Healthcare ERP 2020: Everything Related to Pillars

The reasons for buying a healthcare ERP system can be as varied as the uses of the systems themselves. Providers around the world have their own unique situations that need to be considered and catered to, so clients’ needs and the specific functionalities they need have to be considered when deciding which system to buy. Equally as important are the individual performances of ERP vendors; how these vendors manage relationships and perform across the pillars of ERP can be ultimate deciders in these situations. KLAS recently put together the ERP 2020 report detailing the recent ups and downs of ERP vendors and doing a deep dive into the ERP pillars. From market leaders to significantly improved vendors, this report covers the current state of healthcare ERP.

Exceptionally Riveting Products

KLAS’ deep dive into the ERP market has provided some interesting insights into who is leading the pack and who needs improvement, as seen in the chart below:

Workday is among those that are doing excellent work in the space, and they have the numbers to back that up. They have customers on all three individual ERP pillars, and they have a surprising number of customers who have implemented all three solutions. Despite this level of interest, an issue some of their customers shared were the apparent gaps in supply chain. Customers acknowledge that supply chain is underdeveloped, but many customers have expressed optimism in Workday’s ability to close those gaps, thanks in no small part to their partnership with their customers and willingness to keep them in the loop on their road map. In fact, strong relationships and communication were common themes among the top-performing vendors.

Excellent Relationships and Potential

One of the more surprising but exciting findings from this report was the sudden surge that was seen with Oracle. They have closed the gap by an impressive margin, jumping up 20 points in their overall score from 2019. How did this happen? What changed? Many customers are pointing to Oracle’s renewed focus on the relationship with their customers as the driving force. Oracle customers are optimistic about the potential of Oracle Cloud, but the big change was in how Oracle partners with their customers. Customer success managers and increased communication have improved many customers’ perception on how Oracle is doing in the healthcare ERP market.

We at KLAS also saw Premier continue to do well with their products, though there is some dissatisfaction among some customers over Premier’s lack of human capital management tools. More information can be found in the insights of the report.

ERP-Related Problems

The ERP 2020 report also saw a few vendors, such as Allscripts and Infor, struggle to keep up with leaders like Oracle and Workday. The biggest issues that were seen with these struggling vendors included poor relationships and a lack of a full suite of products. Poor relationships keep customers from fully adopting and taking advantage of the features that they do have, which creates more difficulties than there should be. This is a problem that Infor is struggling with. The products from vendors like Allscripts are not seeing much development these days, and that makes it very prohibitive for any customers looking to buy a solution. A bad relationship can sour a vendor experience, even if that vendor had the best technology in the world, and as was seen with the top performers, a good relationship can make all the difference.

Exciting Reflection on the Possibilities

There are a lot of interesting things to learn about in this report, and several vendors have made their presence known in this market. While gaps still exist for several of these vendors, there seems to be a strong willingness across the board to improve; even Infor customers have felt things start to shift for the better recently. A lot has happened in the healthcare ERP market, and we at KLAS hope that the ERP 2020 report will be of help to anyone looking to provide ERP solutions to their organizations.

 Photo Credit: Adobe Stock, KANDA EUATHAM