"If we didn’t have Elevated Signals today, we’d be buried in a mountain of paperwork and would spend hours on inventory reconciliation and quality record-keeping.” Marc Pelletier, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of VASCO.
🌿 Highlights 🌿
- Saving over $100K per year on labour costs
- Automated, paperless cannabis operations
- CTS reporting in minutes
- Taking a partnership approach
Download the case study, or read the full story below. 👇
About VASCO Cannabis
- Location: Rivière-Trois-Pistoles, Quebec
- Facility Size: 25,000 square feet
- Licensed Date: 2021
- Licence Type: Cultivation & Processing
VASCO Cannabis is a Canadian licensed cannabis producer based in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec.
Brothers Marc Pelletier and Phil Pelletier founded VASCO in 2017 with the mission of bringing premium cannabis to the market. Since the company's inception, VASCO's approach has been to combine cutting-edge precision agriculture techniques with decades of on-the-ground cannabis growing experience.
VASCO recently obtained its processing licence - an exciting new chapter for the business. It plans to add products such as hash and extracts to its roster and has its sights on expanding into the recreational consumer market.
The Situation
From day one of its operations, the VASCO team wanted to run a lean, streamlined process. This meant that everything from their facility to equipment selection and the staff they hired, had to enable them to grow great cannabis in the most efficient way possible.
To successfully execute the lean approach to cannabis production, the team knew they needed to be digital-first and use software to manage and automate cannabis operations whenever possible. Compared with the cumbersome traditional method of logging and tracking everything on paper, a digital system would keep costs down and productivity high.
Wanting to have an inventory management system implemented right from the start, VASCO started exploring various software options.
"From the start, we have been laser-focused on our mission of growing the highest quality cannabis. When something is not our expertise, we seek partners who are the best in their field to support us. We worked with trusted partners to help set up our operations. They recommended Elevated Signals as a tool to help with our inventory and quality record-keeping," Marc Pelletier, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of VASCO, explains.
Credit: VASCO
The Solution
"We looked at other systems, but Elevated Signals stood out as it is built specifically for cannabis cultivation and operations. Many well-known producers were also already using it," says Marc.
"When we initially spoke to the team, they were extremely knowledgeable about the cannabis industry - and gave us advice from a compliance standpoint, what we would need to do and how their software would help. Ultimately the decision to implement Elevated Signals was an easy one."
"We wanted to use all of Elevated Signals’ features as soon as we were ready to begin our operations, so we worked closely with the customer success team, who were super helpful from the beginning. They taught us how to use the software, and helped us with our processes, by showing us the best way to complete quality record keeping and inventory tracking compliantly," explains Marc.
One of the benefits of Elevated Signals is the customization of the system. VASCO used this functionality to build custom forms so that all of its SOPs could live operationally in the software.
"I transformed every paper form we had into a digital form in Elevated Signals. The flexibility of the form builder allowed me to create forms that are completely custom to our facility, allowing us to track exactly what we need," says Nicolas Dahan, Head of Cultivation & Master Grower.
"I've made Elevated Signals a one-stop shop for VASCO, and we now track everything in the system. There is no question you could ask me about our cannabis production that I couldn't easily find the answer to in the software," Nicolas adds.
Read: What does Health Canada ask during a cannabis regulations inspection?
As a proficient form builder, Nicolas has worked with the customer success team to suggest new features, many of which have been implemented.
“Today, almost everyone at VASCO uses Elevated Signals to capture everything from inventory, work orders and production forms to maintenance and sanitation records. It’s straightforward to work with,” says Nicolas.
"The guardrails within the digital forms mean that employees can't get through to the next task unless the form is completed correctly," adds Marc. “This means we rarely have to deal with missing, incomplete or illegible paperwork.” With data input controls, there is less room for error, and the inputted information in Elevated Signals is more reliable in comparison to paper records.
"If we didn't have Elevated Signals today, I'd be buried in a mountain of paperwork and would spend so much time completing quality records, filing them away and then trying to retrieve the information later," says Nicolas. "We'd need to hire someone just to find information in batch records," he adds.
For Marc and the team, remote visibility means they can keep an eye on daily operations by seeing a simple overview of completed tasks. They don’t need to be physically present at the facility to know what's happening.
"We love how we can continually expand what we can do with the software. Inventory management was a given, but we're always finding ways to improve our operations using Elevated Signals," says Marc.
"It used to take hours to complete CTS cannabis inventory reports, and now it’s much more automated, and it takes just a few minutes," says Marc. He admits that it would be very painful to track inventory manually. “Compiling CTS reports without Elevated Signals would take a lot of time, and we'd need an additional employee to manage our inventory that way.”
Because Elevated Signals automates cannabis tasks that otherwise would require hiring personnel, Marc says, "Elevated Signas is truly an extension of our team. If I had to describe the system in one word, it would be indispensable!"
The Success
"Elevated Signals has an awesome customer support team. They've been invaluable from training and implementation through to ongoing support and feature development. We were especially grateful to them when we were setting up our processes as their extensive knowledge of the cannabis industry enabled us to organize our processes efficiently for compliance." Marc Pelletier, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of VASCO.
