High technology: How tech innovation is fueling the budding cannabis industry - brubakeralks1993

The hemp manufacture is growth aweigh, and IT would be tough to envisage Thomas More convincing proof than Microsoft's recent proclamation that information technology's getting up to their necks.

Though the software big will appease a great deal in the play down—its role will focus primarily on providing Azure cloud services for a compliance-focused software labour—the move is still widely viewed as a telling sign.

"Having them come tabu and say, 'we're willing to have our name in the same sentence as the Scripture marihuana,' adds to the genuineness of our industry," said Kyle Sherman, cofounder and CEO of software maker Flowhub.

Stigma is a longstanding problem for those trying to run a legitimise business in the cannabis industry, thanks largely to the fact that marijuana stiff illegal in the U.S. federal government's eyes. Twenty dollar bill-five states experience already passed laws that allow for some arcdegree of medical exam surgery legal use, but that can glucinium cold comfort for entrepreneurs unable to get a banking concern account because of lingering relate.

Until no there's without doubt of the profit electric potential. Legal cannabis sales brought in $5.4 billion in 2015, and $6.7 million are expected this year, according to a February paper. By 2020, the forecast is $21.8 zillion.

Startups are now jumping in to help ready that happen, and technology is playing a central part.

Historically, engineering has been used minimally in the production and sales event of cannabis, largely because of collection concerns.

"It has been non just minimal but actively avoided," said Mike Bologna, beginner and CEO of Light-green Lion Partners, a business organization strategy firm focused on the regulated marijuana industriousness.

Bologna predicts that applied science's growth in the industry will eventually outpace the growth of the industry itself, and all over the past year he's started to see signs that things are picking up.

Today, there are not only a raft of agricultural and security system technologies misused connected the development end, but also tools ranging from dispensary robots to APIs to help sell cannabis in a way that's expedient, transparent, and compliant with regulations.

Flowhub, for instance, offers a sough-to-cut-rate sale tracking platform for growers and retailers, with a particular center on complaisance. Based in 2015, the Denver-supported startup offers a mobile device for scanning RFID works tags, a location (POS) system for dispensaries, and a corrupt-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that's accessible via vane or iOS. It currently serves customers in Colorado, Alaska, and Oregon.

Essentially, the finish is to track every constitute, product and person associated with the production and sales event of cannabis and preserve legal compliance.

Flowhub's POS system reports to states' complaisance trailing systems automatically using application programming interfaces (APIs), replacing what in use to exist a arduous manual process. The company has besides wide-eyed up its platform's APIs to other entrepreneurs, giving them a way to write apps that use Flowhub data, such as for loyalty programs.

"Our goal as a company is to legalize hemp responsibly in North America and eventually the globe through technology," Sherman said. "Regulators need to figure that it's better to keep cannabis disconnected the black securities industry by making it traceable. We want to prove the world this can be through with responsibly."

La Conte's Clone Bar and Dispensary in Denver saves countless hours away using Flowhub to maintain deference with Colorado regulations.

"Earlier Flowhub we had to manually upload data to the state every night," same Zach Howell, supply chain handler for the store. "That meant taking screenshots of spreadsheets and cutting and pasting. It was a lot of wreak."

Today, all sales data for the twenty-four hours rear end be uploaded automatically into the state's database in a single step. The scheme also gives La Conte's a live, real-time view of its inventory.

Upon entering the dispensary, customers have their ID scanned both for their date of parentage and for their Department of State of residency. That swear out checks them into Louisiana Conte's organisation, so that when they're ready to make a purchase, there's no incertitude about what they lav bribe.

In Colorado, out-of-state residents are not allowed to buy more than an ounce of marijuana, for illustration. It used to be heavenward to employees to speedily figure extinct what combination of products—flowers, edibles, and so forth—adds up to that a great deal. Now Flowhub's system of rules does it automatically.

"If we sleep with your Gem State is from out of State, it locks the transaction if you go over an ounce," Howell aforesaid. "They've basically put away the regulations into a scheme that forces users to play by the rules."

