements. Here are some things to consider, no matter what role in the cannabis supply chain you play.

Cultivation: Where Tracking and Labeling Starts

Cultivation is where the tracking process begins – integrating barcode labeling METRC, BioTrack, MJ Freeway from the start will streamline the end-to-end process

It’s crucial to implement accurate labeling processes from the beginning, whether growing for a customer or your own vertically integrated operation. The cannabis industry is faced with strict labeling regulations for a variety of cannabis products. Start with a labeling system that can integrate with METRC, BioTrack, MJ Freeway or other seed to sale software solutions. Your barcode labeling solution should also include label approval requirements, so you have role-based access and transparency with label changes and print history in case of issues or recalls. Whatever cannabis labeling regulations your business faces, label design software helps you create compliant cannabis labels throughout the supply chain, from grower to consumer.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Labeling

Select regulations require growers to leverage RFID technology to track the location of the plants in their grow houses. RFID technology also enables accurate real-time inventory analysis and helps reduce manual labor costs, as well as errors that can occur with manual counting. To accurately encode RFID tags with variable plant data, be sure you are using a barcode labeling system that can enable easy RFID tag encoding that integrates data from all your business systems. Fastening RFID tags to plants across your grow house floor enables quick and easy location tracking, and RFID reading removes the need for a manual line of sight and allows hundreds of tags to be read at the same time, speeding up shipping and receiving.

Lab Testing

After a plant is cultivated, a certain percentage is sent to a lab to be tested to ensure its proper strain, weight and compound makeup. After your product has been lab tested, leverage the data from your certificate of analysis to accurately display on your cannabis product labels, including:

  • Pass/fail chemical testing
  • Final date of testing & packaging
  • Identification of testing lab
  • Cannabinoid profile & potency levels
  • Efficiently display lab testing results on product labels with the use of a QR code for the consumer to review the independent lab’s certificate of analysis

Processing and Production: Tracking and Labeling After the Plant Has Been Harvested

A lot of information needs to go on a cannabis label. Whether you’re producing pre-rolls, packaged flower, edibles, beverages, topicals or cartridges, your labeling software must have the capability to create a wide variety of label sizes with barcodes that encode a large volume of data, while also being fully compliant and showing consumer appeal.

Your cannabis labeling software should do the following for you:

  • Support database integration to populate variable data from METRC, BioTrack, and other systems
  • Import high-resolution artwork and leverage with dynamic barcodes and variable data
  • Contain barcode creation wizards for 1D & 2D barcodes
  • Automate weigh & print
  • RGB/CMYK color matching
  • Feature secure label approval processes, label change tracking and print history
  • Offer WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) printing
  • Automatically trigger printing directly from scales and scanners when cannabis is weighed
Automatically integrating data with your barcode labeling software improves regulatory compliance, security and reduces manual processes that can lead to labeling errors

Integrate labeling with your seed to sale software solution to automatically trigger label printing by an action in your seed to sale system or by monitoring a database. By integrating your label printing system with your seed to sale traceability system, you can expect to minimize errors, increase print speeds and maximize your ROI. Your business system already holds the variable data such as product names, license number, batch or lot codes, allergens, net quantity, cannabis facts, warning statements and more. By systematically sending this data to the right label template at the right time, labeling becomes an efficient and cost-effective process.

Distribution: labeling for consumer and industry demands

The ability to manage and distribute inventory efficiently is critical in the cannabis market. Warehouses and distributors need to ensure proper storage, handling and traceability of product, from the warehouse to the truck.

Leverage your labeling software to easily create:

  • Packaging labels
  • Shipping labels
  • Case & pallet labels
  • Inventory labels

If you use the same data for your documents and labels, consider moving document printing into your label design software for greater efficiency. An advanced label creation and integration software enables label and document printing standardization by allowing multiple database records to be on one file. That means when new documents or labels come into your database, your software can seamlessly integrate.

