Case Study
The Challenge
Selecting a PMR provider for an organisation the size of Day Lewis is a daunting task, indeed, such a critical decision is for any business, and doing so when patient transience is a greater consideration than ever and the reasons for customers to stay loyal ever diminished (online pharmacy, mail your meds etc.) this leads to such a decision needing to be not only certain of delivering continuity but also delivering a platform from which to enhance customer loyalty and maintain a ‘personal touch’ missing in other parts of all of our daily lives when we interact with most businesses.
To that end, Day Lewis determined that when they reviewed their PMR provider choices their ultimate decision would need to consider, in addition to clinical considerations, efficiency benefits and reporting advances, how to:
Deliver a next-generation PMR to colleagues that provides a platform that integrates fully with all existing 3rd party solutions across a 200+ store estate and doesn’t feel or act differently for users so as they can fulfil their potential on a daily basis.
Permit Day Lewis to maintain patient loyalty within their estate whilst transitioning to a new, core solution over several months. Ensure the customer only experiences positives from the change.
Locate a PMR partner with experience in mass-migration, NHS remuneration, tariffs, ordering, HSCN and various additional areas that can be trusted to understand and meet the Community Pharmacy market requirements over the coming years.
Apotec CRM began deployment to Day Lewis Plc in 2025, having previously been identified as the best route to achieving solutions to the challenges above (and more besides) by their Leadership Team. Apotec CRM is consequently being deployed across the Day Lewis estate in line with a schedule required to meet other internal Day Lewis projects and avoiding bandwidth constraints.
Apotec is proud of its association with Day Lewis Plc. and of the trust shown by Day Lewis in Apotec’s ability to meet and address these challenges positively for all of Community Pharmacy.
The Approach
Apotec CRM has been developed by a team with over 200 years of combined experience in the Community Pharmacy market, be that within the sphere of Management, Commercial Operations, Project Management, Development, Testing or as Pharmacists, Technicians or Owner Contractors you can be certain Apotec colleagues have it covered.
As a result of Apotec’s internal knowledge base and their desire to do the right thing for Community Pharmacy, it transpired that the challenges set by Day Lewis Plc were closely aligned to the stated objectives of Apotec CRM, and, at an early stage in discussions with Day Lewis regarding their requirements, it became apparent that CRM’s Patient Centric focus supported by the ability to build a broader, deeper and more personal picture of a patient, supplemented by the ability to share that information across a group (with appropriate personnel and access rights across secure connections) meant the challenges listed would be met without need for ‘bolt-on’ solutions that could add complexity, and potential unfamiliarity for users, to the solution.
With such experience and history in PMR system provision/use across the two organisations, the remaining challenges were focussed more on user experience and 3rd party integration than on the objectives of a CRM from a Customer Relationship Management perspective.
To address these challenges (for all Apotec users), Apotec CRM was developed and built with a familiar approach to its user interface, ensuring critical information (clinical information for a pharmacist to make a decision upon for example) is easily discernible for new users who are familiar with other systems.
Additionally the processing of prescriptions can be undertaken in the ‘same way’ as legacy systems (to build confidence in new users or through user’s personal preference), and a dispensing wizard will assist any users who are uncertain of the steps to complete prescription processing in the early days (the wizard remains as an option for users to process by, the uncertainty, as designed, does not).
Additionally, Day Lewis’ breadth of business and numerous pharmacy locations resulted in Apotec being asked to build out to meet a large number of 3rd party suppliers. The vast majority of these suppliers are not unique to Day Lewis, consequently all who use Apotec CRM have access to those interfaces and will benefit from the work done in partnership with those suppliers to support a thriving Community Pharmacy where partnerships and loyalty have always outlived and outperformed isolationist approaches.
The Outcome
“Apotec is a game changer for community pharmacy. The benefits are huge. In particular, having a single patient record across the group will open up endless possibilities for improved patient care, whilst the scanning functionally will free up our pharmacists to operate at the top of their profession and improve safety.”
Whilst the deployment of Apotec CRM within the Day Lewis estate continues, the length of this partnership and feedback from initial sites has led to a very positive result in relation to the challenges highlighted, and the broader rationale for enhanced efficiency, data driven decision making and confidence in supplier continuity. To summarise this outcome:
Sam Patel - Executive Director
Day Lewis Plc