The Competitive Edge You Need to Win in the Cannabis Market
Significant shifts in the legal landscape surrounding cannabis led to a gold rush-like push to establish a legitimate regulated industry. Currently worth approximately $15.8 billion, the US market value is forecast to reach $40.1 billion by 2023. The cannabis industry is at an inflection point.
This industry will continue to evolve, requiring labs to keep up with changing regulations, expand their testing capabilities, and proactively hold off fierce new market entrants. Labs that rely on outdated software and manual processes need to change.
Labs need a flexible, secure, custom solution to meet this challenge. Slingr Labs' custom solutions with cutting-edge low-code tools save labs time and money by improving sample management, automating regulatory compliance, and improving workflows.
A bespoke Low-Code LIMS offers a comprehensive solution to streamline operations and bring efficiencies to cannabis testing businesses. With functionalities explicitly designed for the unique needs of cannabis testing, a modern LIMS enhances sample management, facilitates regulatory compliance, ensures efficient testing processes, and enables collaboration among stakeholders.
Off-the-shelf LIMS handles operations for known testing, regulatory, and business model requirements. Low-code LIMS prepare labs for the certainty of change. In the cannabis market, this is more important than ever.
THE ADVANTAGES OF SLINGR LOW-CODE LIMS
Ensure continuous compliance in a changing regulatory environment
Adopt new testing methods and additional features to support new services
Adapt to your lab’s workflows Easy integrations
Improve data accuracy, analysis, and trends
Enhance customer experience
ENSURE CONTINUOUS COMPLIANCE IN A CHANGING REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
Navigating conflicting state and federal laws is complex and time-consuming for cannabis businesses. State-level rules contrast greatly, permitting medical and recreational use to various degrees, making for a complex patchwork of legislation and a strong need for cannabis businesses to comply with state authorities and licensing to minimize risk. Slingr Low-Code LIMS offers maximum flexibility to adhere to state-level regulations and can keep up with the changes.
Given state-level compliance requirements and the dynamic nature of federal regulation, ensuring regulatory compliance will continue to be challenging. As recently as January 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that the current regulatory frameworks are unsuitable for the cannabidiol (CBD) products market. They concluded that a new pathway is needed to manage risks in the growing industry. Labs that can adapt quickly will have a significant competitive advantage.
INCREASED TESTING REQUIREMENTS
To ensure that products are safe and meet the quality standards set by regulators, cannabis labs can expect an increase in the number and types of tests required.
NEW TESTING METHODS
Labs can expect to see new testing methods that improve the accuracy and efficiency of testing. Cannabis LIMS must be flexible enough to adapt to new methods to maintain a competitive advantage.
INCREASED COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS
As the regulatory environment for cannabis becomes more complex, cannabis labs must ensure that they comply with all applicable regulations.
INCREASED COMPETITION
As the cannabis industry grows, so does the competition among cannabis labs. Cannabis labs must differentiate themselves from their competitors, offering new or innovative testing services or providing more efficient and cost-effective testing services. Slingr Low-Code LIMS offers unparalleled flexibility to adapt to changing regulatory and marketing requirements.
Slingr Low-Code custom LIMS solution maintains the rigorous compliance expected of cannabis testing facilities and labs. With the increasing complexity and stringent regulations surrounding cannabis testing, keeping accurate and detailed records of testing parameters is crucial to ensure compliance and quality control. With audit trail functionality and validation, we give users features that help to ensure data integrity, such as data validation checks, audit trails, and electronic signatures.
Our custom solution includes a centralized platform to track and share and offers flexible configurations to keep up with ongoing changes in the regulatory climate.
ADD NEW TESTING METHODS AND ADDITIONAL FEATURES TO SUPPORT NEW SERVICES
Low-code LIMS are more flexible and can be easily customized to meet the specific needs of a laboratory, making it easier to add new testing methods or comply with new regulations. Because Low-code LIMS are customizable to a lab’s preferred workflow, they are easier to adopt than packaged LIMS.
Because an automated developer platform supports low-code LIMS, changes don’t require hiring expensive software developers. For laboratories that need to adapt to changing requirements regularly, low-code LIMS is the cost-effective option.
Let's say that a new testing method requires using a new instrument. A low-code LIMS could create a new workflow that automatically integrates the new instrument with the LIMS, allowing the laboratory to use the latest testing method without making significant changes to the LIMS system.
In contrast, because off-the-shelf LIMS typically meet the needs of a wide range of laboratories, customization to meet the specific needs of a particular laboratory is not straightforward.
Low-code LIMS is a more flexible, easier-to-use, and affordable option for laboratories that adapt to changing testing methods and regulatory requirements.
Align testing workflows with existing lab processes vs. forcing new processes.
ADAPTING TO YOUR LAB'S WORKFLOWS
Sample and data management is essential to any modern laboratory, and cannabis labs are no exception. With the vast amount of samples and data that cannabis labs generate, it is critical to have a systematic management method and software solution.
A modern LIMS (laboratory information management system) can help cannabis labs manage samples and data efficiently, automate processes, and comply with regulations. However, not all LIMS are created equal. Some LIMS are designed for specific industries or applications, while others are more generic.
