Goodbye individual CMS, hello Open-Source CMS. The new website of the Swiss Pharmacists Association is based on the Open-Source solution Drupal.

(This Press release was published on 22 November 2023)
The association aims to adhere to established standards to simplify various processes with partners and members. This is further supported by a needs-based access management.

The new website is intended to support both the political communication of the association and the daily work in the pharmacies. Thanks to its modular structure, the Swiss Pharmacists Association pharmaSuisse can quickly respond to changing needs.

"Through simplified member management, we are taking a big step towards digitisation. This allows us, as an association, to digitise our processes, streamline them, and create pages on our platform more quickly. This, in turn, improves collaboration with our members."
(Simona Kröni - Responsible for Online Projects, pharmaSuisse)

Technical Implementation

For pharmaSuisse, the digital agency Liip has implemented a modern web platform based on Drupal, GraphQL, and Nuxt. Currently, three frontends (pharmasuisse.org, ihre-apotheke.ch, and fphch.org) are operated based on a central design system and feature set.

The platform's functions range from classic CMS functions to synchronisation with the Navision ERP system and the implementation of various e-commerce business cases (Drupal Commerce).

Members of pharmaSuisse are continuously synchronised with the ERP system through the Navision interface. Additionally, pharmacies can now query their data via a GraphQL interface and report their changes to pharmaSuisse. This function will be particularly advantageous for chains and groupings, significantly simplifying staff management.

Registered members benefit from extended access and preferential conditions in the shop, based on synchronisation with the ERP system and dynamic price rules in Drupal Commerce. Physical products, e-learning courses, licenses, and digital products can be purchased by members. The shopping experience in the store has been modernised by the digital agency thanks to progressive decoupling technology, while also benefiting from existing features of the Open-Source ecosystem.

Parts of the design can be taken over by external systems such as the Infoletter, to ensure a consistent appearance beyond system boundaries.