How Providers Pick a Healthcare Enterprise Resource Planning System

A new KLAS Decision Insights report sheds light on what organizations look for when selecting or replacing their healthcare enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Functionality, full-suite integration, cloud technology, and cost are the top considerations that healthcare organizations evaluate as more customers switch to cloud-based ERP platforms.  

KLAS examined 65 recent or upcoming ERP purchase decisions to determine what factors go into choosing or replacing an ERP system. The latest research aligns with past KLAS analysis that noted improved convenience, reliability, and efficiency as a result of cloud-based on-premise ERP system implementation.

ERP systems can advance healthcare revenue cycle management by giving organizations a holistic view into their business operations. The systems allow organizations to consolidate data between departments and bridge the gap between front-end and back-end revenue cycle management activities.

Almost all organizations in the report considered Workday, Oracle, and Infor when making ERP system decisions, and one of the three was selected or likely to be selected in over 85 percent of the decisions.

Workday was often chosen by organizations because of their technology, strong culture and vision, and ease of use. However, Workday is perceived to have some material and supply chain issues, making it a less common choice among very large organizations. It scored 86.3 points on KLAS’s overall performance score, which went to 100.

Oracle was the most common choice among large and very large organizations, with an overall performance score of 78.4. Delivery of new technology, ease of use, support for integration goals, and functionality were the top reasons for choosing Oracle over another service. But cost and poor product demos and sales team interactions were the most common deterrents to choosing Oracle.

“Infor’s cloud offering is often considered—many of the organizations making a go-forward ERP decision right now are current Infor customers,” the report stated.

“However, compared to Workday and Oracle, Infor is less likely to be selected, and many of the organizations that do choose CloudSuite are legacy Infor customers.”

Lower cost, integration benefits, and functionality were reported as the main drivers of Infor’s CloudSuite system adoption. Infor had a 69.4 overall performance score, and 57 percent of users said they would make the purchase again.

Premier received the highest overall performance score, at 88.3. Premier was not chosen as frequently as Infor, Workday, or Oracle, due to a lack of integration and HR functionality. But Premier has been chosen by multiple new customer organizations, and current customers reported extremely high satisfaction rates.

Allscripts received a 66.8 overall performance score, and only 55 percent of purchasers said they would buy the technology again. The report explained that Allscripts is “rarely considered for new purchase decision, even by existing customers, and 70 [percent] of interviewed customers say Allscripts is not part of their long-term plans.”

Most surveyed organizations prioritized functionality, integration benefits, cloud technology, and cost over all else when considering and purchasing an ERP system. For those who replaced existing ERP systems, old technology, consolidation, and poor experiences were cited as top reasons for replacement.