A low-code LIMS is a good option for cannabis labs needing a flexible and customizable solution adapted to their specific workflows. Low-code LIMS can meet the particular needs of a laboratory because it’s easy to add new features or functionality without replacing the entire LIMS system.
Low-code LIMS help improves sample and data management efficiency by automating tasks and leveraging custom validation rules, reducing errors.
Low-code LIMS is a more flexible and customizable option for laboratories that want to adapt their workflows to their specific needs. If you are looking for a LIMS that can adapt to your lab's workflows, then a low-code LIMS is a good option.
INTEGRATIONS
Cannabis LIMS integrations drive efficiency at scale. Because of the changing business and regulatory environments, it is important to have a flexible integration framework to accommodate new business partners, order sources, and management systems.
Instrument integration: This integration allows the LIMS to communicate with the laboratory's analytical instruments, such as mass spectrometers and gas chromatographs, automatically saving time and improving accuracy.
Metrc integration: Metrc is a state-mandated tracking system for cannabis products in some states. This integration allows the LIMS to automatically share data with Metrc, which can help the lab to comply with state regulations.
ERP integration: An ERP (enterprise resource planning) system is a software suite that helps businesses to manage their finances, inventory, and other operations. This integration allows the LIMS to share data with the ERP system, which can help the lab to track costs, manage orders, and make better business decisions.
Customer relationship management (CRM) integration: A CRM system helps businesses to manage their customer relationships. This integration allows the LIMS to share data with the CRM system, which can help the lab track customer orders, provide customer support, and build customer relationships.
Front-end order systems: Labs accept orders and samples from various sources with different integration capabilities.
Slingr Low-Code LIMS has an integration framework that enables easy integration with web services, instruments, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies and easily incorporates new technologies and workflows as the industry matures.
IMPROVE DATA ACCURACY, ANALYSIS, AND TRENDS.
With a direct impact on safeguarding public health, quality, and compliance, ensuring data is precise and trustworthy is of utmost importance for cannabis testing labs. Reliable data ensures the product meets the required potency levels. A widely trusted product will be purchased more often and in higher volume.
Reliable data serves as the foundation for decision-making, research, and product development, ultimately contributing to the advancement and integrity of the cannabis industry.
Standardized testing protocols and methods directly correspond to a lab's regulation adherence, product revenue, and quality control. Automating this allows for broader standardization in a more simple way than has been possible before.
Our custom solution, built bespoke for your testing needs, comes with built-in quality control checks and gives you control over the parameters. Automation can significantly improve data validation and verification mechanisms, enhancing data quality and integrity in cannabis testing labs, leading to more reliable test results and improved compliance with regulatory standards.
ENHANCE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Because labs must maintain accurate and reliable data, collaboration, and lines of communication among cannabis testing, stakeholders must remain open. With a multitude of players, including growers, processors, testing laboratories, regulators, and consumers, effective collaboration fosters transparency and knowledge sharing throughout the supply chain.
Working together and precise communication improves industry-wide innovation, a safer and better product, and a more amicable relationship with regulators.
An online portal allows clients to access their test results, make service requests, schedule sample pickups, and make payments to enhance the client experience and reduce the administrative burden for the laboratory.
An automated supply chain management system will help track and manage cannabis products from production to distribution, including batch tracking, expiration date control, and the generation of labels and barcodes to ensure proper traceability.
Finally, we automate equipment management with a more efficient and scheduled maintenance program to ensure the performance and availability of analytical instruments used in the cannabis laboratory, including tracking calibrations, maintaining maintenance records, and generating alerts for preventive maintenance.
REAL-WORLD SUCCESS STORIES: HOW SLINGR’S SOLUTION HELPED CHEMQUANT
ChemQuant, a leader in direct-to-consumer testing integrated with physician services, approached us to develop a sales platform to connect to their website enabling e-commerce.
With Slingr Low-Code LIMS as the foundation for the product catalog and workflows, we added a Stripe integration to manage payments and encoded labels to achieve a seamless and dynamic process flow. ChemQuant now manages its operations with a fully automated process flow end-to- end, fully integrated into a Slingr LIMS.
Michael Roberts, co-owner of ChemQuant, said, “It’s not easy to set up a system to track, share, and automate the growing amount of data generated in today’s dynamic diagnostic labs. Slingr not only gives us the power to connect and manage our data but allows us to modify our system to meet our laboratory’s needs easily.”
EMBRACING LOW-CODE AUTOMATION CAN TRANSFORM YOUR CANNABIS TESTING OPERATION.
The benefits of our custom solution solve throughput problems that are holding your cannabis testing business back. From streamlining your sample and data management, ensuring regulatory compliance, enhancing testing workflow efficiency, boosting data accuracy, analysis, and trend identification, and maintaining collaboration and client experience, Slingr LIMS has you covered.
Low-code powered automation can transform your testing capabilities, save money, and prepare you for the changes in this dynamic industry. These improvements will keep you competitive in a booming and rapidly evolving marketplace.
If you want to explore how Slingr can help you implement a modern LIMS into your workflow, contact sroche@slingr.io.