Dispensaries can benefit from integrated seed to sale labeling for traceability, speed to market

Whether you’re a small outlet or a large dispensary, you benefit from integrated barcode labeling that starts from the beginning of the process. How? When barcode labeling software is integrated with seed to sale software, product is fully traced throughout the entire process, from tagging each plant at cultivation to identifying the consumer at point of sale, and accurately communicating that data back to METRC, BioTrack and other critical systems. Some dispensaries do package raw flower onsite, which many times means manually weighing, recording and entering the weight on the label, which is a time consuming and error-prone process. Integrating weigh and print functionality with barcode software enables dispensaries to use the action of weighing raw flower to automatically trigger the label print job. The variable weight is then accurately and automatically populated on cannabis flower package labels, creating an accurate and efficient on-demand labeling process for dispensaries. With efficient labeling processes, time spent creating, correcting, approving and printing labels will be reduced, getting product on the shelves faster.

2020 CQC Episode 1, Opening Day

By Cannabis Industry Journal Staff
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2020 Cannabis Quality Virtual Conference

Opening Day (Episode 1)

Cannabis Market Trends & Consumer Insights

  • Roy Bingham, BDSA

Roy Bingham, will present a current market overview as it relates to the current cannabis consumer. Our best-in-class consumer insights, market tracking data, and industry forecasts will illuminate current market conditions, market size, consumer landscape and the evolution of consumers since cannabis legalization. We will explore lessons learned from current consumer demographics to forecast and provide expectations as legalization efforts continue.

The New Normal: How Coronavirus Has and Will Affect the Cannabis Market

  • Nic Easley, 3C Consulting

This presentation will discuss the current state of affairs in the cannabis industry and how COVID-19 has impacted the market and the supply chain. Nic Easley will discuss how the pandemic has affected the cannabis market and how the market will adjust and adapt in this new normal.

Click here to watch the recording

The Brand Marketing Byte

The Hottest U.S. Cannabis Retail Brands Right Now

By Cannabis Industry Journal Staff
2 Comments

The Brand Marketing Byte showcases highlights from Pioneer Intelligence’s Cannabis Brand Marketing Snapshots, featuring data-led case studies covering marketing and business development activities of U.S. licensed cannabis companies.

In this week’s Byte, we’re taking a look at the hottest retail U.S. cannabis brands right now. Using a scoring methodology that factors in a wide variety of data sets, Pioneer’s algorithm tracks brand awareness, audience growth and engagement. Using more than 80,000 relevant data points per week, they analyze business activity across social media, earned media and web-related activities.

The brands listed below have the strongest marketing performance indicators, according to Pioneer Intelligence, which includes web activity. Here are a few insights that explain why some of these companies made the cut:

  1. Cookies comes in at the eighth spot on July’s list. The brand does a lot of promotional content on their business development activity, which helps them make the news almost every week. This time around, they announced the debut of a new chain of Sativa-focused dispensaries under the brand name Lemonnade.
  2. Terrapin Care Station took the fifteenth spot in July’s list. Terrapin made headlines this month with their expansion in Michigan. Their newest brick-and-mortar location is the first medical cultivation facility to open in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  3. Surterra Wellness had a podium finish in July, becoming the third hottest U.S. cannabis retail brand. Back in early July, they received a lot of press for launching its line of tinctures in Texas.

Here are the top 15 hottest U.S. cannabis retail brands for July 2020:

  1. Viola
  2. Stiiizy
  3. Surterra Wellness
  4. Dosist
  5. Grassroots
  6. GrowHealthy
  7. Liberty
  8. Cookies
  9. Serra
  10. gLeaf
  11. Caliva
  12. Sunday Goods
  13. Harvest
  14. Connected Cannabis Co.
  15. Terrapin Care Station

Cannify Adds 1,500+ Products to Database

By Cannabis Industry Journal Staff
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According to a press release sent out this week, Cannify has added a new feature to their website, which allows users to check out more than 1,500 cannabis products available in the United States and save the ones that interest them.

