WSLCB RFI K1873 Cannabis Traceability Questions

Today, our team is releasing our questions directed to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board's Request for Information WSLCB RFI K1873 "Cannabis Traceability", issued July 10, 2023.

We formulated these questions based on our team's experience working with the WSLCB to deliver the most thorough traceability reporting for our WSLCB-licensed clients. Our team has delivered traceability services since 2014. Team members delivered these questions to the WSLCB bid manager on Jul 23, 2023.

Yet, these questions were not answered by the Board. Our submission was outside of the deadline period. This caused a conflict, and did not allow "sufficient time for the project team to review and respond to those questions."

Our team has no argument against giving the WSLCB the appropriate amount of time to make response.

But, our team feels that the Q&A period as described in the RFI document was unclear. This incident is compounded by the Board's 24-day window to respond to the RFI.

We regret missing the "Question and Answer period" deadline. Our team believes it could have been avoided with clearer instructions on the RFI document. We also feel the incident was less likely to occur if the response deadline was at a later date. OpenTHC has been making more effort to engage and respond to government procurement requests, and has not encountered this issue from other agencies. These questions are important to understanding the Board's needs for the Traceability System. WSLCB has a very storied history with traceability vendors, and OpenTHC regrets missing this crucial market research opportunity.

See also:

• Cannabis Observer: WSLCB - RFI K1873
• Cannabis Observer: WSLCB - RFI K1873 (July 10, 2023) - Amendment 1 - Questions and Answers - v1

Questions

Question 1

4.1.6.1.1 The system must allow the integration of data upon scan of RFID tags.

Question: Does the State have guidance on the behavior of the integration when the RFID tag is scanned?

Question 2

4.1.6.1.2 The system must allow communication with RFID tags from other states.

Question: Does the State have guidance on the minimum expectation for the transfer of materials between States and their Cannabis Traceability systems?

Question 3

4.1.6.1.4 The system vendor should offer RFID tags for purchase by all producers/processors (possibly COOP).

Question: Does the State have guidance on maximum acceptable margin on mandatory single-source business materials?

Question 4

4.3.2.1.1 The system must provide authorized LCB staff to create, alter and maintain data validation for data uploads. (same file uploads, required fields, etc.)

4.3.2.1.2 The system must provide authorized LCB staff to create, alter and maintain data validation for data adjustments. (quantity adjustments, recalled products, etc.)

Question: What customization experience is the State expecting?

Question 5

1.3.2.3 The system should allow LCB staff to select from a list of pre-defined text based on LCB business rules to include on system-generated documents.

Question: Does the State have guidance for the applicable LCB rules for initial pre-defined texts.

Question 6

1.3.1.9 The system should be able to search sent correspondence by different search criteria both globally and within an account.

Question: Does the State have guidance on the expectations of search criteria?

Question 7

1.3.1.4 The system should be able to generate text with alternative language characters (e.g. Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic, etc.) on system-generated outputs.

Question: Does the State have guidance on internationalization or localization?

Question 8

1.2.1.13 The system should allow LCB staff to provide reasons for special circumstances flags.

Question: Does the State have guidance on some of the special circumstance scenarios, and the kinds of features they should enable? Or disable?

Question 9

1.2.1.9 The system must allow authorized LCB staff to configure and maintain (including adding, modifying, reporting and deleting fee types) fee, and fee structures and track historical information related to fees.

Question: Does the State have guidance on the scenarios that fees need to be added, modified, reported, and deleted?

Question 10

1.2.1.8 The system must allow authorized LCB staff to easily manage the accounting table (funds, fund codes, etc.) to properly distribute revenue based on LCB business rules.

Question: Does the State have guidance on the expectations of the accounting table report?

Question 11

1.2.1.8 The system must allow authorized LCB staff to easily manage the accounting table (funds, fund codes, etc.) to properly distribute revenue based on LCB business rules.

Question: Does the State have guidance on the LCB Business rules of the accounting table?

Question 12

Does the State value maintaining a low environmental impact from waste generated by the Cannabis Traceability system?

Question 13

Does the State know what the environmental and waste impact is resulting from the Cannabis Traceability system?

Question 14

Does the State know what the economic impact the Cannabis Traceability system has had on Washington State per Licensee?

Question 15

Does the State value proposals that include a path to meet the State’s requirements by using contractors from Washington State social justice programs?