Pharmac Oy is a modern pharmaceutical company specialising in medication dosing services. Its services provide consumers, pharmacies, and healthcare organisations with a safe and cost-effective way to manage medication. Pharmac utilizes Europe’s most advanced production facilities for machine-assisted medication dosing.
“Several people benefit from our medication dosing service. Society saves on medication costs, the amount of waste and discarded medication decreases, and caregivers can redirect their time to more important tasks. We continuously improve our operations and production methods, with a strong focus on quality, ecological, social, and economic sustainability. Customer-centricity and agility in product development are key drivers for us,” explains Pharmac’s CTO Jani Leppänen.
Existing solutions did not meet Pharmac’s needs. The company therefore decided to develop its own ERP solution for medication dosing. The underlying goal was to build a solution that they could offer to other industry players as well.
Creating a World-Class Product with Agile Methods and Quality Assurance
“At Pharmac we had a consensus that agile development would be the best and most efficient way for our product development process. We wanted to improve our teams’ expertise and capabilities in agile, and therefore we reached out to Taskmill, who is known as an industry expert.” recalls the CTO of Pharmac Jani Leppänen.
The collaboration with Taskmill began in spring 2022 with a series of agile training sessions. The goal was to help the teams develop new products efficiently while maintaining high quality. The training introduced the teams to practical Agile, Scrum, and Lean principles, which they immediately began applying in their daily work. In addition to the training, Taskmill’s organizational coach Raija Harle also provided coaching to the teams on practical challenges in their day-to-day work.
Pharmac also needed to strengthen its capabilities in testing and test automation. Taskmill brought in its partner, Testimate, which specializes in testing and quality assurance consulting.
“We’ve been collaborating seamlessly with Taskmill for several years, serving our customers with our complementary areas of expertise,”
says Janne Pietikäinen, Business Development Manager at Testimate.
From Workshop to Product
Pharmac’s extranet supports customers in ordering medication, finding information, and accessing training. Pharmac decided to modernise the service and integrate it with the new ERP system.
Taskmill facilitated a series of workshops to support the development. The first workshop focused on clarifying the product vision and the purpose of the portal. In the next workshop, the teams refined service features and clarified their responsibilities.
The teams also practised documenting features using the epic-feature-story hierarchy. The aim was to involve the whole team in shaping the product. This helped developers better understand both the requirements and the underlying customer needs.
Reducing Manual Work Through Test Automation
Next, Pharmac wanted to leverage test automation for basic functions and common use cases to reduce the manual workload. Testimate experts launched a proof of concept for test automation, to pilot the benefits for product development and share knowledge among Pharmac’s staff. The proof of concept exceeded expectations, and the success of this phase led to further collaboration in 2023, strengthening testing practices even more.
From Self-Management to Collaborative Ways of Working
The partnership between Taskmill, Testimate, and Pharmac has yielded impressive results: the new ERP runs smoothly, the extranet supports multiple stakeholders, and both development and testing processes have reached new heights.
“All three companies share common values and principles, and hence the collaboration has been flexible, effective, and enjoyable. Our teams combine both Pharmac’s employees and consultants. The atmosphere is relaxed, the drive to get things done is strong, and everyone is working towards the same goal.” praise Raija Harle and Janne Pietikäinen.
“Our services bring together patients, their families, pharmacies, doctors, and healthcare professionals – safely. Our company culture is all about collaborating with various partners – everything is possible when there’s a shared goal,” says Jani Leppänen with a smile.
Taskmill continues to support Pharmac in developing collaborative ways of working. At the same time, Testimate continues to develop and optimise test automation.
Pharmac’s development journey also continues. Its services help make everyday life easier for thousands of people while supporting safe medication management.