Cannify’s mission is to “bring relevant cannabis science closer to the users, and vice versa, by extracting relevant data from hundreds of studies and making them easy to understand.” Dr. Linda Klumpers, one of the few clinical cannabinoid pharmacologists in the world, founded Cannify back in 2016. Cannify developed a science-based algorithm that helps patients learn which cannabis products are best suited for their personal needs. When patients take the Cannify quiz, it asks them in-depth questions and shows them relevant scientific literature in a personalized report. After that, they are given an overview showing which products match their reports best.

“Making your product database available is nothing new,” says Klumpers. “Making sure that it is actually useful, is a different story. The product list is easy to navigate, even for cannabis novices. Users can filter products by location, administration method, or compound: are they interested in THC, CBD, or both? It might sound so simple, but it turned out to be a rare feature on the market.”

This new addition to the Cannify platform aims to help enhance the overall utility and versatility of the system.

Cannify wants to collect, analyze and publish its data, which they hope will contribute to the advancement of cannabis research. In addition to the Cannify quiz and the product database features, the company also has plenty of educational materials, educational quizzes and customized cannabis courses available on their website.

extraction equipment

Moneybowl: How Data Analytics Can Improve Extraction Processes

By Dr. Markus Roggen, Sajni Shah, Stella Zhu
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extraction equipment

When data analytics was first introduced in the sports industry, it was met with a lot of criticism. But then it began to show results; a popular example being the story of Oakland Athletics Manager Billy Beane, depicted in the movie Moneyball starring Brad Pitt. In the cannabis industry today, we face familiar hurdles. Everyone is focused on extracting as much CBD oil as they can, but not many are optimizing the process. We even hear that data analytics is too difficult, that it does not help and no one has time for it. In contrast, the sports industry nowadays widely uses statistics and analytics, because it has proved to be effective. They use data analytics to choose their players for a team so that they have the best chance to win the championship. NBA teams have entire departments focused on data analytics, so why doesn’t the cannabis industry? Focusing on basketball, what if the approach taken to pick players for an all-star team was employed in the cannabis industry? Imagine your instruments as players and their parameters as their skills. Now, all you need is data analytics to help you decide how best to optimize your team. Paying attention to the numbers, could help you win in the cannabis industry.

extraction equipmentWhen thinking about players in basketball, one factor of interest is the “Players Offensive Rating”, which is the amount of points produced by a player per 100 possessions. In this scenario, you want the player to have a higher offensive rating as it means that they have a better chance of scoring points when they have the ball. Similarly, in cannabis production, you would want your instrument to yield as much product (points) per hour (possession) as possible as well. So, the cannabis extraction analogy for offensive rating is “Yield Per Hour”. By increasing the yield per hour, the instrument can extract more product in the same time frame, increasing overall output and reducing product cost per gram. In this scenario, the biggest extractor is not necessarily the fastest, and any supercritical CO2 extractor will be slower than, for example, ethanol extractors.

Another important factor that’s considered in basketball is “Shooting Efficiency,” which looks at the number of successful baskets made by a player in comparison to the number of shots taken and where the shot was taken from. Having a player with a high shooting efficiency would result in a good chance for that team scoring points over their competitors. This principle is similar in cannabis, while a high yield (number of shots) is great, you also want a high purity (baskets made) of your target compounds or “Percent Purity”. This means you will get a higher percentage of the compounds you want, such as cannabinoids, for every gram of oil extracted. Here, the supercritical CO2 extractor shows its superiority over ethanol, as density modulation of the supercritical CO2 allows for the separation of terpenes or cannabinoids from the rest.You can see that a team that has a better synergy has a higher winning rate. For the same reason, the cannabis extraction process can be optimized by adjusting the parameters of the instrument. 

