Leveraging Compliance For Competitive Edge: Metrc And Canix At Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference

How can technology help cannabis businesses make ends meet and navigate the complex landscape of compliance? At the recent Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Chicago, industry experts converged to tackle this practical question.

Moderated by Jill Ellsworth, founder and CEO of Willow Industries, the panel featured Stacey Hronowski, CEO of Canix, a compliance and seed-to-sale software provider for the cannabis industry, and Michael Johnson, CEO of Metrc, a regulatory compliance and track-and-trace software company.

Enhancing Operational Efficiency: Insights from Industry Leaders

Collaborating with integrators like Canix, Metrc has strengthened its integration API system, providing tangible benefits to cannabis businesses. Johnson underscored Metrc's dedication to open integration with various software and hardware companies, advocating for a flexible system that aligns with clients' technology preferences.

Want to know more about compliance, data integration, and operational efficiencies? Tune in to the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Chicago. For existing subscribers, you can get direct access through our research platform. For new users, you can get instant access here!

Leveraging Data As A Competitive Advantage

The discussion explored the significance of data integration, automation, and collaboration within the cannabis compliance landscape, and both panelists emphasized the importance of leveraging regulatory data as a competitive advantage.

"To turn regulatory requirements into a competitive edge businesses can optimize compliance processes for themselves and simplify compliance for their customers,” Hronowski said and provided an example.

“One customer operating in Nevada and Florida, achieved GMP compliance, enhancing their understanding of cost per gram for every SKU, a task that was previously time-consuming and is now readily accessible. Mastering compliance can be a competitive edge and a source of actionable insights."

Hronowski explained Data also played a crucial role in providing actionable insights and cost optimization for cannabis businesses and operators can stand out by making compliance faster for their customers, thus enhancing their competitive edge.

“The introduction of webhooks is particularly exciting, as it brings automatic data refreshes from Metrc into Canix and other third-party integrator systems. This greatly improves data speed and accuracy, with real-time updates for every action, which has a substantial impact on our product," he added.

Furthermore, the panel highlighted challenges in states where integrating with seed-to-sale tracking systems is prohibited, emphasizing the complexities arising from varying data models and compliance systems across states and the necessity for standardization.

Johnson noted the company remains focused on compliance and providing meaningful data to licensees through tools like Tableau-based reporting.

"Most of our contracts clearly stipulate that data is owned by the state and individual licensees. We don't sell data, and even if states allowed it, we wouldn't. Our focus is credibility and regulatory compliance, not data exploitation,” Johnson said. “We aim to enhance data's value to licensees, acknowledging our room for improvement in reporting, which we're addressing through Tableau-based reporting."

HHS News: Rescheduling Impact On Operations?

Panelists noted that rescheduling cannabis may not directly affect their operations but could benefit customers with increased access to capital and banking.

"For us, it's not a direct impact, although I'm a CPA, so I'm closely monitoring the rescheduling element. Rescheduling to at least Schedule III should be a top priority to address the THC issue, whether through rescheduling or another mechanism. This will be crucial for the evolution of the cannabis industry in the next decade," Johnson said.

Want to know more about compliance, data integration, and operational efficiencies? Tune in to the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Chicago. For existing subscribers, you can get direct access through our research platform. For new users, you can get instant access here!

Photo by Ricardo Arce on Unsplash.