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Walgreens Boots Alliance Engineering

To enable healthier communities through technology-powered healthcare delivery by building seamless digital platforms that transform healthcare access and outcomes.

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To enable healthier communities through technology-powered healthcare delivery by building seamless digital platforms that transform healthcare access and outcomes.

Strengths

  • NETWORK: Massive physical footprint of 8,600+ U.S. retail locations
  • DATA: Access to rich patient/customer health data across services
  • CLOUD: Established AWS cloud infrastructure for scalability
  • INTEGRATION: VillageMD & CareCentrix acquisitions enable care continuum
  • TALENT: Strong engineering leadership from recent tech hires

Weaknesses

  • TECH-DEBT: Aging legacy pharmacy systems limiting innovation
  • FRAGMENTATION: Siloed data architecture across business units
  • TALENT: Difficulty attracting top tech talent vs pure tech companies
  • SPEED: Slow development cycles compared to digital health startups
  • SECURITY: Ongoing challenges with healthcare data compliance

Opportunities

  • DIGITAL: Rapidly growing demand for telehealth and digital health
  • ANALYTICS: AI-driven personalization of health recommendations
  • INTEGRATION: Connect in-store, online and healthcare touchpoints
  • PARTNERSHIPS: API ecosystem for health/wellness app developers
  • VALUE-BASED: Tech to support shift to value-based care models

Threats

  • COMPETITION: Amazon Pharmacy and other tech-first healthcare entrants
  • SECURITY: Increasing sophistication of healthcare data breaches
  • REGULATION: Changing healthcare privacy and data sharing rules
  • TALENT: Intensifying war for AI and healthcare tech talent
  • BUDGET: Pressure to reduce IT spending amid margin compression

Key Priorities

  • PLATFORM: Build unified digital health platform connecting all services
  • DATA: Modernize data architecture to enable AI-driven insights
  • EXPERIENCE: Create seamless omnichannel customer experiences
  • SECURITY: Strengthen cybersecurity for healthcare data protection
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To enable healthier communities through technology-powered healthcare delivery by building seamless digital platforms that transform healthcare access and outcomes.

UNIFY PLATFORM

Create the definitive digital health ecosystem

  • ARCHITECTURE: Implement unified API gateway connecting all services with 99.9% reliability by Q3
  • INTEGRATION: Migrate 80% of customer data to unified healthcare data platform by end of Q2
  • ADOPTION: Achieve 35M monthly active users across digital properties, a 30% increase YoY
  • PERFORMANCE: Reduce average API response time to <200ms across all platform services
AI INTELLIGENCE

Transform care with predictive health insights

  • PERSONALIZATION: Launch AI health recommendations engine reaching 15M users with 40% engagement
  • OPERATIONS: Deploy ML inventory forecasting reducing out-of-stocks by 25% across 1,000 stores
  • ADHERENCE: Implement predictive medication adherence model improving compliance by 20%
  • GOVERNANCE: Establish AI ethics board and publish transparency framework for all AI initiatives
SEAMLESS CX

Deliver frictionless omnichannel experiences

  • MOBILE: Redesign mobile app with 50% fewer steps to complete key healthcare journeys
  • INTEGRATION: Enable cross-channel prescription management used by 5M customers monthly
  • TELEHEALTH: Integrate virtual care capabilities into main app with 500K monthly consultations
  • SATISFACTION: Increase digital experience NPS from 32 to 45 across all digital touchpoints
FORTRESS DATA

Lead industry in health data security & compliance

  • ARCHITECTURE: Implement zero-trust security model across 100% of cloud infrastructure
  • COMPLIANCE: Achieve HITRUST certification for all patient-facing digital platforms
  • MONITORING: Deploy AI-powered threat detection reducing mean time to respond by 60%
  • TRAINING: 100% of engineering team certified in healthcare security compliance standards
METRICS
  • DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT: 35M monthly active users across all digital properties
  • PLATFORM RELIABILITY: 99.95% uptime for all customer-facing digital services
  • DIGITAL REVENUE: $2.2B in digitally-influenced sales (25% growth YoY)
VALUES
  • Customer Obsession - Putting patients and customers at the center of everything we build
  • Trust - Ensuring security, privacy, and reliability in all technical solutions
  • Innovation - Continuously reimagining healthcare through technology
  • Velocity - Moving with speed while maintaining quality
  • Data-Driven - Making decisions based on insights and measurable outcomes
Walgreens Boots Alliance logo
Align the learnings