For one last example, let’s look at “Number of Steals” as well. This is the number of times a defensive player successfully tackles the ball from an opposing player before they manage to shoot a basket. If this is high, opponents have fewer opportunities to shoot and score points. Similarly, “Percent Recovery” in the cannabis industry is important to ensure that the target compounds in your flower are being extracted. The solvent should have the chance to extract the compounds (steal from the opposition), before the run ends (the opposition shoots). A high recovery gives a higher overall output for the materials that were input, generating more product overall. In theory, if you wait long enough every solvent can reach full recovery, but for supercritical CO2 in particular there is a practical ceiling around 80% recovery.

While thinking about these variables in isolation is the first step, it is just as important to see how the variables interplay with each other. A concept is introduced here called “synergy”. A team member must establish a good cooperation with the entire team according to their own characteristics. For example, taller and stronger players whose “Offensive Rating” is higher are more suitable for guards, while those with a high “Shooting Efficiency” are more suitable for forwards. You can see that a team that has a better synergy has a higher winning rate. For the same reason, the cannabis extraction process can be optimized by adjusting the parameters of the instrument. For example, if you increase the extraction speed, which is “Yield per Hour”, you may need to compromise on “Percent Purity” as the increased speed may not allow for the optimal extraction of target compounds. Similarly, you may also need to compromise on “Percent Recovery” as a slower extraction rate will do a better job at having a higher recovery. Thus, in order to improve the overall process of extracting oil, there needs to be a focus on analyzing the synergies between different factors to guarantee optimal parameters for your benefit.

These examples highlight some of the basic data analytics that can be conducted on your instruments. However, there’s still one challenge to consider, most professional NBA teams have entire departments just for data analytics. How can you possibly accomplish conducting these analytics for your entire cannabis LP in addition to your regular job roles? That’s where we come in. Other than the “Yield per Hour”, “Percent Purity” and “Percent Recovery” listed above, CBDV can perform customized data analysis based on your company’s data. Let our team help you integrate the “boring” and “half-baked” data, and present you with a visual and clear data analysis report. Let us help you lead your team to win that championship in cannabis!

Acknowledgements

  • David “Davey” Jones
  • Dr. Tara Zepel

Cannabinoid Research & Pharmacology: A Q&A with Dr. Linda Klumpers

By Cannabis Industry Journal Staff
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Dr. Linda Klumpers has a Ph.D. in clinical pharmacology of cannabinoids. Originally from the Netherlands, she began much of her career in studying cannabis there. She now lives and works in the United States, where she has worked on a number of projects, started her own company and is continuing her research on cannabis as an effective medicine.

After studying neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam, she went on to train at the Centre for Human Drug Research and Leiden University Medical Center, where Dr. Klumpers obtained a clinical pharmacology degree and a Ph.D. in clinical pharmacology of cannabinoids. She has been researching cannabinoids in humans since 2006. Dr. Klumpers co-authored a number of peer-reviewed cannabinoid publications and she has received five honors and awards for her work, including the BJCP Prize from the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

Dr. Linda Klumpers

In 2016, she moved to the United States and founded Cannify, an online tool that helps patients and clinicians with product matching and providing legitimate cannabis education based in sound science. In 2018, Dr. Klumpers joined forces with Dr. Michael Tagen, another clinical pharmacologist, to launch Verdient Science, a consulting partnership. Their work at Verdient Science includes helping clients set up human studies, advise on FDA submissions, creating course materials, adjusting product pipelines and product development strategies, among other areas of focus.

Right now, Dr. Klumpers is waiting to hear back from a grant application they submitted to study THC and CBD ratios for medical efficacy in chronic pain patients. We sat down with Dr. Klumpers to hear her story, what she is working on now and how she hopes to continue researching cannabis as an effective medicine.

Cannabis Industry Journal: Tell us about your background as a research scientist. How did you get involved in cannabis? 

