Key highlights:

• $36,000+ saved on personnel alone in the first year of implementation
• Worked six times faster by speeding up the compiling & filing of records
• Batch release in 1/2 the time thanks to one-click download batch records
• Pain free audits thanks to real-time record-keeping

The Situation

About Prairie Grass

Prairie Grass is a family and farm-grown craft cannabis facility, cultivating cannabis on the Prairies of Southern Alberta. Founded by a Pharmacist and a Registered Nurse, Rebecca Thomson and Olivia Penner bring four generations of farming and plant passion to their products.

Prairie Grass submitted its licensing application to Health Canada in 2019. As a privately-owned company, the team was mindful of keeping operating costs down and had initially planned to utilize a paper-based system for record-keeping. As the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and form creation progressed, they soon realized that this approach was both ineffective and unsustainable for a small team to utilize, considering the extensive record-keeping required by Health Canada.

Past experience in pharmaceuticals and healthcare

Leaning on their years of experience with streamlined electronic record-keeping systems in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, the Co-founders began to seek out similar systems within the cannabis space. “While searching for seed-to-sale software systems we looked for a solution that would allow for record-keeping to be fully electronic, however, there were not many systems that had that capacity,” said Rebecca.

“We spent an extensive amount of time trialling systems, but what we discovered was that, while many of the platforms claimed to be paperless, there were still multiple key areas of Health Canada compliant record-keeping that the systems failed to address and required supplementation with paper records,” said Olivia.

The Solution

Completely electronic recordkeeping

Prairie Grass found its digital solution in Elevated Signals. “Elevated Signals delivered on its promise of a completely electronic quality record-keeping system,” said Olivia. The software streamlines data collection on inventory management and quality into one platform. Records are automatically filed against batches or locations, saving teams a minimum of 18 hours per staff member, each week.

Customizable form builder

Prairie Grass could either choose from a wide variety of Health Canada GPP template forms to work from or create custom forms specific to its facility’s processes.

“The customizable form builder sets Elevated Signals apart from other systems”

With Elevated Signals, Prairie Grass’ quality program was digitized, organized, and structured to ensure compliance from the first day of implementation. The system’s scalability will support the team’s future plans for cultivation and extraction without the need for additional hires.

Training, access to a dedicated Slack channel and regular check-ins with Elevated Signals’ customer success team helped make Prairie Grass staff and non-technical team members confident using the software.

“Elevated Signals is an incredible time and cost-saving software platform, tailored to the extensive compliance recordkeeping component of cannabis cultivation and processing."

"We have maximized the system’s capabilities in form building and batch traceability and have received very positive feedback from Health Canada inspectors on the organization and traceability of our master batch production records,” said the co-founders.

The Success

🌿 6x Times Faster: On the production floor, the Prairie Grass team estimates that they compile and file each record six times faster using Elevated Signals.

🌿 At Least $36,000 Saved in the First Year of Implementation: “We would have needed to hire an additional full-time quality assurance associate if we had implemented a paper-based system, just to complete the administrative work that Elevated Signals automates,” said Olivia.

🌿 Batch Releases in Half the Time: With Elevated Signals, it took Prairie Grass 50% less time to complete production batch records for batch release than it would have taken with a paper-based system.

🌿 Pain-Free Audits: “During inspections, producers are required to show evidence of all records completed on cultivation and processing batches in addition to lineage traceability on genetics. With the real-time record-keeping and traceability of Elevated Signals, we have been able to smoothly and efficiently complete our Health Canada audits and produce the requested documentation to inspectors in a timely manner,” said Rebecca Thomson, QAP, Prairie Grass.

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