Examining the Evolving ERP Market

KLAS has been hard pressed to talk with a healthcare organization that has not either recently made or is currently in the process of making a decision in ERP right now. Because ERP is an older market and so many were initially implemented in the early 2000s, provider organizations are ready to make a move toward newer and more exciting technology. But are the cloud solutions everything they’re hyped up to be? Which companies have the most mindshare, and which are being left behind?

These questions and more are discussed in our recent ERP 2020 Decision Insights report.

Who are the players?

For many years, Oracle and Infor were the big names in ERP and controlled much of the market. In our previous Decision Insights report, published in 2018, we saw a shift in considerations.

Workday, which first appeared in a KLAS report in 2015, was beginning to receiving a lot of considerations in comparison to Oracle and Infor. As seen in the chart to the left, considerations for this vendor continued to break away from the pack throughout 2019.

But now as we are able to analyze 2020 data, we see a closing of the gap between Workday and two historically favored competitors, Infor and Oracle. Recently, provider organizations report that Oracle has committed to going all in on the cloud. The way its customers speak about Oracle Cloud has shifted in regard to their offerings, focus, and partnership. Many of the largest healthcare organizations (3000+ beds) have chosen to move ahead with Oracle.

Decision-makers are seriously considering full suite solutions which include HR/payroll, financials, and supply chain. Having an ERP suite that includes supply chain is becoming more of a priority as COVID-19 has brought supply chain gaps to light. Because of this, provider organizations can look forward to more of a focus on efficiency and ROI.

Companies like Premier, which is high performing but does not offer a full suite of services, don’t get as much mindshare as Infor, Oracle, and Workday.

New Technology and What to Look for in the Future

Given that many healthcare organizations last implemented an on-premises ERP system around Y2K, most are now opting to upgrade their ERP with a cloud solution. These products can offer more functionality and sometimes more flexibility than they have before.

Cloud technology is still relatively new, and many companies are still learning how to take advantage of its benefits. Some customers have reported that their vendor doesn’t seem to be an expert in its own cloud solution; instead, they’re learning the system together with vendor staff. While the cloud is living up to the hype in a lot of ways, it is not the Holy Grail, nor is it designed to be. The cloud does offer new opportunities, but there will still be some bumps along the road. Nothing is completely seamless.

KLAS will publish an ERP pillars performance report later this year that will dive deeper into how the different vendors perform in the three main ERP pillars (HR/Payroll, Financials, Supply Chain). To learn more about decisions being made in ERP solutions and why, check out our ERP 2020 Decision Insights report.

Originally published on KLAS’ blog page, this piece was written by Tanya Egbert and Sam Eaquinto. For more information about the organization, follow KLAS on Twitter.