Tech giant Microsoft has decided to enter the marijuana industry. No, the company is not planning to cultivate legal marijuana, but help with its tracking.
Microsoft is planning to partner with a cannabis tech startup called KIND Financial to build a software for the marijuana industry. The software will track the legal growth of cannabis and also help maintain a record of the marijuana sales.
With the conception of the new business idea, Microsoft has become the first major tech company to enter the legal marijuana industry. Its partnership with KIND is expected to provide resources for the development of a "seed-to-sale" software for the governments. The software is expected to help the federal authorities track the growth and sale of legalized marijuana, according to Information Week.
Since the approval of the use of marijuana for recreational and medical purposes, the affected municipalities, counties and states have started to face challenges in terms of managing compliance in the absence of a reliable software. On the other hand, the lucrative business of legal marijuana is attracting an increased number of business owners into the field.
To curb the problem associated with tracking of marijuana cultivation and sales, Microsoft and KIND have set up KIND Government Solutions. The software runs on the Microsoft Azure Cloud and is expected to build a transparency and accountability when it comes to management of different cannabis programs.
"KIND's strategic industry positioning, experienced team and top-notch technology running in the Microsoft Azure Government cloud, made for an easy decision to align efforts," Kimberly Nelson, executive director of state and local Government Solutions from Microsoft, said about the new partnership in a press statement.
Nelson further explained how KINDS also believe that Azure Government is the only cloud platform designed so far to fulfill the standards set by the government about cannabis compliance programs. These programs must be subjected to strict scrutiny, which can only be provided by the new software.
So far, the use of marijuana for medicinal use has been legalized in the D.C. and 25 other states in the Unites States. More states are expected to participate in the voting on marijuana legalization later in 2016. Each state with legalized marijuana has different sets of rules and regulations, which makes compliance even more difficult.
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