An ERP and platform consolidation that absorbed three acquisitions without losing them

The platform had been assembled through three acquisitions over four years, and the resulting application landscape was the predictable result: three legacy ERP systems, four billing platforms, two patient-management systems, and an operations team spending a meaningful portion of each month reconciling the differences. The board had approved a platform consolidation eighteen months earlier; the project had been launched, paused, and was now in a state of partial implementation that was making things worse rather than better.

Halverson Reed was retained to do an honest reset of the program: confirm the right end-state architecture, sequence the remaining work in a way that was deliverable, and accompany the executive team through the next twelve months.

The first month of the engagement was a diagnostic of where the program actually stood, conducted with the CIO, the CFO, and the program leaders at each of the nine sites. Two early findings shaped what followed. First, the original architecture decision — to consolidate onto the platform inherited from the largest of the three acquisitions — was the right one and remained the right one; the difficulty was not the destination but the path. Second, the sequencing of the remaining work had been driven by program-management convenience rather than by operational risk, with the result that the most fragile site was scheduled for migration last and was deteriorating in the meantime.

We re-sequenced the program around operational risk and against a firm twelve-month horizon. We worked with the CIO on a series of practical decisions — which legacy applications to retire, which to integrate temporarily, which exceptions to accept — and with the CFO on the underwriting case and the cadence of board reporting. The Halverson Reed team remained close through the implementation; the technology partner spent time on site at three of the nine locations during the most demanding migrations.

Within twelve months, the platform was operating on a single ERP, a single billing system, and a single patient-management platform. Three legacy applications were retired entirely; one was retained on a defined sunset path. Annualized run-rate savings reached $8.6 million, with the larger benefit visible in the operations team's restored capacity to focus on the business rather than on reconciliation.

The platform completed the integration of a fourth acquisition, in the second year, on the consolidated platform from day one — the test the original program was always meant to enable.