Migration from .NET Framework to .NET Core for a Healthcare Technology Company

The Client had a custom EHR software, originally built on .NET Framework.

As a Healthcare Technology Company, they offered this EHR solution to end customers - medical specialists and healthcare organizations.

As most organizations have their specific workflows, the Client often had to customize this EHR software for its clients. The task was realized by means of a team of in-house developers.

The problem was the company regularly had too much work to do, and in order to work on slightly larger projects than the company could do on its own, they needed to expand their capacity.

The scarcity of in-house resources became evident and needed an urgent solution when the company decided to migrate the EHR software to .NET Core, which required bringing in more skilled developers as fast as possible.

Outsourcing migration from .NET Framework to .NET Core to Belitsoft

As the Healthcare Technology Company provides customized EHR solutions to healthcare organizations worldwide, their software must meet the latest technological standards.

Migration to .NET Core makes the software more competitive for the business and more attractive for the end customers thanks to cross-platform compatibility.

Previously, the EHR system was built on the legacy .NET Framework compatible with Windows OS only. Therefore, the Client couldn't sell this software to the medical organizations where macOS was used. This issue held back the business development plans of our Client.

With .NET Core, the software could become available not only for users with Windows, but also for macOS, attracting more customers and favoring the Client's business growth.

So the business stakeholders decided to look for a team to do that work acting as a supplementary workforce to the in-house team. 

They teamed up with Belitsoft to get experienced .NET Core developers that could ramp up and down, depending on project work.

Time & Material model as a guarantee of flexibility

The Agile approach and Time & Material cooperation model was chosen for the EHR development and migration project to cover the major client's requests:

• quick start thanks to an immediate understanding of what to do, seamless fitting in with the in-house development team, and no lost time in getting up to speed. Our NET team was completely on the case on day two;
• experts both in .NET Framework and .NET Core with a quick and efficient grip of the project as well as high speed of understanding the project and the deliverables;
• frequent iterative delivery with the possibility to change or add new client's requirements during the process;
• rapid scaling capacity of the team, able to address both planned and unplanned needs throughout the course of the project.

Daily calls were arranged between Belitsoft's developers and the in-house team led by a Project Manager for a quick update. Such transparent communication and teamwork help the teams work flawlessly together.

The teams worked and coordinated development using Azure DevOps and Git as tools for project management.

The cooperation process timeline

Step 1. Creating a NET development team

After signing an NDA and a Service Agreement, we suggested 2 highly experienced NET developers to the Client.

On day two of communication, after verifying the requirements, Belitsoft presented the business stakeholders with three possible candidates.

The client scoped out developers by personally interviewing the suggested candidates, and chose two they took on immediately as a core of the future growing team. Such a process was very efficient and quick for the Client.

Step 2. Migrating backend to .NET Core

2.1. Preparing for migration

The migration started from checking whether important dependencies in .NET Framework complied with the requirements for .NET Core.

This process helped to avoid issues after migration, such as the failure to access certain files and libraries, or incompatibility with 3rd-party apps, libraries, and tools.

As a result, Belitsoft's team created a list of technologies, libraries, and files that were not supported by .NET Core and required the upgrade.

2.2. The migration process

The first step after verifying which dependencies were incompatible with .NET Core was bringing them into line with .NET Core requirements.

After that, migration of platform-specific (native) and 3rd-party libraries was carried out.

In addition, the team ensured steady API support to avoid errors or missing APIs after migration.

As a result, the NET development team migrated the backend of the EHR software to .NET Core.

2.3. Improvements after migration

To make use of a full range of .NET Core performance possibilities, the company decided to perform refactoring of the current code. For that, Belitsoft’s team realized:

• query profiling and optimizing the database;
• streamlining and reducing the use of the stored procedures in DB;
• using more effective APIs for .NET Core for increasing performance.

Step 3. Further work, including migration to Angular 2+ and software customization

It was during of NET migration process, when the company evaluated the risks of maintaining the software front-end on the legacy AngularJS framework with the end of life in December 2021.

As Belitsoft has a necessary expertise, the business stakeholders addressed to our team to migrate AngularJS to Angular 2+. It was realized smoothly through the method of incremental updating.

Among other tasks, our developers helped the Client with customizing their core software for an important contractor by adding new features and APIs.

The development team

The project kicked off with 2 developers ready to start right away. Their skill and experience came through in the quality of the work they delivered, and in the end, they delivered to the healthcare software development company everything they promised.

We also add people and scale up quickly when the client needs. So the team has grown to:

4 x back-end developers;

4 x front-end developers;

3 x database developers (were quickly added on a short-term basis).

The client works directly with developers and fully manages the project. All team members are proficient English speakers and writers, so they've never had any communication problems. Belitsoft’s team has always delivered on time and in budget.

Tech stack

• Language: C#, TypeScript;
• Frameworks: .NET Core, Angular 2+;
• Technology: ASP.NET, EntityFramework;
• Database: MS SQL;
• Development tools: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SSMS.

Migration from .NET Framework to .NET Core was completed in less than 3 months. 

Now, our Client, the Healthcare Technology Company, have got an opportunity to offer their solution to a wider range of end customers thanks to its cross-platform capabilities.

Considering a deep expertise of Belitsoft’s developers not only in NET development, but also in Angular and custom web development, the client decided to expand and continue our cooperation after succesfully completing the .NET Core migration.

Both Belitsoft’s and the Client's in-house teams are now collaborating on all facets of the product, including further customization for individual customers.