There is no doubt that computer software is playing a major role in the legal marijuana industry, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. An avalanche of information and requirements come with entering the cannabis industry, just as it does with any other industry. It is entirely too much for the human brain to know and catalog. That is why we rely so much on computers and their capabilities in our everyday lives; being successful in the legal marijuana industry is no different.
One of the companies at the forefront of providing software solutions to those in this new and uncertain industry is the NexTec Group. In business since 1994, NexTec has been helping companies connect their systems, update out-of-date software, ensure compliance and improve forecasts for over 20 years. They recently took their expertise to the cannabis industry.
“Based on our expertise in food, pharma, nutra, and traditional growers (like hops and nuts), where traceability and strong compliance are a must, we decided to look into the cannabis industry as a possible new market for NexTec,” Catherine Lindner, Director of Marketing at NexTec, told The Marijuana Times. “One of the members of our management team met other executives in the cannabis industry to learn about the issues they were facing and gaps in technology where NexTec’s expertise could help. From these conversations, NexTec determined that our expertise with food and beverage, growers and process manufacturing can be transferred to the business needs of cannabis cultivators and processors. It was then that NexTec decided to make a big investment and develop a specific ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution for the grower side of the cannabis industry.”
Some of NexTec’s ERP solutions include barcode and RFID tracking of plants, integration into state regulatory systems, 280e cost capturing and a “product recall” add-on that can “identify in 10 minutes where that material (from a bad crop) was used. It will then help identify and quarantine all related materials and create recall communications that can be sent to customers and partners if need be.”
There is a mountain of compliance issues when it comes to the marijuana industry. In many cases, record-keeping and information flow must be accurate and air-tight; there is little room for error. If you are going to be a force in the cannabis industry and plan on sticking around, your software must be able to keep up.
