Case Study
How a Fast-Growing Pharmacy Scaled Safely Without Ripping Out Its Legacy System
A regional pharmacy was drowning in manual workflows. The legacy system worked, but it wasn’t built for growth. Here’s how we fixed it without starting over.
Read the Story
01
The Situation
A regional pharmacy was growing faster than their infrastructure could handle. The business ran on a legacy pharmacy management system that had been in place for years. It worked, but it wasn’t built for the volume they were now processing.
They wanted to build a special app suite to support their growth, but this effort was stalled in endless development team hiring, on-ramps, and unknowns as they tried to keep the lights on. It felt impossible.
02
The Core Problem
Critical workflows still relied on manual interactions. Staff were copying data between screens, double-checking things by hand, and repeating processes that should have been automated.
Every manual touchpoint was a chance for error. In pharmacy, errors aren’t just expensive they’re dangerous.
Leadership knew they needed automation. But the legacy system wasn’t designed for it. The vendor offered few integration options. Ripping it out and replacing it wasn’t realistic. Too much risk, too much re-training, too much downtime in a business where even minor errors put patients at risk.
No Dev Team
No internal engineering capacity to build or maintain new systems
Manual Workflows
Staff spending hours to copy, paste, track and re-verify data
High Stakes
Pharmacy errors can get patients at risk and accuracy is non‑negotiable
03
The Approach
Rather than replace the legacy system, we built a wrapper around it.
The wrapper sat on top of the existing pharmacy management backend and automated the workflows their team relied on. The solution became a bridge between system interfaces and a centralized, transparent dashboard used across the organization.
What used to require hours of human effort was now a cleanly tracked, tightly managed system.
Once the automation layer was stable, the engagement shifted. The pharmacy needed a more substantial application built. So we started building with an explicit plan: establish the foundation, document everything, and structure the codebase so an internal team could eventually take over.
The legacy system never got replaced. It didn’t need to be.
It just got smarter infrastructure wrapped around it.
04
The Outcome
The pharmacy scaled operations without a linear increase in headcount. Workflows that used to require hours of human oversight were now in the background. Errors dropped. Throughput went up.
With the custom tools in hand, the pharmacy eventually hired their own developers and built an internal engineering function on top of the foundation we had built. That started as an outsourced engagement turned into the ignition point for a permanent in-house capability.
For Organizations in Similar Situations
Key insights from this engagement:
Don’t Rip & Replace
When growth outpaces the tech stack, the first instinct is to replace. But often the right answer is to modernize what’s in place by building, automating, and documenting around it.
Build Around It
Legacy or limited backend applications can be extended. Wrappers and modern interfaces can push the front end into the 2020s even if the backend is stuck in the speaker’s subfolder.
Plan for Handoff
Some organizations want an external dev team forever. If not, make sure whoever builds the first version also gives you the context you’ll need to operate it yourself.
Facing Similar Challenges?
We help growing businesses scale their operations without the risk of starting from scratch. Let’s talk about what’s possible.
