Dyspense Technologies

In the Election Day in 2012, Coloradoans unanimously approved a ballot initiative that legalized the use and sale of cannabis in the state. It was marked in the history books as the beginning of the golden days for the U.S. cannabis industry. In the years that followed, the call for legalizing marijuana echoed loud in several parts of the nation. In fact, several states, including Washington, California, and most recently New York, followed suit, resulting in a cannabis sales boom. Recent studies state that adult-use and medical cannabis sales across the U.S. had hit 17.5 billion dollars in 2020, a 46 percent increase from 2019. Despite the pandemic-driven market volatility, it was highly propitious for the legal cannabis industry. According to Arcview Market Research and its partner BDS Analytics, the industry is more likely to see a boom around the globe, with spending on legal cannabis expected to hit 57 billion dollars by 2027.

But amid this remarkable growth, there is one aspect that the cannabis industry still grapples to pull off — logistics and distribution. As the founder and CEO of Dyspense Technologies, Timothy Ruybal, says, "For an industry that is still at its infancy and needs to be agile in adopting technologies, logistics is something that it can never compromise with.” But, the cannabis industry often fails to streamline logistics and distribution as it is highly dependent on several standalone systems to handle its day-to-day operations, including inventory and order management, routing, and scheduling.

Not just that, while the sale of recreational marijuana and cannabidiol (CBD) products is legal in several states, there are still areas in the country where both are banned. And therein lies the problem — especially for the logistics and distribution agents. What happens if they take cannabis products from a pro-cannabis area into a less-than-welcoming territory? From worrisome run-ins with highway patrol authorities to fines and possibilities of jail time, every mile in a state with cannabis prohibition is a roll of the dice.

This is precisely where Dyspense Technologies makes a world of difference.

The leading distribution and logistics solution provider specializes in streamlining and optimizing the supply chain within the cannabis industry while ensuring compliance throughout the loop. The company offers a full suite of software programs that are encompassed into a single solution designed to track cannabis products and payments when they are out on the road. This way, it allows clients to mitigate all hardships associated with their logistics and helps them stay ahead of The Pack.

A One-Stop-Shop Logistics Solution

“We identify ourselves as a bridge between regulatory offices and the industry, enabling them to ensure transparency of sales and seamless movement of products across the country,” says Ruybal. To achieve this, Dyspense Technologies’ firstof- its-kind software suite is designed to serve the logistics, regulatory compliance, and law enforcement communication needs of the hemp, CBD, and regulated THC markets. Moreover, it is an all-inclusive solution that meets the varying needs of all stakeholders, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. Dyspense Technologies enables manufacturers to conveniently schedule deliveries, get their products to the right stores, track products and cash in transit, and help them with their pricing strategies.

When it comes to distributors and transportation providers, the company’s solution offers a wide range of capabilities that make their operations highly streamlined and efficient. By giving them unfragmented access to ELD and federally DOT-compliant logistic software, Dyspense Technologies helps enhance their inventory management, route optimization, transportation consolidation, and asset tracking. This way, the company allows them to reduce their operational costs and carbon footprint. The solution enables seamless communication with law enforcement agencies, helping them prove the legitimacy of products and cash in transit while keeping their drivers, trucks, and consignments safe.

Connecting Stakeholders

In addition to manufacturers, Dyspense Technologies’ solution encompasses powerful tools that provide retail stores with consolidated order flow capabilities, enabling them to streamline their delivery needs and reduce time spent on instore inventorying and inbound shipments. This is extremely helpful for retailers, especially mom-and-pop shops who have limited workforce to keep up with their competitors by optimizing inventory levels. “We introduce a just-in-time order management software program that can be integrated into their point of sales systems. It helps maintain a minimum quantity threshold on each individual item—based on their capacity to hold the inventory and consumer demand—by automatically making orders,” adds Ruybal. Not just that, stores can have a holistic view on what their competitors are selling and access to market analysis on consumer demands by leveraging Dyspense Technologies’ targeted analytics capabilities. This, coupled with the company’s advanced region-based pricing tool, empowers stores to stay competitive in terms of both customer satisfaction and pricing, allowing them to maximize revenues.

Furthermore, Dyspense Technologies has established an excellent footprint in the logistics and distribution side of the hemp and CBD markets with its novel load board logistic software program. It allows manufacturers to put their products onto a system that helps consolidate the transportation and move the loads more efficiently. Its load board logistic software program serves as a digital escrow system and allows manufacturers to create a seamless flow of products without any delay in receiving cash.

A Data-Driven Approach

The logistics and distribution software suite is just one part of what Dyspense Technologies has to offer. The company is well recognized for its ability to collect data from each touchpoint — sales, analytics, routing, order management, logistics, and escrow — and create a centralized data center. In fact, this serves as the consolidated powerhouse that allows it to bridge the communication gap between regulatory offices and the industry. Law enforcement agencies can have a 360-degree view of what's happening in the industry in terms of logistics, who is buying products, what quantity is being purchased or transported, and how they are moved by leveraging this database. It allows them to identify the legitimacy of products and cash in transit, bring transparency to the cannabis supply chain, ensure operational compliance, and also prevent illegal sales of such products in the country. The centralized data center also allows Dyspense Technologies to provide financial data reconciliation capabilities and help establish creditworthiness within the industry.

This allows the banking industry to establish its footprints in the cannabis space by providing it with the ability to internally reconcile financial data. Furthermore, Dyspense Technologies is creating federal reporting data by using its centralized database that helps authorities in assessing the industry and its operations to make better decisions when it comes to lawmaking. The company also leverages it to provide a secondary tracking system that allows state offices to analyze the industry data against the current seed-to-sale tracking programs. “We want to ensure the seamless flow of clean and accurate data between the stakeholders in the cannabis space and regulatory offices to help the industry achieve a progressive growth trajectory in the future,” says Ruybal.

Performance in the Real World

To further elaborate on Dyspense Technologies’ value proposition, Ruybal recalls their collaboration with one of its prominent partners, IDY distributors. The client faced challenges pertaining to using several standalone systems. What they wanted was a centralized system capable of handling their entire logistics operations, ensuring transparency, and collecting vital data for compliance—a value proposition that Dyspense Technologies can provide. The company implemented its solution into their ecosystem to help them streamline their processes and reduce their operational costs. It also allowed them to collect analytics on the industry to be able to make better decisions based on product placement, regional stores, and sales forecasts. Today, IDY distributors serves over 1,100 retail locations in Colorado with a strong footprint in the national distribution and logistics of hemp and CBD products.

Such instances of success demonstrate Dyspense Technologies’ dedication and ability to create an all-inone solution that augments this booming industry’s logistics needs and thereby its growth. Moving ahead, the company is planning to work with more industry leaders in the cannabis industry and the regulatory officers, educating them to better use data and analytics for the industry and their advantage. It intends to collaborate with financial institutions and give them access to financial data to bring in more banking services and introduce a cannabis-banking program at a national level. Dyspense Technologies is looking forward to extending its footprints into six other states that have legalized the recreational use of cannabis. The company has deployed a team of experts to assess the new markets and understand the trends and consumer behavior to better help brands kickstart their business and keep running.

“What makes us successful is our focus on just one core concept — the logistics and distribution side of things — which is a critical aspect within the cannabis industry. We always wanted to be on the cutting-edge in introducing advanced technologies quickly and cost-effectively to optimize the industry’s operations and help it keep growing,” concludes Ruybal .