MedExpress Case Study
"HardSoft made it easy for us to scale up to 1,000 people without having an IT team."
Mike D’Souza is IT Manager at MedExpress, the fast-growing online pharmacy business that supplies millions with medications of all kinds. Here, he explains how HardSoft has powered their expansion – and how Boomerang helps them get the most out of their technology.
Background – scaling a remote workforce
You’ve likely heard of MedExpress – they’re one of the UK’s leading online pharmacists who provide customers with support for everything from weight loss to pain relief.
It’s a fast-growing company, set to expand to 2,000 – mostly remote – employees very soon. With growth, however, comes a relatively high staff turnover – some people simply don’t make the cut.
When the business first started, they partnered with HardSoft to ensure they had the devices their dispersed workforce needed – mostly Apple MacBooks.
Over time, this model evolved: they now buy devices outright but continue relying on essential HardSoft services — especially Boomerang, which Mike says helped prevent his predecessor from having “a nervous breakdown” as the business grew from 100 to more than 1,000 devices.
Saving hundreds of hours with Boomerang
“I did a deep dive into how long Boomerang saves us,” says Mike, “because there was a time a while back when we had to at least consider looking after all our devices ourselves, which I wasn’t keen on.”
Once he’d crunched the numbers, Mike realised he’d need as many as four full-time staff to handle device retrieval, storage, reconfiguration and dispatch – everything Boomerang looks after.
MedExpress use Boomerang around 15 times a week. “Having someone at HardSoft get each computer ready, put it in a box and make sure there’s someone at the other end to pick it up really helps,” Mike adds.
Automating to move even faster
MedExpress are big on automation as it saves precious time. They asked us to work with them to make their Boomerang setup even easier.
“Normally, clients fill out a form when they have a device that needs picking up or sending out, but that becomes unwieldy when you’re doing it 15 times a week,” says Mike. “We built automations that link directly into Boomerang. It’s now just a bot that sends a message saying, ‘This person has left, organise a collection.’ And it works, every time.”
Boomerang also helps ensure devices don’t go missing, he adds – because leavers barely need to do anything to return their laptops.
“Sometimes people don’t pass their probation,” Mike explains, “but we need their computers back. What’s great is that Boomerang makes it really simple to return them, with a box that turns up at their door. The leaver can’t just say, ‘Well, I’m not going to the post office,’ because with Boomerang they don’t have to.”
Summing up: zero interruption when the unexpected happens
In addition to Boomerang, MedExpress have taken out HardSoft insurance, which covers their devices against theft and accidental damage. “If someone spills a drink on their laptop, there’s a clear process to get it replaced,” says Mike.
HardSoft’s drivers usually show up with a new laptop and take the damaged device away with them whenever a claim is made. “If we call before 4pm, we can have the replacement device delivered the next day,” Mike says.
All these services add up to major efficiency gains – and Mike says they’re worth every penny. “We started doing a bit of retrieval and wiping in-house so that we have an internal stock supply, and it takes time,” he says. “You forget that HardSoft is doing that for us multiple times a week. It’s invaluable.”