Dr. Linda Klumpers: During my Ph.D. work, we studied the effects of so-called cannabinoid receptor antagonists that block the effects of THC – I prefer to say “we”, as research is always done by multiple people. The problem with studying these compounds in healthy volunteers is that you can’t observe acute effects, which means that you won’t measure any effect after a single dose. To circumvent this issue, we applied a trick and developed a ‘challenge test’: after you give the ‘invisible’ blocking compound, you stimulate the cannabinoid system by giving people THC. If the subjects don’t feel the effects of THC, you know that the blocker worked. One thing lead to another and we ended up studying various administration methods, such as intrapulmonal (via the lungs) with vaporization, oral and sublingual. We studied the behavior of cannabinoids in the body and how the body responded to them.

CIJ: Can you share some information on the projects you are working on? What is Cannify and what is Verdient Science?  

Dr. Klumpers: Cannify was founded in 2016 after I saw that too many people had opinions about cannabis that were more based on emotion than fact. Besides, I noticed that a majority of the scientific literature on cannabis pharmacology was left unnoticed and unapplied to the people getting exposed to cannabis, such as patients, the cannabis industry – that was in a very different stage at that time – healthcare providers and regulators. With my Ph.D. in cannabis pharmacology, I wanted to add a level of objectivity to cannabis education and research. Cannify’s goals are to understand the science of cannabis, and share this with others.

The way we do this is multi-fold:

  1. Cannify Quiz: Patients with an interest in cannabis often want to know the science about cannabis and their condition. Our quiz helps these people by asking in-depth questions and showing them relevant scientific literature in a personalized report. After that, an overview is given with products and product matching scores. Our account system allows users to track their progress over time. Product manufacturers, dispensaries and other companies can use the quiz for their websites and their stores to help out retail employees and save them time, and to receive insight with our analytics on customer desires and behavior. Needless to say, an educated customer is a better customer. It is important that customers come and leave stores well-informed.
  2. Education: Speaking of education, our website contains educational articles about everything cannabis: from plant to patient and from product to mechanism of action. We regularly publish educational quizzes for people to test their knowledge level. With a free Cannify account, you can find all of our educational quizzes and save your results. We also provide customized courses, and have educated a wide audience varying from industry professionals to CME-accredited courses for healthcare providers. On top of that, our educational videos in dispensaries (in collaboration with our partner, Enlighten) reach customers and retail employees.
  3. One of Cannify’s educational graphics, showing the difference between topical and transdermal product administration

    Research: To expand the knowledge on cannabis, performing and especially sharing research is essential. We have already performed and published some of Cannify’s results on descriptive statistics and effect prediction during conferences, as well as a review paper on cannabis therapeutics in a peer-reviewed journal and a book chapter. This year, we expect to co-publish the results of a survey in different sleep patient groups. We collaborated with the Centre of Excellence for Epilepsy and Sleep Medicine in the Netherlands on a peer-reviewed paper from which we expect new research to follow to benefit these patients. We have also co-submitted a grant to study THC and CBD ratios in chronic pain patients: fingers crossed! Another important next step is to test a healthcare provider-specific version of Cannify’s quiz in the clinic once COVID dies down. I want to add that after working in a clinical lab for many years, it is important to combine the results of clinical trials to what people do in real life, which is what we do with Cannify.

And here’s some information on Verdient Science:

Verdient Science is a consulting partnership I have with clinical pharmacologist Dr. Michael Tagen. We provide clinical and translational pharmacology expertise to improve the quality of product development & clinical testing. While both working as independent consultants, we decided from 2018 to start working together to offer better services. Since then, our work has been very variable and includes helping clients set up human studies, advise on FDA submissions, creating course materials, adjusting product pipelines and product development strategies to make them more efficient and cheaper, performed scientific due diligence and much more. When clients want additional services that are beyond our expertise, we are typically able to introduce them to various people per expertise area, or refer them to our partner companies, Complex Biotech Discovery Ventures (CBDV) with Dr. Markus Roggen, and Via Innovations with Dr. Monica Vialpando. A benefit of working with the same partners includes smooth handovers and the feeling of a one stop shop.

