CCD Releases NMS2S Transition Timeline Details
New Mexico finally has a timeline for the transition from BioTrack to New Mexico Seed to Sale, or NMS2S. On August 14, the CCD released Industry Bulletin 26-09 outlining the tentative shutdown, migration and launch schedule. The dates are important, but buried inside that timeline is something operators need to pay even closer attention to,a significant amount of the participation and attention is required.
Timeline:
August 25 after 5:00 PM: BioTrack shuts down for non-retail licensees. Retailers can continue sales, but cannot receive inventory. The expected transfer blackout runs through September 2.
August 25–31: Testing labs cannot receive samples.
Around August 31: Producer and manufacturer inventory should appear in NMS2S; labs can begin accepting samples again. Producers/manufacturers then need to reconcile activity that occurred during migration.
September 1 at 12:01 AM: CCD begins migrating retailer inventory. Retailers continue selling through BioTrack, but their BioTrack inventory needs to be synchronized beforehand. No retailer-to-retailer transfers should be sent or accepted through BioTrack after this point.
September 2: Retailers should gain access to NMS2S inventory and can begin receiving transfers there. During the overlap, sales are still occurring in BioTrack, so operators are specifically instructed to adjust NMS2S inventory downward to account for BioTrack sales.
September 4 at 12:01 AM: Legacy BioTrack shuts off. From that point forward, retail sales must run through NMS2S, including sales submitted through POS API integrations.
There are two other big pieces buried on page 3. Existing products currently on the market will be grandfathered into NMS2S, and CCD expects training manuals early next week.
August 25: The Shutdown Begins
After 5:00 p.m. on August 25, BioTrack will shut down for non-retail licensees while a complete backup of the system is performed.
Retailers get a little more breathing room. They can continue conducting sales through BioTrack, but they won't be able to receive inventory until the transition progresses far enough for receiving to resume. CCD expects that transfer downtime to last until September 2.
That immediately creates the first operational burden: inventory planning.
Retailers need to make sure they have enough product in their stores before the shutdown to carry them through the blackout. Purchasing, production, wholesale deliveries and store allocations all need to be planned around a period where normal replenishment isn't available.
Record Everything
The shutdown doesn't necessarily mean producers and manufacturers have to stop operating. CCD says licensees can continue activities otherwise permitted under their licenses. The catch is that changes occurring during the migration period will eventually have to be reconciled in NMS2S. CCD specifically instructs licensees to maintain accurate records so their inventory can later be properly reconciled.
In other words, the system may be unavailable, but the responsibility for maintaining the paper trail isn't. Operators need some reliable method of documenting inventory movements, production activity, adjustments and other changes occurring during the migration period. When NMS2S comes online, those records become the basis for figuring out what the inventory should actually look like.
August 31st: NMS2S Inventory Available
Around August 31, producer and manufacturer inventories are expected to become available in NMS2S. Testing laboratories can also begin accepting samples again. But seeing inventory in the new system doesn't mean the job is finished.
CCD says producers and manufacturers will need to update their inventory for activity that occurred during migration and verify that the information appearing in NMS2S is accurate.
That means operators shouldn't assume migrated inventory is automatically ready for business. It needs to be checked against what actually happened during the downtime.
September 1st: Retail Gets Dicey
At 12:01 a.m. September 1, CCD plans to capture and begin migrating retail inventory into NMS2S. Before that happens, retailers are specifically instructed to make sure their retail inventory is synchronized with the BioTrack traceability database. After the migration begins, retailer-to-retailer transfers should no longer be sent or accepted through BioTrack.
That makes the September 1 inventory snapshot particularly important. Unresolved inventory discrepancies, synchronization problems or other outstanding issues become considerably harder to untangle once the inventory has been copied into another system.
September 2nd: Double-Tap
This may be the most difficult part of the entire transition. As mentioned in my last article, there will more than likely be a period of time where operators have to balance several systems, and the records in them. And even the service providers see it coming. In email from ERP service Flourish, the provider recognize the potential for a lift in manual input until they get the proper API documentation.
CCD expects migrated retail inventory to be available in NMS2S by noon September 2. Retailers can then begin receiving transfers into NMS2S. But retail sales are still supposed to continue through BioTrack until September 4th. That means retailers will temporarily have access to inventory in both systems while sales continue reducing inventory in only one of them.
CCD's solution is straightforward on paper: retailers should adjust NMS2S inventory downward to account for sales made through BioTrack. Operationally, that's another story. Every sale occurring after the migration snapshot changes what the store actually has on hand. Those changes ultimately need to be reflected against the inventory sitting inside NMS2S. By the tone of Flourishes email, they see the hurdles coming.
September 4: BioTrack Goes Dark
At 12:01 a.m. September 4, the legacy BioTrack system is scheduled to shut down. From that point forward, retail sales must be conducted through NMS2S, including transactions submitted by third-party POS API integrations. That's the hard cutover. By then, retailers need their POS integrations working, migrated inventory reconciled, employees trained and procedures ready for operating inside the new system.
There isn't much runway between receiving access to migrated retail inventory on September 2 and BioTrack disappearing on September 4. Stores are essentially land locked islands, whatever they have in the system they can move, but no emergency deliveries.
Dee-Dee You Idiot…
Testing laboratories won't be able to receive samples between August 25 and August 31. CCD says historical testing results will be migrated into NMS2S by August 31. Producers and manufacturers therefore need to account for the testing interruption when planning harvests, production schedules and products approaching testing.
So basically add another week to your testing times, then multiply by 3x to be safe.
CCD says only API materials for third-party POS integrations are currently available. API documentation for other third-party processes, including inventory management systems, won't be available until after NMS2S launches. That limits how much of the migration and reconciliation process outside retail sales can be automated beforehand.
For many operators, the backup plan is going to look decidedly less sophisticated: exports, spreadsheets, internal logs, written procedures and somebody responsible for comparing what happened in the real world against what eventually appears in NMS2S.
September 1–4 Is the Window to Watch
The transition is going to take some serious attention to detail, one wrong move and your entire inventory could be lost. It doesnt mean anyone with poor inventory management practices are doomed, but it creates several places where ordinary operational mistakes can become expensive problems.
Duplicate inventory, missed adjustments, incorrect quantities and activity recorded against the wrong system are all reasonable risks created by a workflow where two inventory records temporarily coexist. Those are operational risks inferred from the transition process rather than problems specifically identified by CCD.
The September 1 through September 4 window deserves particular attention.
CCD is effectively taking a snapshot of retail inventory, migrating that inventory into NMS2S, allowing retailers to continue selling through BioTrack, and then requiring operators to make sure the new system ultimately reflects what happened during the overlap.
The technology may belong to the state, but the cleanup belongs to the you.
