Sysco – long-term, complex software development and IT support engagement for a leading American food production & logistics company

Elen Muradian

Last updated on October 13, 2025 | 15 min read

Powering digital infrastructure for one of the largest food distribution networks in the US requires more than just clean code; it demands coordination, scale, and speed. Over a nearly three-year engagement, DevsData LLC supported Sysco with end-to-end software development, modernization of legacy platforms, and real-time IT support. Our engineers delivered stable C#.NET and React-based applications, built a new Master Data Management platform, improved data synchronization across systems, and ensured rapid issue resolution in production. This collaboration strengthened Sysco’s mission-critical supply chain by combining long-term feature development with continuous operational stability.

Client Profile

Sysco is one of the largest food distribution companies in North America, serving more than 700000 customer locations across the restaurant, healthcare, education, and hospitality sectors. The company’s operations span sourcing, warehousing, transportation, and direct delivery, all of which are supported by sophisticated logistics and technology systems. Its service portfolio includes both food and non-food products, positioning Sysco as a single-source supplier for many of its clients.

To maintain speed and accuracy across its supply chain, Sysco relies on a range of internal IT platforms and external partner-facing tools. These systems manage everything from inventory and warehouse workflows to customer orders, route optimization, and vendor data integration. With such a broad operational scope, even small inefficiencies can have a ripple effect, making IT infrastructure and real-time data flow essential to day-to-day success.

In 2024, Sysco generated $78.8 billion in revenue, representing a 3.3% increase from the previous year. The company employs over 30000 people and continues to invest in technology and digital transformation to remain competitive in a highly dynamic and margin-sensitive industry. As the company grows, scalable and dependable software solutions become critical, not only for internal teams and external partners, but also as digital capabilities increasingly define competitiveness, even in non-tech industries.

Highlights:

• US-based food distribution company with 700000+ customer locations.
• Operates a vast logistics and IT infrastructure across the supply chain.
• Over 30000 employees and $78.8B in annual revenue as of 2024.

Challenge: Legacy Systems, Complex Integrations, and Constant Uptime

Sysco operates in an industry where speed, accuracy, and reliability are non-negotiable. With thousands of shipments moving daily across a tightly coordinated supply chain, any delay or data inconsistency could impact customers across multiple sectors – restaurants, hospitals, schools, and more. Over the past decade, the company’s internal IT systems had grown into a complex ecosystem, with components built using different technologies, each supporting critical functions in sales, logistics, procurement, and inventory. Modernizing these systems while keeping them live required an especially cautious and technically skilled development approach.

Adding to the challenge, Sysco needed seamless integration between its core infrastructure and external partner systems. This required real-time data exchange, large-scale reporting capabilities, and secure, efficient API communication across platforms. One particularly demanding initiative involved building a centralized master data management solution, capable of syncing product information between Sysco and its subsidiaries and partners. Integrating with tools like Confluent Kafka, SQL-based warehouses, and custom-built APIs meant overcoming performance bottlenecks and legacy architectural constraints.

Each integration demanded balancing precision engineering with operational pragmatism, ensuring that new features strengthened the existing supply chain systems.

Alongside software development, DevsData LLC’s team was tasked with providing continuous IT support, ensuring rapid response times, resolving incidents, and preventing operational downtime. Given the breadth of users relying on these tools – from warehouse managers to external vendors – maintaining 24/7 availability and system consistency was essential. Balancing long-term development work with real-time support created a dual-pressure environment where stability and innovation had to move in lockstep.

Goals

Sysco’s goal was to strengthen its digital infrastructure across both internal and partner-facing systems while maintaining uninterrupted IT service for its daily operations. The company needed skilled engineers to take full responsibility for mission-critical platforms, overseeing design and development, managing integrations with legacy databases, monitoring performance, and ensuring continuous stability for tools such as master data systems and external logistics portals. These tools had to function with high reliability, integrate with legacy databases, and remain fully operational throughout ongoing modernization efforts. The initiative aimed to reduce unplanned downtime by at least 25% within the first 12 months and improve system response times by 15% across core applications.

The scope was wide; engineers were expected to contribute to everything from backend logic and UI development to real-time data synchronization and API design. There was also a clear emphasis on adaptability; Sysco’s systems spanned multiple business units, and developers had to quickly get up to speed on domain-specific requirements while collaborating across distributed teams. Additionally, the company targeted a 30% increase in engineering throughput, measured by closed feature tickets and resolved incidents per quarter.

Beyond engineering skills, the client expected strong support capabilities. The development team needed to actively monitor services, respond quickly to disruptions, and ensure minimal downtime across critical applications. Combining software delivery with support coverage required professionals who could manage both long-term complexity and short-term operational pressure.

Our Approach

To meet Sysco’s expectations, we assembled a flexible team of 6-8 software engineers experienced in food logistics, data-intensive systems, and modern Microsoft-based technologies. The flexibility meant that the team size varied at different stages of the project, ensuring the right expertise and resources were applied when needed. Developers were carefully selected for their familiarity with C#.NET, React, SQL Server, Azure services, and Kafka-based streaming. We deliberately prioritized full stack engineers who could shift between frontend and backend development while supporting integration work and production stability.

Our delivery model combined long-term feature development with day-to-day system maintenance and support. To make this effective, engineers were fully embedded into Sysco’s distributed teams, working in the same workflows, tools, and communication channels as internal staff and external vendors. This structure ensured alignment across time zones, minimized handoff delays, and allowed our team to contribute not just as contractors, but as integrated partners driving both stability and innovation. Despite differing time zones and internal workflows, we ensured consistent communication through shared DevOps practices, centralized documentation, and regular syncs via Azure DevOps and Git.