CIJ: How does Cannify match available products to consumer needs? Is there an algorithm you developed that matches moods or feelings to cannabinoids or chemical profiles?

Dr. Klumpers: That is a great question and the core of what we do! So back to the Cannify quiz: there are three steps:

  1. Users fill in questions;
  2. A personalized report is generated with the relevant science;
  3. The user gets a product overview with product matching scores.
Another Cannify educational graphic, showing THC distribution throughout the body over time

The report and the matching scores are generated using algorithms that are regularly updated. These algorithms are based on various data sources:

  1. Literature: There is a lot of available literature, and we make sure to select the most relevant and reliable studies;
  2. Raw data: There is only so much one can find in the literature, and lots is hidden in the raw data. Therefore, we piled up data from studies done at various research institutions, including the University of Kentucky and Johns Hopkins University, and used them in our algorithms;
  3. Internal studies: From the thousands of users filling in their results, there is a lot of information that we should learn from. This feedback loop helps us to better understand how the lab relates to real life situations.

CIJ: The world of cannabis research has been historically stymied by red tape, DEA interference and a host of federal regulations. How have you managed to work through all that? Do you have a DEA license? What did it take to get it? 

Dr. Klumpers: Luckily, a majority of our research was and is done outside of the US. You still need to obtain the appropriate licenses, but I was perhaps lucky to have filled in every form very thoroughly and we got the licenses within months. The process is quite meticulous, as you need separate licenses for almost every step from manufacturing to administration. An additional complication is that our cannabis is not stored in our own building, but in the hospital pharmacy across the street, involving transport via the public road. Despite the roadblocks, including a legal procedure about this matter that was going on in parallel, I had no major issues getting our work done. For our research in the US, we were lucky to have been working with partners that already have the required license.

Also with publishing, I have never had an issue with the cannabis stigma. Generally, in my field of science, good quality science is very much welcomed and appreciated, and this was even before the time that there were four different cannabis-related journals, as is the case nowadays.

CIJ: Looking to the future, where do you hope to focus your research efforts? Where do you think the cannabis community should be focusing their efforts in the next 5-10 years?

Dr. Klumpers: Besides continuing to analyze the data generated from Cannify, I keep my fingers crossed for the grant application I mentioned earlier on THC and CBD ratios in chronic pain patients. Although we know that CBD is able to influence THC-induced effects, it is not known at what dosages, which ratios and how the effects are related to each other. For example: is CBD able to decrease certain side-effects of THC without decreasing pain-relieving effects?

Whatever is done, wherever in the community: good quality data are keyNext to that, I am also interested in other neurological and psychiatric disorders, and, of course, my Ph.D. love: the cannabinoid antagonists. Sadly, all the research efforts on this compound group were halted more than a decade ago. However, there is a renewed interest. I would love to help turn these compounds into effective and safe medicines.

Regarding the cannabis community: 5-10 years sounds really far away for an industry that is relatively new to many, but a lot has already changed since I started cannabis research more than 14 years ago and time has flown by. Some changes have been positive and others less so. Whatever is done, wherever in the community: good quality data are key. Many companies gather data and even publish them in peer-reviewed journals, but that does not always mean that the data are useful or that the studies were done well. Only a few minor changes to how and which data are gathered, and so much more can be done. What can help with achieving this is to let the right people do the right thing: many call themselves a ‘cannabis scientist’ or ‘cannabis expert’, but that does not mean anything. What has someone truly achieved and what is their exact expertise? A Ph.D. in chemistry is not going to help you in setting up effect studies, neither will I be able to improve your product’s shelf life or extraction yield. Getting the right people in the right place is key. Lastly: the cannabis community should stay critical. The length of one article in Cannabis Industry Journal wouldn’t be enough to lay out all the misconceptions that people have about cannabis. Make sure that those misconceptions do not live on and do not be afraid to admit you don’t know something, irrespective of the branch you work in: only then, can the cannabis community progress to the benefit of all.

