Your cloud ERP system will only be as valuable as the data that powers it. An investment this costly—both in time and financial resources—should be supported by a modern item data strategy that helps ensure the enhanced visibility, efficiency and resiliency you understandably expect. It provides your organization with data that’s comprehensive, precise, trusted and actionable.

While hospitals and health systems, along with their suppliers, have long recognized the benefits of supply chain process automation—greater efficiency and accuracy, lower costs—the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how critical it is to procure products in a timely manner. Never before was the importance of automation more apparent than when we saw the pressure on supply chain professionals to quickly meet an unexpected surge in demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) and other products needed for the care of patients and caregiver safety.

As recent months have painfully demonstrated, healthcare systems and processes must be fortified to withstand shock and maintain business continuity in the face of unforeseen challenges. To be sure, cloud ERP systems provide greater resilience for healthcare organizations compared to disparate on-premises systems. But without the right data, that resilience can be limited.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the financial landscape of the U.S. healthcare system. Hospitals continue to face increased supply and labor expense, decreased revenue from postponed elective procedures, and an increasing number of uninsured patients due to unemployment. The American Hospital Association estimated hospitals were losing $1 million per day in the early days of the pandemic. In addition, most providers have seen a loss of non-operating revenue from their investment portfolios as global financial markets waver due to the economic uncertainty.

In a procure-to-pay system, services depend on the availability of resources, and payment is based on the receipt of those resources. Data is used to answer the question, “Did we get what we paid for?” In a demand-to-outcome system, where resources are requisitioned based on need and paid for based on the results delivered, data must answer the question, “Did we get paid for the value we delivered?” It’s impossible to arrive at the answer without supply-chain data that is clean, comprehensive, up-to-date and unified

To deliver greater value in healthcare, providers and suppliers must first be able to identify those factors that impact cost, quality and outcomes—as the adage goes, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Historically, the clinical and operational sides of healthcare have worked in silos, making collaboration and data sharing a challenge. But as payments for care delivery are increasingly tied to quality and efficiency, the industry has begun the hard work of tearing down long-standing barriers.