Are you wondering how a Seed-to-Sale ERP system can benefit your Cannabis business? You are not alone. As a growth-centric player in the Cannabis industry, you must be privy to the need for streamlined operations and continual regulatory compliance. Regardless of your position in the Cannabis Supply Chain, you will find it fitting to adopt a proven-to-work Seed-to-Sale ERP system. The U.S. Cannabis market size, valued at $10.8 billion in 2021, is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 14.9% from 2022 to 2030.
Among the factors fueling this growth include the increased Cannabis legalization and the widespread acknowledgment of its medical use to treat multiple chronic conditions. This unprecedented growth in the Cannabis trade is increasingly pushing stakeholders to implement Seed-to-Sale ERP software solutions to improve their Supply Chain management, stay compliant, and keep ahead of the curve. But what exactly is a Seed-to-Sale Cannabis ERP system?
Understanding a Seed-to-Sale ERP System for Cannabis
A Seed-to-Sale Cannabis ERP system is a full suite of modules that goes beyond managing the cultivation of Cannabis. In addition to the functionality you’d expect from a Seed to Sale solution, a full ERP system will also support the organizations accounting requirements Accounting, Fixed Assets, Consolidations and Cash Management. Features such as Inventory, Warehouse Management, Purchasing, Landed Cost, Forecasting, and MRP are all part of a full ERP suite. In addition, a full ERP suite will offer e-commerce tools integrated to back-office Order Processing to support features like, CRM, pricing, inventory availability, discounts, quotes, create drop shipments and sales order fulfillment.
In today’s environment an effective Seed-to-Sale ERP is typically a cloud-based, cross-functional solution tailored to help Cannabis businesses manage all aspects their operations. A system should support cultivation, processing, distribution, and dispensing. The best Seed-to-Sale ERP system for Cannabis operations is fully integrated and manages all the cultivation steps, as well as the complete extraction and manufacturing process. In addition, a full Seed-to-Sale solution will provide in depth analytics to monitor key performance indicators (KPI’s). Finally, an ERP solution for the Cannabis industry will integrate seamlessly to many of the compliance and regulatory platforms being adopted by the individual government jurisdictions.
Advantages of Adopting a Cannabis ERP System
Whether you are a Cannabis cultivator, manufacturer, or distributor, adopting a reliable industry specific Seed-to-Sale ERP solution will offer you the following benefits:
Total Supply Chain Visibility
Consumer demand and market trends are shifting faster than ever in the Cannabis industry. Companies that can predict market trends have traditionally been more profitable. The Cannabis market is also challenged with intense competition, changing regulations and lean margins. Supply Chain managers in this industry face the difficult task of managing the cultivation and processing stages of the Supply Chain process to meet inventory level requirements in a cost-effective manner. To succeed in this demanding environment, Cannabis companies must be agile and have total visibility into the complex processes that exist within their internal Supply Chains, not just the cultivation process.
A complete, totally integrated Seed to Sale ERP solution for the Cannabis industry will provide an organization with visibility and control solutions to alert users to variances across the Supply Chain. As changes in demand or other disruptions to your Supply Chain occur, Supply Chain visibility will enable collaboration with your staff and suppliers so you can adjust demand orders quickly and keep stock at the right levels to operate efficiently.
Deviations from identified production processes can affect product safety and quality assurance and can impact costly recalls and damage to the value of your brand. Early detection of missed process activities reduces the risks and costs associated with the production of poor-quality products and helps protect your brand image. Because of increased competition forcing diminishing margins operational efficiency is critical to maintaining and increasing margins in the highly competitive Cannabis industry.
A complete ERP solution will provide an organization the Supply Chain visibility to focus on critical issues to minimize cost overruns and meet customer demand. For Supply Chain professionals juggling the challenges in the Cannabis market, a comprehensive Seed-to-Sale ERP solution will improve customer satisfaction levels, enable on-time product delivery and reduce overall system inventory.
Enhanced Employee Collaboration
Successful Cannabis operations thrive on optimal collaboration. An effective Cannabis Seed-to-Sale solution may support collaboration of employees involved in the cultivation process however, a full ERP system can facilitate collaboration between employees in all the departments within the organization to augment operational performance. By consolidating organizational data and processes and providing cross module workflows a good Seed-to-Sale ERP solution offers the Cannabis workforce more flexibility by eliminating the barriers between the back office and the front office.
In addition, cloud ERP solutions leverage assorted online collaboration tools to keep their teams productive and connected. In the long run, enhanced collaboration and connectivity reduce operational costs and studies indicate that employees rank “opportunities to work on a collaborative team” as the best way to boost their careers. Keeping your employees happy produces a bigger output and lowers the turnover rate.
Improved Reporting and Planning
Capturing actionable insights from your Cannabis operation can assists management in production planning and performance review. Implementation of a Seed-to-Sale ERP solution across departments will provide a centralized reporting system for all processes. A Seed-to-Sale ERP system may provide cultivation department with the required data for growers; however, a full ERP suite will quickly produce valuable business intelligence reports providing all departments with a “single source of the truth”.
A robust reporting system that is included in ERP will enable managers to compare and analyze operations without the need for numerous complicated spreadsheets. A Seed-to-Sale Cannabis ERP solution can adapt to your business processes and priorities. This adaptability makes it easy to capture insights from seed to sale, pursuant to state regulations. By integrating a Cannabis ERP into your business, you can track points like cannabinoid content, terpene profiles, batch potency, and facility locations. Using this data, a good ERP solution will promptly generate intelligent business reports to guide your planning activities.
Constant Regulatory Compliance
As states continue to legalize Cannabis the focus of organizations in the industry should be laser focused on regulatory compliance. In addition to being a highly regulated field, laws change, and regulatory requirements differ from legal jurisdiction to legal jurisdiction. Cannabis organizations are typically required to maintain licensing requirements, seed-to-sale traceability, testing procedures, waste disposal protocols, transportation requirements, product recall capability, compliant packaging/labeling, and tax payments.
A quality ERP solution integrated to one of the regulatory platforms (Metrc, Health Canada, BioTrack, etc.) can address the complexities of regulatory compliance to keep your company compliant. A totally integrated Seed-to sale ERP solution provides one centralized database and integrated reporting, meaning departments are no longer operating as silos and employees can access the real-time information, they need for compliance initiatives.
In summary, the Cannabis industry is rapidly evolving, and it’s up to your company to keep abreast of current regulations as well as future changes, and a Seed-to-Sale ERP software system built specifically for the Cannabis industry provides you with the functionality to keep up with all aspects of regulatory compliance enabling you to remain flexible and adapt to changes as they occur.
Over To You…
One of the key requirements to succeed in the Cannabis industry is to stay adaptable to change. As your Cannabis business grows, you must also scale its systems to sustain the increasing complexities. When seeking to have total visibility into your Supply Chain, improve employee collaboration, stay compliant, and plan and report better, don’t look any further. With Acumatica Cloud ERP for Cannabis businesses, you will meet your growing operation’s needs without purging your purse.
Wouldn’t you like to try out our all-in-one solution for Cannabis businesses? Contact us today to schedule a demo. Or connect with us on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
