Cannabis operators are dealing with an enormous amount of data spread across many systems on a daily basis. This information, ranging from sales, compliance, finance, and more is critical for streamlining communication between teams, creating reports, and auditing information. As the cannabis industry continues to grow and evolve, data hygiene and standardization are becoming increasingly important for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of this information. However, the reality is that most operators continue to face challenges in standardizing their data across the different platforms and systems they use.
The Importance of Data Hygiene
Data hygiene is the process of ensuring that the data collected and stored is accurate, complete, and consistent. In the cannabis industry, this is particularly important because the information used in reports and audits must be trustworthy in order to stay compliant, increase inventory and order accuracy, and make fast, informed decisions. Poor data hygiene can result in errors, miscommunication, and loss of credibility, which can have serious consequences for cannabis operators.
The Benefits of Standardizing Data
Standardizing data is the process of making sure that data is consistent across all licenses, platforms, and systems. Successfully implementing standardization can allow the company to get a unified, trustable source of truth for information. For multi-licensed operators, standardizing data across multiple licenses and platforms can significantly improve communication and coordination between teams. This also helps to eliminate the need for repetitive work when compiling reports and auditing information, saving hours of time and effort.
Challenges of Standardizing Data
Standardizing data across multiple licenses and systems can be a challenging task, particularly for operators with existing data. It requires coordination between different departments, retagging inventory, as well as a commitment to using consistent data definitions and item names across all platforms. Additionally, it can be difficult to find and correct data issues that have been present for a long time.
Software Implementation: A Great Time to Fix Data Issues
If done right, a software implementation project is a great opportunity to fix data issues and standardize data and processes. During this time additional resources and automated tools are available for the team, and there is a clear path and deadline for teams to work towards. Having an external set of eyes on the data set can also provide additional insights that the internal team may not have identified before. By addressing data issues during a software implementation, operators can ensure that their data is accurate, complete, and consistent, which will benefit them for years to come.
Conclusion
Data hygiene and standardization are crucial for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of information in the cannabis industry. You can invest in the best people and software, but until there’s a trustable source of truth across all teams, there will be friction and lack of dissonance between different departments. By implementing best practices for data hygiene and standardizing data across all licenses, platforms, and systems, cannabis operators can improve communication, streamline processes, and create trustable reports. Whether you are a multi-licensed operator or just starting out, taking steps to improve your data hygiene and standardization will help you to succeed in the rapidly growing cannabis industry.
Flourish solves this problem from the roots since it becomes the point of data origination and syncs that information across all licenses and platforms at the same time. Moreover, our professional services team comes equipped with automation tools for bulk creation and updates, and extensive SOPs that help all teams with change management.