A cannabis operation has a lot on its plate, from streamlining financial management, ensuring the entire team is on the same page, and staying compliant all the way to guaranteeing customer satisfaction. Technology can be a great ally in dealing with these and other processes, simplifying day-to-day activities, and allowing the staff to focus on what matters for the business. But how to choose the right software for your cannabis operation?
In this article, you will understand the core elements you should focus on to choose the system that best meets your unique company’s needs.
Understand Your Business’ Needs
Each business may have unique demands, even if they operate within the same industry, and may require different (and often combined!) solutions.
Whether you are a cultivator, producer, distributor, or retailer, understanding your company’s needs is the first step to choosing the software that will address them. To begin, you may ask yourself the following questions:
- What are the main struggles the business currently faces?
- What is the number one complaint from clients?
- Does the team often forget to pay suppliers, issue invoices, or update spreadsheets related to inventory management?
- Has the business ever received a fine for not staying compliant?
If your team often has to deal with duplicated data, spreadsheets, several systems, and a bunch of paperwork, for instance, maybe a cannabis ERP solution would be the best option for your day-to-day operation.
This is also true if you want to understand if your business is lucrative, which requires tracking the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). In this case, an ERP software could be of help by pulling data from different parts of the cannabis operation, such as the cost of non-cannabis products, called Bill of Materials (BOMs).
Now, if the company is having a hard time satisfying customers and increasing their loyalty, a CRM solution could be the way to go. Through a centralized database with information regarding your customers, it’s easy to access past customer interactions, send personalized emails, and understand each client’s preferences, for example.
The bottom line is that understanding your most urgent matters leads to understanding what type of software will help you the most.
Assess Different Types of Software
In the cannabis industry, there are several different solutions for your operation. Check some of them below.
Cannabis ERP software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software helps you manage and streamline all aspects of business processes, such as inventory and financial management, through a centralized system. It can help reduce manual processes, put the team on the same page, and generate reports so the team can make more informed decisions.
Seed to sale software
This type of software helps businesses stay compliant with state regulations by tracking the cannabis plants from the initial stages of cultivation to the final stages of the operation, when flowers, edibles, oils, and other cannabis-related products are sold to customers. In short, it tracks cannabis products throughout the entire supply chain.
Specialized solutions
Specialized solutions are often tailored for specific types of businesses and can range from cultivation management software to cannabis delivery and compliance systems. Cannabis cultivators’ needs are quite different from cannabis dispensaries’ demands in some aspects, so they can benefit from different solutions.
Overall, you should pay attention to key features when evaluating software, such as a user-friendly interface, data protection, and integration with other cannabis tech companies. For instance, it’s possible to integrate ERP software with other systems, such as quality management, to adhere to GMP and GCAP standards.
Evaluate the Solution and the Vendor’s Reputation
You understand what your business needs and have evaluated the solutions to address these demands. Now, you are ready to learn more about a specific software and vendor.
Overall, the criteria on how to choose the right software for your cannabis operation must consider these key factors:
- Functionality and ease of use: the software must meet your needs without overflowing the team with hard-to-follow information and resources. From business owners to managers to other employees, the system must be easy to use so it can be easy to adopt.
- Customer support: having timely responses and a team that truly cares about customer service is a must for your cannabis business, especially when things are not working and you need help (as soon as possible, please! Not the day after tomorrow). This is where understanding the vendor’s reputation comes in handy.
- Integration with other solutions: while Metrc compliance and integration may be a priority in the cannabis industry, there are other integrations with cannabis tech companies that may help streamline your processes.
- Cost versus value: last but not least, you need to understand if the money is being well spent. The value of a specific software comes in different forms, such as being one single source of truth and getting the team rid of spreadsheets, whiteboards, systems such as Trello and Asana, and paperwork. The value can also come in the form of an incredible number of hours saved each week due to the use of a centralized system.
Carefully evaluate these factors one by one. When evaluating customer support and training, for instance, look for user feedback and reviews on Google, online directories, or other pages. The user experience plays a big role in how to choose the right software for your cannabis operation.
Finally, if the company cares about the cannabis industry and shares a passion for the flower, even better. Using the right software built with the cannabis industry in mind and counting on a passionate team to help you with it can be a game-changer move for your business.
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