A recent report in Becker’s Hospital Review highlighted a reality that will resonate with healthcare leaders across North America: some of the largest health systems, including UPMC, CommonSpirit, Northwell Health, Trinity Health and HCA Healthcare, continue to operate multiple enterprise platforms as the result of decades of mergers, acquisitions and phased technology rollouts.
To address this complexity, many organizations are investing billions to consolidate both their clinical and enterprise systems. CommonSpirit, for example, is not only standardizing on Epic but also replacing twelve ERP systems with a single enterprise platform. These are significant, long-term initiatives that will simplify operations, reduce technology complexity and establish a stronger digital foundation.
It is easy to assume that once an organization operates on a single EHR and a single ERP, its data problems will largely disappear. Unfortunately, supply chain data does not work that way.
Enterprise Consolidation and Supply Chain Data Are Different Problems
Consolidating applications and governing data are related, but fundamentally different challenges.ERP and EHR consolidation standardize where information is stored and how business processes execute. They create common transactional systems that support finance, procurement, clinical documentation and operational workflows. Supply chain data governance is different. It ensures that the information flowing into those systems remains accurate, consistent and trustworthy over time.
A single ERP can still contain duplicate products, inconsistent supplier identifiers, conflicting contract references and fragmented purchasing history if the underlying data has never been harmonized. Likewise, a unified EHR does not automatically resolve inconsistencies in product records, supplier catalogues or inventory data.
The applications may be consolidated. The data often is not.
Where Supply Chain Data Is Created
One of the biggest misconceptions is that supply chain data lives inside the ERP.
In reality, product information is created across manufacturers, distributors, GPOs, contract repositories, inventory systems, procurement platforms and local hospital operations. Every participant maintains part of the product record, often using different identifiers, naming conventions and organizational structures.
Even after ERP consolidation, healthcare organizations continue onboarding thousands of new products, catalogue updates, substitutions and contract changes every year. Acquisitions introduce new suppliers, local item masters and purchasing histories that must also be integrated.
The ERP becomes the system of record. It does not automatically become the system of trusted product data.
The Real Cost of Fragmented Supply Chain Data
The consequences of fragmented supply chain data are not abstract. They appear every day in operational and financial performance.
When product records are inconsistent across systems, procurement teams struggle to determine what has been purchased, at what price and under which contract. Compliance gaps emerge. Rebates are missed. Opportunities for standardization remain hidden. When demand signals are based on incomplete or inconsistent data, forecasting becomes unreliable. Organizations carry excess inventory that ties up working capital or experience shortages that disrupt patient care. Perhaps most importantly, decision-making slows. Teams spend time validating data instead of acting on it. Clinical, operational and financial leaders lose confidence in the information available to them, reducing the speed and quality of decisions throughout the organization.
These are not issues that disappear simply because an organization migrates to a single ERP or EHR.
Continuous Governance, Not Periodic Cleanup
Historically, healthcare organizations have approached supply chain data quality as a cleanup project. Resources are assembled, standards are defined, records are cleansed and the initiative concludes successfully. For a while.
The problem is that supply chain data never stops changing. New products are introduced. Manufacturers update catalogues. Suppliers merge. Contracts evolve. Health systems acquire new facilities. Every one of these events introduces new complexity into the data.
Traditional cleansing projects improve quality at a point in time. Continuous governance ensures that data remains trustworthy as new suppliers, products, acquisitions and contracts continually enter the ecosystem. That distinction is critical because supply chain data is never static.
Where Optivian Fits
This is precisely where Optivian was built to create value.
Rather than replacing ERP or EHR platforms, Optivian complements them by providing a continuous supply chain intelligence and data governance layer.
It harmonizes product identities, supplier information, contract relationships and purchasing history across every operational system while continuously maintaining that integrity as new information enters the organization.
By understanding organizational structures, supplier relationships and operational context, Optivian enables healthcare organizations to maintain trusted supply chain data regardless of how many ERP, EHR or procurement systems remain in operation.
ERP systems execute transactions.
Optivian ensures those transactions are built on trusted supply chain data.
The Window Is Now
The health systems highlighted in Becker’s Hospital Review are making smart, strategic investments in modernizing both their clinical and enterprise technology platforms. Those initiatives deserve recognition and will deliver significant long-term value. But supply chain leaders cannot wait years for cleaner data.
The decisions being made today on procurement, inventory optimization, forecasting and patient care require reliable information now. Every month spent operating with fragmented supply chain data results in avoidable costs, reduced contract compliance, reactive purchasing and decisions based on assumptions instead of trusted information.
The good news is that organizations do not need to wait for enterprise consolidation projects to finish before improving supply chain data quality. Optivian works alongside existing ERP, EHR and procurement systems, delivering trusted data while broader transformation initiatives continue.
Consolidation Creates the Foundation. Governance Creates Trust.
ERP and EHR consolidation are foundational investments that simplify enterprise operations and clinical workflows. Every health system should pursue them.
But trusted supply chain data is not an automatic outcome of application consolidation.
It requires continuous governance across the entire product ecosystem—from manufacturers and distributors to contracts, procurement, inventory and clinical consumption. Organizations that recognize this distinction will realize the value of their ERP and EHR investments much sooner because every operational decision will be based on consistent, trusted and continuously governed data.
That is the capability Optivian was built to deliver.
Source: Becker’s Hospital Review, July 2026