The challenge of disparate digital systems

As organisations have adopted digital technology to power operations over the past decade, many have ended up with siloed and separate business systems, which often rely on legacy software. These older systems can become unstable over time, causing security and productivity issues. Also, they often can’t be seamlessly integrated with each other or with newer systems, which creates a fragmented approach. This prevents organisations from being able to quickly access the information required to make smarter business decisions and deliver a high-quality customer experience. With the introduction of newer digital capabilities, companies with disparate systems need to urgently review these and integrate now if they want to grow.

Integration is a clear need in most industries today, where the push towards digital transformation has required organisations to map a path towards digital maturity by adopting advanced technologies. The need for real-time access to data and intelligence across the enterprise means that being able to integrate new technologies with existing IT infrastructures is crucial.

This can be achieved through modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which brings everything together and leverages cloud computing, the internet, cognitive computing and robotics to apply live data insights to operating models.

“Integrating systems brings all business information into one place, providing an accurate, comprehensive and real-time view that can drive better decision-making and help organisations strongly position themselves to deliver growth,” Epicor Software Corporation ANZ Regional Vice President Greg O’Loan said.

“When organisations rely on a variety of legacy systems to manage operations, these systems can become unstable, making it difficult to get a true picture of the business and creating extra work for employees. However, when systems work together seamlessly, organisations are empowered to immediately gain increased efficiency, leading to growth and a stronger bottom line. The single source of truth delivers actionable insights and easy-to-understand reports that are immensely powerful for decision-makers.”

This is a key issue in the rapidly growing aged-care industry, where providers seek to streamline processes and keep costs down in the face of continuous change and increased competition. Disparate systems hold aged-care providers back through an increased risk of errors, more time required to pull data from each system and more manual analysis needed when working with data from different sources. In such a competitive market, it’s crucial for aged-care providers to be agile and customer-centric, which requires modern, integrated business systems.

This was the case for Epicor customer St Catherine’s Aged Care Services in Eastwood, NSW. The aged-care provider was using an older financial system that was becoming unstable. Employees were required to enter the same information into three different modules and sometimes in up to five different locations because the system wasn’t integrated. This meant information in the system was incomplete and hampered decision-making.

“This data input repetition created significant risk for St Catherine’s, as it affected accurate billing, reporting and cash flow management,” O’Loan said.

“Without clarity around this information, aged-care providers open themselves up to issues including erroneous billing and being unable to respond to resident and family queries in a timely and transparent way.”

St Catherine’s chose the Epicor Senior Living Solution (SLS), which is deployed in the cloud and provides a central repository for all resident-based data, helping the business to accurately manage billing and funding. Epicor SLS is specifically designed for aged-care service providers, helping them manage regulatory compliance as well as business operations in an integrated system.

Epicor SLS has delivered greater efficiency and accuracy because it automates repetitive and manual functions, saving St Catherine’s a significant amount of time each month in managing billing and reporting.

“Epicor SLS was a great fit for St Catherine’s because the system is designed from the ground up to help aged-care service providers navigate a complex and highly compliant environment that is becoming increasingly competitive,” O’Loan said.

“It has consolidated all of St Catherine’s financial and operations management into one system, which eliminates the risk presented by having multiple systems. This puts St Catherine’s in a better position for future growth.”

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