Hifyre helps turn Mettrum into a blazing success
Editor’s note:
This is a guest blog article from local firm Hifyre (@hifyre).
Similar articles like this are welcome from any and all other agencies in town if you’ve got something cool you’d like to share!
This past week we have had one of the greatest rewards you can get in our industry. Something all of us at Hifyre are incredibly proud to be a part of.
It all started around 4 years ago. A couple of former colleagues reached out to us. They were looking to establish themselves in an emerging medical marijuana market in Canada.
Our first reaction was one of surprise. Hifyre knew nothing about this industry, and had many questions. But we quickly learned as much as we could about this new opportunity, and instinctively knew we had to be a part of it. It aligned with everything that Hifyre stands for; challenge, new products, innovation, and ultimately… trailblazing. And so started the journey with our new client Mettrum.
Hifyre’s first job for Mettrum was to create a brand, website and supporting marketing materials in preparation for a community meeting in the small Ontario town of MacTier. The town had offered Mettrum the possibility of turning their fledgling local arena into Mettrum’s first growing facility.
Enter Canadian hockey legend Bobby Orr. Like trailblazing in any new industry, there are going to be challenges. To read about the connection between Bobby Orr and Mettrum, click here: http://www.torontosun.com/2013/05/11/bobby-orr-angered-mactier-arena-could-become-medical-marijuana-facility
Fast forward one year. Mettrum established their new facility in the more welcoming town of Bowmanville. They received one of the first licenses to produce marijuana in Canada. And so began the challenge of taking on new patients and educating physicians on a product they really didn’t know much about.
Over the next two years, Hifyre was tasked with developing an industry first system that would allow physicians to create, sign and submit patient medical documents online. Hifyre developed a new and innovative software program that also streamlined the patient registration from a two week manual approval process to one that could be done within the hour online. This proved to be an interesting process for Hifyre. Working within the constraints of Health Canada’s strict regulations proved to be a challenge. But ultimately, one worth taking.
Up next was the online store. Creating any old e-commerce site is a breeze, but creating one that has many restrictions, limitations, and deviations from the standard ‘add to cart’ is a whole other ball game! But given the fact that we have always embraced challenges as opportunities to create and innovate… we managed to build and maintain the most robust and tightly controlled online shopping experience in the industry today.
The final piece in the digital toolset we created for Mettrum was a portal for their Customer Service Reps. This portal would make managing their quickly growing patient base more efficient and precise. After working closely with Mettrum’s operations, customer service, and finance departments, we were able to create a custom tool that would not only deliver easy access to the deep information needed to better serve their patients, but helped maintain the constraints required to stay within compliance of the Health Canada regulations. This CSR tool also helps manage all of their physicians, expands on the streamlining of the patient approval process, manages all digital documents, tracks orders (both phone and online) and includes instant access to much need reporting.
Mettrum today stands as the second largest Licensed Producer of Medical Marijuana in Canada. Over 15,000 patients. Tens of millions of dollars in online sales. And growing rapidly. We believe this is partly to do with the systems that Hifyre helped them build. And partly to do with all of the great employees at Mettrum.
Which brings us to our proudest moment yet. On December 1, 2016, we woke up to the news that the largest Medical Marijuana company in Canada, Canopy Growth Corporation, made an offer to purchase Mettrum for $430 million. http://business.financialpost.com/news/agriculture/canopy-growths-430m-takeover-of-mettrum-would-be-biggest-ever-deal-in-global-marijuana-business
Helping a client go from $0 to $430 million had it’s glorious moments, and it’s challenges. For us at Hifyre, it’s been a wild ride. For the team at Mettrum, we’re sure it’s been even crazier. We have grown with Mettrum. We have learned from Mettrum. They have provided us with a platform to do some of our most challenging and rewarding work to date. We look to the future, and can’t help but get excited about what is coming next, as Mettrum joins the Canopy family.