Financial Planning & Analysis 2022
Which Vendor Is Helping Organizations Make the Most of Their Technology?

Core Financial Planning & Analysis Functionality

Capital planning & tracking
Helps organizations evaluate capital needs over multiple years via tools like pro forma modeling and tracking of financial KPIs

Potential benefits: "I like how this tool forces people to think about why they are putting things in so that they aren’t just adding information as a placeholder. . . . Otherwise, if we just handed people a budget, there would be less buy-in and not as much understanding or appreciation for what goes into it.” —CFO

Long-range planning
Forecasts volumes, profitability, investment, and so forth to inform decisions over the next 3–5 years

Potential benefits: “The product gives us the ability to model scenarios for long-term planning. . . . The reports allow us to see what a change has done to our income statement and our balance sheet.” —VP, financial systems

Operational/short-term budgeting
Provides clear insight into what is impacting an organization’s budget, thereby streamlining budgeting and financial planning activities and improving decision-making

Potential benefits: “We have shortened the budget process because we do it annually and re-forecast every quarter, so we are always moving things out a quarter. Our effort now is focused on continuous improvement rather than working on a detailed budget.” —VP/executive

Performance reporting
Provides insight into department productivity via dashboards, highlighting opportunities to help meet operating budget goals

Potential benefits: “If we use the system correctly, it allows us to quickly analyze our financial budget and results and understand what is happening.” —VP/executive

Rolling forecasting
Helps identify risks and opportunities, with the goal of providing a consistent, accurate business outlook; also provides models and forecasting to allow organizations to make adjustments to stay on track with budget goals; can either complement or replace annual budget

Potential benefits: “Moving from a traditional budget to a rolling forecast has made us nimbler. That transition really helped us as we went through the COVID-19 pandemic.” —VP, financial systems

Note: The functionalities listed above are only the core functionalities for financial planning and analysis software. Secondary functionalities include continuous improvement, labor productivity management, monthly reporting, patient information, and strategic pricing.

Report Participants

Strata’s Strong Relationship Managers Foster Deep Solution Adoption

Strata Decision Technology customers report consistent adoption across the core functionalities, largely thanks to relationship managers who meet with customers often to ensure they are maximizing the solution’s value and to recommend tools for optimizing organizational budget strategies. This deep adoption has a notable impact on client-reported outcomes, which include efficient budgeting and planning (specifically, shortening the budget process with the help of rolling forecasting analysis and models) and improvements to the capital planning process. Some respondents shared that moving from a traditional budget to a rolling forecast made navigating the COVID-19 pandemic easier; despite the uncertainty of the pandemic, the solution and its forecasting ability were flexible enough to help organizations make needed changes. Those that have adopted newer functionality, such as the model scenarios and reporting, feel it lives up to its promise and report satisfaction with the solution’s ability to facilitate long-term planning (three to five years).

Syntellis Customers’ Deep Adoption of Operational/Short-Term Budgeting Improves Efficiency and Insights; More Support Needed for Broader Adoption

Syntellis Performance Solutions customers report deep adoption of operational and short-term budgeting capabilities. Respondents say the budgeting process is made efficient and accurate by tools like drill-down features for A/P and various report roll-ups that support summarized reports and detailed views of data. Use of other functionalities has a similarly positive effect on budgeting efficiency; however, overall adoption of these tools is lower. One reason is a lower level of guidance. Some customers share that due to inadequate training, their main source of help for maximizing the solution’s potential is the support personnel. While these resources are responsive and knowledgeable, proactive help to achieve deeper adoption is lacking, as is proactive communication about system bugs.

Strata Customers Achieving Broader Integration with Key Systems; Syntellis Lags Behind, Limiting Impact on Effective Planning

Strata Decision Technology’s data integration team proactively sets up key integrations during the implementation; this results in 100% of interviewed customers reporting integration with their EMR and ERP solutions. A high proportion of customers also leverage decision support integrations. This depth of integration allows customers to aggregate needed information to meaningfully plan for the short and long term. Syntellis Performance Solutions clients are less likely to have key integrations in place. Without key integrations present, respondents share that Syntellis’ solution does not provide the level of insight and detail they need for proactive planning. Strata and Syntellis clients both report insufficient integration with workforce planning solutions; this marks an opportunity for either vendor to differentiate themselves by helping customers make more effective budget decisions amid healthcare’s ongoing staffing shortages.

Syntellis Performs Best for Larger Organizations; Smaller Strata Customers Are the Most Satisfied Overall

Larger Syntellis Performance Solutions customers (over 1,000 beds) feel the solution effectively scales to meet their needs. Compared to smaller Syntellis customers and to Strata customers, they report more satisfaction with product functionality and more agreement that the system works as promoted. While executive involvement is a comparatively low rating for Syntellis, the largest customers report proactive account management that helps them feel supported. Larger Strata Decision Technology customers are less satisfied. These respondents say the support is not as efficient as customers of that size expect in addressing client needs and resolving reported challenges. They also note slower-than-expected development of things like advanced cost accounting functionality and better integration between modules. These issues are not as concerning for smaller Strata customers, who are the most satisfied group between the two vendors.

Vendor Bottom Lines: Strengths & Opportunities

Strata Decision Technology

Strengths

• Partnership: Mentioned as a satisfaction driver by some customers. A few specifically cite vendor efforts to regularly connect customers with executives or relationship managers who are empowered to solve problems.
• Product quality: Some customers specifically highlight recent product improvement through upgrades. Reporting functions help healthcare organization leaders leverage all their data and information in an intuitive way.
• Insights and guidance: Provides variance data that helps customers make adjustments and course corrections, enabling them to stay on track with budget goals (tools include what-if analyses, scenario plans, and models).

Opportunities for Improvement

• Additional functionality: Some customers want additional functionality to fill gaps in forecasting and labor management.
• Development: Several customers mention the need for faster development, noting that development of functionality that would drive the outcomes customers expected to achieve when they first purchased the product is not happening as fast as they would like.
• Larger organization satisfaction: The concerns mentioned above are particularly problematic for large health systems and other 1,000+ bed organizations.

Syntellis Performance Solutions

Strengths

• Product works as promoted: Compared to Strata customers, Syntellis clients report more agreement that the product works as it was promoted, noting that Syntellis sets and delivers on clear expectations.
• Positive outcomes from use of the system: Customers report results such as improved reporting and more streamlined budget processes. Regarding the latter, respondents point specifically to increased, more detailed operational insights and increased operational efficiencies.
• Future outlook: Some customers express optimism about their future satisfaction because of new updates from the vendor that are moving the product toward better meeting client needs.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Training: Especially large customers need more training to fully understand the system’s capabilities and use it to its full capacity. Some respondents say the training video library is outdated. They also would like more opportunities for in-person training during and after implementation.
• Response times: Customers report challenges with response times from the support team. They also say support tickets can take too long to resolve, sometimes up to several weeks.
• Communication about known issues: Customers want Syntellis to reach out proactively when there are known issues with the solution, rather than clients finding out about issues when they encounter them.