Howell, meanwhile, can tap into Flowhub's system and handle any problems remotely. "If I'm along a plane and a manager calls to say we're out of something but have it in back blood line, I can displace it into their inventory for them to deal."

Flowhub

Flowhub's cofounders: CEO Kyle Sherman and CFO Chase Wiseman.

The technology is enabling many of the same processes and capabilities that have yearn been standard in other parts of the retail world only adapted with an industry-specific twist. As the hemp industry grows and matures, that trend promises to continue.

"When I first started therein industry, it was a bunch of citizenry who knew how to develop weed simply had nary business enterprise gumption whatever," Howell said. "Today the big companies come out in that respect are start to get accountants and HR departments. The companies that are surviving are saying, 'we need a Chief executive officer, we need a business model, we ask a project. We need technologies to streamline our processes and make a point we'Ra compliant.'"

Those are remarkable steps because eventually, cannabis will become a trade good, said Political party Lion's Bologna sausage. When that happens, success will party favor those tapping efficiency-boosting best practices and tools already prosaic in the eternal rest of the job world.

"A lot of hoi polloi look-alike to put us in our personal bucket, but we are starting to use all the standard tools," Bologna same.

That's definitely the guinea pig at GreenRush, an e-commerce political program for medical marijuana delivery. GreenRush partners with local U.S. dispensaries and speech services and helps them get customers through its online platform.

"We're like the GrubHub of the medical marijuana industry," said Paul Warshaw, GreenRush's break and CEO.

Customers who land along the site can range dispensaries and products; with a verified medical marijuana card, they can order products for delivery by a dispensary near them. California-based shoppers who don't take up a medical marijuana card can even look up with a doctor via GreenRush's telemedicine platform and bring fort approved for one on the spot.

Though much of GreenRush's engineering science was improved in-house, the company has tapped a number of common tools to propel its business. A partnership with Salesforce, for instance, helps with sales management and customer support.

"We're a gross revenue organization," Warshaw explained. "Everything starts with outreach to the dispensaries."

The company has besides integrated with DocuSign for its membership agreements, MailChimp for email marketing, and Slack for communication with dispensary partners.

"IT's great that people are building technologies specifically for cannabis, merely there are awesome platforms already out there that nates help ready your job so much more efficient and transparent," Warshaw said.

As the industry matures, that kinda fine-tuning may get an imperative.

PotBotics

PotBotics bills its PotBot as 'the world's first virtual budtender.'

Owing in set forth to the high prices down during the industry's contraband days, more than 80 percent of the businesses that get started in the legal cannabis manufacture come apart even within a twelvemonth, said Leslie Bocskor, founder and president of Electrum Partners, an advisory unwavering convergent on the industry.

Much rapid profitability is "unhearable of," Bocskor said.

It also poses what Crataegus laevigata be one of the industry's biggest challenges in the days ahead.

"High margins can cover up a lot of mistakes," Bocskor said. "Businesses can't get comfortable—they need to originate in using best practices regardless of their profitability, and technology is a big break of that."

Banking remains another obstacle for many in the industry, equally financial services firms remain skittish about serving cannabis-based businesses.

"The average ganja business sector can't bank like a normal 1 would," GreenRush's Warshaw said. "Not everybody wants to work with you."

At that place can even off be issues for cannabis companies trying to advertise on sites like Google or Facebook, or to make apps available online. "Things you wouldn't think up are challenges that we have to subdue," Warshaw said.

Looking ahead, the effort and funds now beingness poured into the marijuana industry could create jobs and taxation and fire innovation for years to issue forth.

"It's nary longer some guy in a warehouse where they roast coffee to cover up the olfactory sensation," Electrum's Bocskor same. "All this money is driving creation that will affect husbandry around the globe."

Said Howell, "We're not just growing weed to sell weed anymore—it's a business."

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/416131/high-technology-how-it-is-fueling-the-cannabis-industry.html

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