Life is the leading health retail chain in the Nordic region, with stores in both Sweden and Norway as well as online sales. The company offers a wide range of health products and provides personalized health advice. Following a bankruptcy in 2025, Life has gained new owners and relaunched under new management. One of the areas that has gone through major transformation is the company’s IT environment, where significant changes have been made to establish a stable foundation for future operations. A new ERP system, a new integration platform from Codeunit, and a new POS system are now live in Sweden.
When Life reviewed its IT environment, the goal was to create a setup that is easier to manage internally and can be operated by a leaner organization than before. As part of the project, Life switched to proven and user-friendly systems that require less specialized expertise and reduced licensing costs. The system landscape is now managed by an IT department that has been reduced by more than half.
Focus on user-friendly systems
After the bankruptcy, it became clear to Life that operating the IT environment was too costly and complex to be managed by a smaller department. There was a need for more user-friendly systems where it is easier to recruit the right skills. To ensure a long-term and future-proof environment, Life chose to implement Microsoft Business Central as its ERP system, Norce as its e-commerce platform, and Sitoo as its POS system. These are well-established solutions that are easy to administer and allow functionality to be kept simple and streamlined.
Secure and reliable integration platform
Codeunit’s integration platform ensures secure and reliable integrations with Norce and Sitoo. Codeunit has extensive experience integrating these systems with Business Central, and thanks to their prebuilt connectors, the setup for Life was completed in just one week. The integration with the e-commerce platform and the Sitoo POS system worked as a plug-and-play solution. Some unique configurations were then applied to ensure that product data from the ERP system was correctly transferred to the e-commerce platform.
“It was a special situation when Life contacted us at Codeunit. They had new owners after the bankruptcy and needed to get all stores and e-commerce up and running again quickly. The timeline was the most complex aspect of this project, but at Codeunit we have the right conditions to succeed, and we set up a test environment for Life in just one week,” says Simon Forslund, Unified Commerce Architect at Codeunit.
A well-designed flow lays the foundation
Internally, Life worked extensively on questions related to system architecture and how data flows between the different systems should be structured. These discussions were also carried out in close collaboration with Codeunit, which contributed solution proposals. With Codeunit’s support, Life mapped out a flow that later formed the basis for the unique configuration of the integration platform.
“Our prebuilt integration solutions, which are adapted for each customer, are easy to apply regardless of how many stores the customer has. It may sound complex to have many physical stores across Sweden, but in reality it’s mainly a matter of additional mapping. Part of every project is identifying which functions should be used, and how data should enter the ERP system in order to configure everything correctly. At the same time, we have an integration platform, especially for Sitoo, where almost anything is possible. It requires less planning and is highly flexible,” Simon explains.
Proud of a successful go-live
The project went live at 7:00 a.m. on a Monday morning, with three hours remaining before stores were scheduled to open. Life updated all data prior to launch, with prices and inventory levels synchronized. At 10:00 a.m., when the stores opened, everything worked as expected. The launch was highly successful and Codeunit provided hypercare support immediately after go-live, to ensure fast assistance if any issues arose.
An automated flow
For warehousing and logistics, Life uses a third-party solution that receives all e-commerce orders, ships products to customers, and reports back to Life’s systems. Like warehousing and logistics, the processes surrounding e-commerce and POS systems are now highly automated, resulting in minimal manual handling. Codeunit’s integration platform also provides valuable security in terms of monitoring and traceability in case any errors occur.
Supported by Codeunit’s customer portal
Life uses Codeunit’s customer portal internally to monitor transactions. The portal makes error messages easy to understand, and it is often clear what actions can be taken internally when issues arise. After launch, error messages are typically more frequent until all configurations have been fully adjusted. For example, accounting or VAT settings that need review. If assistance is required, Codeunit’s support team is readily available. A major advantage is that error messages are queued, ensuring that no data is ever lost.
In Life’s relaunch, there was no need to reinvent the wheel. The company worked closely with partners such as Codeunit as its integration partner and Evidi as its Business Central partner. Life adhered to standard Business Central processes and implemented a traditional retail setup capable of handling sales, returns, and omnichannel flows, while fulfilling orders from an external warehouse. The result was a highly successful launch that achieved its goal of simplifying operations and consolidating the IT department, fully within the planned timeline.
“We now look forward to continuing our collaboration with Life, where we will, among other things, onboard the stores and e-commerce operations in Norway,” Simon concludes.