The Brand Marketing Byte

Business Development Impact: Chalice Farms

By Cannabis Industry Journal Staff
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The Brand Marketing Byte showcases highlights from Pioneer Intelligence’s Cannabis Brand Marketing Snapshots, featuring data-led case studies covering marketing and business development activities of U.S. licensed cannabis companies.

Here is a data-led, shallow dive on Chalice Farms:

Chalice Farms – Business Development Impact

Based in Oregon, this company is a retail and edibles brand in the Golden Leaf Holdings portfolio. Chalice Farms has a number of locations in the Portland area, capitalizing on an effective regional strategy.

However, 2019 was a tough year for Oregon cannabis companies. Increased competition and heavy market saturation led to plummeting prices, forcing Chalice Farms to implement layoffs last Spring. 2020 appears to show Chalice Farms doing much better than the previous year.

In addition to tightening operations, the company engaged in several new business development initiatives recently. They’ve expanded distribution of their signature fruit chews into California and Nevada. They also implemented a sales initiative called “an extended 420 celebration,” covering the month of April. All six of the company’s branded retail locations have pivoted to curbside pickup and home delivery during the coronavirus pandemic.

All of those initiatives led to a boom in earned media for Chalice Farms. They were mentioned on CNN and in Forbes, among other national news outlets. The company also improved their web activities considerably, adding keywords, backlinks and a notable increase in web traffic.

Chalice Farms ended the month of April on a high note, moving to the 11th hottest web property, according to data from Pioneer Intelligence. This continued into May; Chalice Farms claimed the #26 position on the Pioneer Index, the highest it has been to date.

The Brand Marketing Byte

The Hottest Edibles Brands in the United States Right Now

By Cannabis Industry Journal Staff
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The Brand Marketing Byte showcases highlights from Pioneer Intelligence’s Cannabis Brand Marketing Snapshots, featuring data-led case studies covering marketing and business development activities of U.S. licensed cannabis companies.

In this week’s Byte, we’re taking a look at the top edibles companies in the country. Using a scoring methodology that factors in a wide variety of data sets, Pioneer’s algorithm tracks brand awareness, audience growth and engagement. Using more than 80,000 relevant data points per week, they analyze business activity across social media, earned media and web-related activities.

For April 2020, here are the top 25 hottest U.S. edibles brands:

  1. Kiva Connections
  2. Wyld
  3. Tyson Ranch
  4. Wana Brands
  5. Serra
  6. STIIIZY
  7. 1906
  8. Kushy Punch
  9. Coda Signature
  10. Kush Queen
  11. PLUS
  12. Theory Wellness
  13. Incredibles
  14. Kikoko
  15. Dixie Elixirs
  16. Fairwinds
  17. Deep Roots Harvest
  18. Willie’s Reserve
  19. Chalice Farms
  20. Care By Design
  21. Beboe
  22. District Edibles
  23. Bhang
  24. Satori
  25. Betty’s Eddies

How to Streamline Labeling from Seed to Sale in The Time of COVID-19

By Travis Wayne
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As if the cannabis industry doesn’t regularly go through enough rapid change, with COVID-19, cultivators, processors and dispensers of all sizes are trying to do more with less. Lower operational headcount and unpredictable production volume, along with a rapidly-changing supply chain – make eliminating manual steps a necessity. Labels include barcodes or various barcode symbologies to help companies manage inventory, identify products and ultimately ensure that the right products get to the right customers at the right time. By eliminating manual steps in your labeling environment, you can address these issues through automation, scalability, efficiency and accuracy: benefits that will last through the pandemic and position you well for the recovery period.

