Whether you’re a burgeoning cannabis startup or a seasoned player in this rapidly evolving landscape, you’re continuously navigating complex regulations and consumer demands within an ever-growing field of competition.

Amid these challenges, one often overlooked area is the existence of data silos. Data silos, or isolated pockets of data inaccessible to other parts of the organization, can inhibit transparency, efficiency, and the ability to make informed decisions. For cannabis businesses striving to innovate, scale, and outmaneuver the competition, breaking down these data barriers is not just beneficial – it’s critical.

More than Beneficial

Data silos are formed when information is hoarded or not shared between departments, teams, or individuals within a business. This lack of communication and access to information can cause a variety of problems including reduced employee alignment, transparency, and business success.

Data silos can emerge within legal cannabis companies due to several factors:

Lack of Documented or Accessible Information: In many organizations, including cannabis companies, up to 80% of knowledge remains undocumented. As employees become more experienced and informed, they share their insights with colleagues directly involved in their tasks. While this facilitates immediate team or project success, it curtails wider knowledge dissemination and complicates the identification of knowledge sources and those with access to them.

Too Many Sources of Data/Data Points: Cannabis companies thrive when all their business solutions can talk to one another and appropriate team members can access critical data. But when staff are required to navigate too many knowledge systems, efficiency goes out the window. Whether they lack the right logins or confuse the operation of each system.

Inefficient Organizational Structures: Cannabis companies may simplify each team’s duties, enabling employees to concentrate on their specific roles with clearly assigned resources and personnel. However, this approach often results in teams prioritizing their own objectives over the company’s overall goals, which can hinder data sharing.

Counterproductive Company Culture: The corporate culture of a cannabis company significantly influences the formation or dismantling of data silos. Departments or business units may withhold data for security purposes or due to fear or self-interest. Employees might perceive their knowledge and expertise as a competitive edge and hesitate to share it.

Data Silos Create Hidden Problems for Cannabis Companies

Data silos can decelerate your entire cannabis operation and lead to unnecessary costs. Teams may spend countless hours each week looking for information that may not be available or accurate. This not only adds extra work, but it can also negatively impact employee morale and the customer experience. Dismantling these silos opens up opportunities for cost reduction and can aid in driving more revenue.

Data silos can adversely affect a cannabis company in various ways:

Impacts Productivity: Knowledge gaps can make your cannabis business less efficient, potentially leading to a decline in productivity. Approximately 50% of employees report spending excessive time sifting through documents, which hampers their ability to perform in-depth work.

Deters Collaboration: Silos restrict the potential for collaborative work. Software platforms that inherently foster collaboration, like knowledge management systems, enable employees to locate information and seek further insights from expert colleagues.

Influences Business Management: Effective management of your cannabis company requires a comprehensive view of every team and process’s performance. When business data is compartmentalized, your analysis and forecasts become incomplete and flawed, impairing your ability to make performance-based decisions.

Slows Data-Driven Decision Making: Even basic tasks can become time-consuming and challenging when information is not readily accessible.

Silos can form when close-knit employees who focus on a single project share progress and results with their immediate teammates but don’t interact much with other departments. As a result, their knowledge, results, and processes aren’t shared or documented across the entire organization. Over time, these isolated teams can become more disconnected, leading to communication breakdowns and potential issues.

How Cannabis Companies Thrive

Legal cannabis companies, like any other organizations, benefit significantly from connecting  data silos within their businesses.

Here’s what these companies get:

1. Improved Compliance and Reporting: The legal cannabis industry is heavily regulated, with strict guidelines for reporting and compliance. Breaking down data silos can improve accessibility to vital information, making it easier to compile reports and ensure regulatory compliance.
2. Enhanced Product Development: By sharing data across departments, these companies can gain more insights into consumer behavior and preferences, enabling them to develop products that better meet consumer needs. For instance, sales and customer feedback data can inform research and development efforts.
3. More Effective Marketing and Sales: When data is shared across the organization, marketing and sales teams can better understand the performance of their efforts, adjust strategies in real time, and coordinate their efforts for maximum impact. This can lead to improved customer acquisition and retention.
4. Better Supply Chain Management: The cannabis industry involves a complex supply chain, from cultivation to retail. Effective data sharing can improve visibility across this supply chain, enabling better forecasting, inventory management, and distribution strategies.
5. Increased Operational Efficiency: Breaking down data silos allows for more streamlined operations, as employees across different departments have access to the information they need to make informed decisions and carry out their duties effectively.
6. Risk Management: Data silos can lead to an incomplete or inaccurate understanding of business risks. By ensuring data is shared and accessible, companies can improve their risk management strategies, which is essential in a still-evolving industry like legal cannabis.
7. Improved Customer Service: With access to comprehensive customer data, teams can provide more personalized and efficient service, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Overcoming Data Silos in Your Cannabis Business

For cannabis companies seeking to optimize their operations, these invisible barriers can substantially impact productivity, collaboration, business management, and decision-making processes. By recognizing and addressing these challenges, cannabis companies can instead create an environment that encourages knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Ah, the human element – employees who spend less time searching for information and more time doing meaningful work are likely to be happier, more engaged, and more productive.

The Future of Integrated Cannabis: The “Best of Breed” Solution

So, whether you’re a startup cannabis dispensary or a well-established cultivator, take the time to examine your data practices and structures. Breaking down silos and fostering a culture of data accessibility and collaboration could be the key to unlocking your next growth phase.