Design and Development of Blockchain-Powered Web Platform for MilliporeSigma

To elevate standards in the North American cannabis market, MilliporeSigma decided to build the CertForward platform with Netguru. The platform is a web-based application with blockchain functionalities, currently being distributed across MilliporeSigma’s marketing channels, and further expanded with new features.

About the client

The Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has more than 28,000 employees and more than 55 total manufacturing and testing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products focused on scientific discovery, biomanufacturing and testing services. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and electronics.

This project is related to Sigma-Aldrich’s endeavors in the burgeoning legal cannabis product industry in North America.

Introducing Certforward: Elevating trust and transparency in the cannabis market

In the fast-growing North American cannabis market, reliable and trustworthy certification data for products is hard to come by. Standards are not up to par with those in the food market, leading to questionable product quality.

Certforward is a blockchain-powered web platform to receive, upload, and share COAs (Certificates of Analysis) in a secure, tamper-proof way. It provides a trustworthy medium for growers, labs, and processors in the cannabis market.

Desktop showing an picture of how professionals can connect using the platform.

Project goals

Introduce food market-like standards into the cannabis market
Develop a trustworthy platform for certificate distribution using blockchain technology
Facilitate secure exchange of analysis certificates among growers, labs, and processors in the cannabis market
Address issues of certificate manipulation and doubtful quality
Adapt to varying legal restrictions across states
Future-proof for upcoming FDA regulations

Process

The project had a firm timeline of 4 months to build, test, and push to production. Sigma-Aldrich required detailed documentation of each part of the project to provide a transparent overview to C-level leadership before releasing.

Step #1: Determined MVP scope, action plan, and initial designs.
Step #2: Implemented a trimmed-down version product, including registration and login, contacts, subscriptions and payments, user profiles and management, certificate management with blockchain, and user dashboard functionalities.
Step #3: Continuing to further develop the application and adding new features and integrations

Desktop showing the Certforward app on.

Results

The CertForward platform was built in the required timeline, with the required features
The platform was launched and distributed through MilliporeSigma’s marketing channels