Walgreens Boots Alliance Engineering Retrospective

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To enable healthier communities through technology-powered healthcare delivery by building seamless digital platforms that transform healthcare access and outcomes.

What Went Well

  • DIGITAL: myWalgreens app increased MAUs by 11% to 27M in Q1 2023
  • TELEHEALTH: Village Medical virtual visits grew 32% YoY exceeding targets
  • OPERATIONS: Tech-enabled inventory management reduced shrink by 120bps
  • INFRASTRUCTURE: Cloud migration of core systems completed ahead of schedule
  • INTEGRATION: Successfully integrated Shields specialty pharmacy platform

Not So Well

  • PLATFORM: Digital health platform development 2 quarters behind schedule
  • SECURITY: Two significant data incidents requiring customer notifications
  • QUALITY: Mobile app stability issues driving negative App Store reviews
  • PERFORMANCE: Site reliability below 99.9% target during peak seasons
  • COSTS: Technology spend exceeded budget by 7.5% with delayed ROI impact

Learnings

  • ARCHITECTURE: Microservices approach proving more effective than monolithic
  • METHODOLOGY: Hybrid agile teams outperforming purely agile or waterfall teams
  • ADOPTION: Phased rollouts with champions program accelerates user adoption
  • INTEGRATION: Post-acquisition tech integration requires dedicated task force
  • COMPLIANCE: Early GRC involvement critical for healthcare-related features

Action Items

  • PLATFORM: Accelerate unified patient/customer data platform development
  • DEVOPS: Implement automated testing to improve release quality and velocity
  • TALENT: Launch healthcare technology talent acquisition and retention plan
  • SECURITY: Strengthen data protection with zero-trust architecture rollout
  • ANALYTICS: Deploy self-service analytics platform for business stakeholders
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To enable healthier communities through technology-powered healthcare delivery by building seamless digital platforms that transform healthcare access and outcomes.

Strengths

  • DATA: Vast repository of pharmacy and health data for AI training
  • PARTNERSHIPS: Microsoft and other tech partnerships for AI solutions
  • PILOTS: Successful AI medication management pilots in select markets
  • INFRASTRUCTURE: Established cloud foundation to support AI workloads
  • LEADERSHIP: Executive commitment to AI transformation agenda

Weaknesses

  • FRAGMENTATION: Siloed data limiting AI model effectiveness
  • TALENT: Limited specialized AI/ML engineering teams in-house
  • GOVERNANCE: Incomplete AI governance and compliance framework
  • LEGACY: Technical debt impeding integration of AI solutions
  • ADOPTION: Organizational resistance to AI-driven workflows

Opportunities

  • PERSONALIZATION: AI-driven personalized health recommendations
  • OPERATIONAL: Inventory and supply chain optimization via ML
  • CLINICAL: Predictive analytics for medication adherence
  • AUTOMATION: Streamlining pharmacy operations with AI
  • EXPERIENCE: Conversational AI for customer service enhancement

Threats

  • COMPETITION: Tech giants deploying sophisticated healthcare AI
  • REGULATION: Evolving FDA and privacy regulations for AI in healthcare
  • TRUST: Consumer wariness about AI use with health data
  • SECURITY: AI-specific security vulnerabilities in healthcare
  • TALENT: Fierce competition for limited AI healthcare expertise

Key Priorities

  • PLATFORM: Develop unified AI data platform for cross-service insights
  • PERSONALIZATION: Launch AI-powered health recommendation engine
  • GOVERNANCE: Establish robust AI ethics and governance framework
  • TALENT: Build specialized AI healthcare engineering team