In parallel, we maintained strong alignment with business analysts and QA teams, facilitating fast feedback loops and reducing rework. Our team became a reliable partner not just in coding and support, but in identifying architectural issues, proposing performance improvements, and ensuring that new features integrated cleanly into the broader ecosystem.

Execution and Delivery

Our engineers took the lead on several high-impact projects, including the development of a new Master Data Management (MDM) web application designed to centralize and validate product data across Sysco and its partners. This solution integrated multiple services, such as Advantage DB, SQL Server, and Confluent Kafka, to ensure accurate and synchronized data handling. The frontend, built in React, allowed non-technical users to manage complex product hierarchies through a clean and responsive UI.

Key Execution Phases and Deliverables

• Architecture & Service Integration (First 2.5 months)

Designed the system architecture and integrated core services, including Advantage DB, SQL Server, and Confluent Kafka, to ensure accurate and synchronized data handling.

• Backend Development (Completed within 8 weeks, overlapping with integration)

Implemented C#.NET business logic and secure API endpoints for seamless communication between warehouse, logistics, and sales systems. Backend work began in parallel with integration efforts and enabled early-stage testing.

• Frontend Development (Next 6 weeks, partially overlapping backend work)

Built a React-based interface for non-technical users to manage complex product hierarchies through a clean, responsive UI.

• Integration Testing (Starting month 3)

Conducted concurrent integration testing alongside backend and frontend development to identify and resolve issues early in the process.

• Reporting Module Implementation (Iterative sprints, dashboards live by month 4)

Added reporting capabilities using Power BI and Crystal Reports to deliver analytics dashboards for internal stakeholders. Enhancements were rolled out incrementally.

• Live Environment Integration & Incident Management (Throughout development)

Performed integration tasks directly in production environments, ensuring stable rollouts and rapid issue resolution when unexpected behavior occurred.

• Support & Maintenance (Ongoing, with average high-priority resolution <8 business hours)

Established clear response protocols and time zone handovers. While not 24/7, critical tickets were triaged promptly to maintain platform stability.

• Long-Term Partnership (Nearly 3 years)

Delivered consistent, stable releases, resolved issues efficiently, and contributed to Sysco’s strategic digital transformation initiatives.

Taken together, these phases directly supported Sysco’s ability to keep its vast supply chain running smoothly. By modernizing data flows, enabling faster reporting, and ensuring stable production rollouts, the execution strengthened day-to-day logistics operations while laying the groundwork for long-term digital transformation. This approach ensured that engineering progress translated into tangible improvements for warehouses, delivery partners, and customers across the US.

By combining new feature development with hands-on support, we ensured Sysco’s platforms stayed responsive and aligned with business needs.

Outcome

Over the course of the collaboration, we helped Sysco strengthen its digital systems by placing engineers directly within the client’s teams, where they worked alongside internal staff and external vendors, shared workflows and tools, and took part in every stage of the development lifecycle. Our team delivered stable, well-integrated software that supported both backend data processing and user-facing interfaces, with minimal disruptions to ongoing operations. Core initiatives, such as the Master Data Management web application and integrations with partner systems, were completed on schedule and adopted across multiple business units. System response times improved by approximately 18%, surpassing the original target, and overall service downtime dropped by over 25% year-over-year.

Beyond feature delivery, our engineers played a critical role in maintaining service reliability. Production issues were addressed rapidly, and support processes were streamlined to reduce downtime and increase transparency across teams. The collaboration enabled Sysco to sustain digital transformation without compromising on service continuity – an essential requirement given the company’s operational scale and logistical complexity.

The long-term nature of the partnership allowed for continuous improvement. Over time, our developers became trusted contributors in strategic technical decisions, identifying performance bottlenecks, suggesting architectural changes, and improving coordination between distributed teams. Engineering throughput improved steadily, with an estimated 35% increase in resolved feature and support tickets by the end of the first year. Their contributions were recognized not just in code output, but in the overall stability, usability, and maintainability of Sysco’s internal platforms.

Highlights:

• Delivered multiple features across C#.NET, React, SQL Server, and Azure ecosystems with high code stability.
• Ensured uninterrupted support coverage for business-critical applications throughout the partnership.
• Helped improve cross-team coordination through consistent technical communication and proactive troubleshooting.

What’s Next?

As Sysco continues to modernize its digital infrastructure, new development streams are being launched around internal tooling, data synchronization, and partner integration platforms. Future initiatives will likely focus on expanding the use of real-time data processing, enhancing system scalability, and adopting more cloud-native architectures.

We remain prepared to support the next phase of development with engineers experienced in modern Microsoft stacks, distributed systems, and platform reliability. With a solid working rhythm already in place, ramping up additional capacity can be done without delay, whether for short-term sprints or long-term embedded roles.

The relationship has shifted from tactical support to strategic partnership. Moving forward, the focus will be on scaling specialized development teams, strengthening DevOps practices, and supporting Sysco’s broader technology transformation roadmap across its global footprint.

Ready to streamline your enterprise systems with scalable solutions like Sysco’s? Let’s build tools that power your operations! Contact us today at general@devsdata.com or visit our website at www.devsdata.com.

Any questions or comments? Let me know on Twitter/X.

Discover how IT recruitment and staffing can address your talent needs. Explore trending regions like Poland, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil and more.

🗓️ Schedule a consultation

Read full bio

Elen Muradian Copywriter and Marketer

As a versatile and accomplished writer with 3+ years of experience in digital media publishing, Elen is skilled in crafting engaging content across various subjects, styles, and media. In her previous experience, Elen worked closely with editorial teams and visual artists to bring content to life. She always seeks opportunities for personal and professional growth and is eager to contribute to the writing field.

Read more about our IT staffing services