Update 1/9: The MJ Freeway tractability system LeafData did not blackout on Jan. 1 because LeafData was delayed until Feb. 1. Respect My Region is working on a follow-up story with the latest details about LeafData’s delay.
Data consulting firm MJ Freeway will unveil their cannabis tracking system Leafdata this January in Washington state. Leading up to the release, other cannabis tracking providers, as well as industry experts from 421Data.com, aren’t confident in LeafData’s stability.
GrowFlow has recommended LeafData’s launch be delayed, Rufus Casey said in an email. Casey is CEO of GrowFlow, a third-party seed-to-sale software provider. They’re helping i-502 producers, processors and retailers transition to the LeafData software. LeafData’s bugs are expected to cause a three-day dark period which means that i-502 related businesses cannot do their traditional traceability work from Jan. 1 through Jan. 3. This includes ordering new products, transfers and anything else involving i-502’s strict chain of custody rules.
Earlier this year, the Washington Liquor and Cannabis board (WLCB) shopped out the contract for Washington’s next cannabis tracking system provider. Its been almost two months since the contract with BioTrack ended, sending Washington’s cannabis traceability situation into limbo. The contract almost went to Metrc, but they opted to award the contract to MJ Freeway, New Cannabis Ventures reports. LeafData to was supposed to launch Nov. 1, but that didn’t happen.
In the months leading up to the switch from BioTrack to MJ Freeway, a series of events including customer data theft and unresolved cybersecurity risks caused the WLCB to delay LeafData’s installation. Last month, the Cannabist reported that MJ Freeway revealed a second data breach in Nov. 2016. MJ Freeway said in a press release that more client data from multiple states was stolen.
After LeafData’s initial launch delay, BioTrack started a contingency plan in cooperation with multiple third-party companies, the Cannabis Industry Journal reports. Around 1,600 cannabis businesses are reportedly using this patchwork data tracking system; WeedTraQR, GrowFlow, Mister Kraken, TraceWeed, GreenBits, S2Solutions, and DopePlow, all of which are working with BioTrack to help the industry effectively track their cannabis. Without this effort, dispensary employees are forced to fill out spreadsheets by hand and chances for mistakes are increased.
Read Casey’s full email about GrowFlow’s assessment of LeafData and what they expect for the blackout period.
“TL;DR – LeafData is going live Jan 1, expect a bumpy transition, we’ll do our best to keep your business running. Please plan on not doing any traceability or GrowFlow work from Jan 1st through Jan 3rd.
LeafData is going live on January 1st against our recommendation. There are currently LOTS of unresolved bugs in the new system built by MJFreeway, but to their credit, they have been communicating well and are definitely making progress.
What you need to know:
We are not confident in the stability of LeafData, expect bugs and lots of issues. A lot of things are out of our control but we will do our best to keep your business running. Support response times will be slower.
We will be migrating your data into LeafData for you, let us know if you would not like us to do this.
Migration could potentially take 1-2 days, expect traceability and GrowFlow to be down for 48 hours after Jan 1st.
If you use other third party systems please let us know so we can coordinate and avoid conflicts
Lots of process changes will be happening as part of this transition, we will be sending out help articles on what to expect.
What you need to do:
Get us your new API key so GrowFlow can connect to your LeafData Account. You will be able to get this to us prior to Jan 1st we are hoping. We’ll send you detailed instructions of how to find this API key when we know more (you will need to get this from MJFreeway).
GrowFlow will be down for two days Jan 1 to Jan 3. (Not just because of hangovers.) Do all mission critical traceability tasks prior to Jan 1st.
Complete all pending transfers.
Do a full inventory and plant audit (use the Audit function it’s way faster).
Import all pending returns/inbound transfers.
‘Modify’ all inbound return prices.
Delete old inventory, destroy plants, and get your data cleaned up.
Get all QA samples submitted and processed before Jan 1.
Pleeeeease do not schedule Transfers for January 1 through 3. Last time around, we got lucky… this time is the real changeover to LeafDataSystems and we expect to be fully shut down for two days whilst we migrate your data.
We can no longer create employee records, please add all your employees to the ‘Secure Access Washington’ (SAW) system if they will be a driver or doing any traceability work. (Ask the LCB how to add employees to SAW). Call the LCB on: 360-664-1721
Questions? Please use the in-app chat tool instead of calling us, even YOU, Seamus 🙂 It will let us focus on executing on MJ Freeway.
Thanks everyone, as always, we love you all!”
Respect My Region has reached out to numerous retailers, producers, and processors for more information. What we’ve been told by everyone is that they plan on waiting to see how the blackout affects their vendors and partners first, before placing additional orders and/or taking on new products to sell.