Automation

Automation of many kinds is being implemented from seed to sale including barcode label printing automation. Integration of labeling software and seed to sale traceability systems including METRC, BioTrack, Leaf Data and others enables streamlined barcode label data population and high-volume label printing to counteract the decreasing operational headcount and eliminate manual touchpoints.

Print automation can be defined as “a centralized technology that replaces the manual process of triggering a print job within a labeling environment.” Look for a labeling software solution that allows you to:

    • Completely automate your label printing process
    • Print to a greater number of printers
    • Initiate printing directly from any business system
Integrating your label printing system with your seed to sale traceability system can minimize errors, increase print speeds and maximize your ROI.

By integrating your label printing system with your seed to sale traceability system, you can expect to minimize errors, increase print speeds and maximize your ROI. Your business system already holds the variable data such as product names, license number, batch or lot codes, allergens, net quantity, cannabis facts, warning statements and more. By systematically sending this data to the right label template at the right time, labeling becomes an efficient and cost-effective process.

Scalability

One of the most important considerations for cannabis cultivators, processors and dispensers is to invest in solutions that can grow and pivot quickly as the business changes. Whether you are responding to temporary requirements or changes, or your business needs to scale up quickly to respond to a spike in demands as a result of COVID-19 or to prepare for coming out of this pandemic. Whatever your needs are, think about short-term and long-term goals for sustainable business solutions. Scalability includes:

Printing to a greater number of printers

As needs and automation requirements change, and your printer inventory has the possibility of increasing, make sure your labeling design software can be licensed per simultaneous user, with cost-effective, multi-user networking licenses. That way, you don’t run the risk of paying for more printers as you grow or going over budget with each additional printer.

Print documents and labels from the same application

If you use the same data for your documents (like order receipts, bills of materials or packing lists) and labels, moving document printing into your label design software makes sense logistically. An advanced label creation and integration software enables label and document printing standardization by allowing multiple database records to be on one file. That means when new documents or labels come into your database, your software can seamlessly integrate.

Efficiency and accuracy

In a time where responding to the changing market needs to happen very quickly, where costs are being scrutinized and when errors cannot happen – you need to set up your labeling environment to have high levels of accuracy and control. With increased accuracy you will reduce waste, eliminate returns due to mislabeled product, efficiently track product and gain more efficiencies that will save you money and time.

Cutting manual steps out of the process

Removing manual steps in your printing process is a sure-fire way to gain efficiency and accuracy in your labeling environment. Look for labeling software features that allow you to add variable data from a device to your labels automatically, which limits the human interaction with your labels and in turn helps minimize human errors. Other efficiencies include:

On-demand color labeling streamlines efficiency and accuracy across a wide variety of labeling needs.
  • Increased print speed within your labeling environment
  • Reduced label waste
  • Collection of data from several devices such as:
    • Scanners
    • Scales
    • Keyboards

On-demand color labeling

On-demand labeling is specifically helpful in the cannabis labeling world because of all the regulations you must comply with. Each state has its own regulations, which means each label throughout the cannabis supply chain must be compliant with whichever state they are located. With on-demand labeling, cannabis companies print labels as needed and make changes as they go without the risk of wasting obsolete pre-printed label stock. This is beneficial as pre-printed labels often have large minimum order quantities. On-demand labeling also helps companies maintain better control of their own branding and graphics.

With on-demand labeling, label information can be populated by using pre-approved label templates in order to save you time with the variations of cannabis labels. This gives you the ability to print the specific label you need without having to waste your pre-printed label stock, or spend time switching out your pre-printed label stock in your printer.

Cannabis cultivators, processors and dispensers are faced with many obstacles during these challenging times due to COVID-19 – ensuring workers are safe, keeping operations at 100% capacity with potentially fewer people, creating contingency plans that may be changing daily. In an environment that is changing very quickly, consider how labeling solutions can evolve. You may also need to lean more on your partners than you ever have in the past.