Interview Pietro Macrì ERP BU Leader
C4H–ERP the key backbone to drive the Digital Transformation in the healthcare industry
Following the global pandemic, many things have changed, and many other changes are underway. Firstly, the healthcare sector has gained an entirely new status in people’s lives. Everyone has understood the importance of having access to quality healthcare services. “If we take a close look at healthcare systems from an economic-financial standpoint, sustainability is key to their efficiency. The more efficient a country’s healthcare system, the higher the population’s life expectancy. However, higher life expectancy may also mean higher chronic disease rates, and consequently, the relative cost for the healthcare system rises.
When a healthcare system’s efficiency increases, its financial sustainability decreases,” says Pietro Macrì, Leader of Dedalus’ Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Business Unit. Adding to this paradigm, recent changes in the healthcare sector have demonstrated its weaknesses.
Which type of information systems can help healthcare organisations react to uncertainty flexibly? And which type of information systems can govern such a complex ecosystem?
Based on his solid experience in an international context, Pietro Macrì asserts that Information Technology certainly is a key enabling factor in solving management issues. The challenge is to design efficient and optimised healthcare models in which people, citizens and patients are central, keeping in mind that environments are becoming increasingly digitised. In this process, one must remember that information systems need a backbone, an ERP platform allowing Digital Transformation.
Digital transformation is not a mere technical innovation. It is a Cultural Change, and it is more generally part of Change Management and of Business Process Reengineering. The ERP historically enables organisations to change.
The Dedalus C4H – ERP, developed specifically for the healthcare industry, covers a variety of functionalities across the entire account receivable and account payable processes, including Billing & Claims, which are crucial issues in healthcare system management. Our C4H – ERP also supports healthcare organisations’ governance by responding to other relevant needs, such as mandatory compliance with several internal and international regulations in the logistics, administrative and accounting fields.
Dedalus’s C4H – ERP represents a new frontier to support the design of the future healthcare system and is built around two main pillars: workflows and multi-entity organisations.
C4H the Dedalus Healthcare ERP
Administrative processes are essential components of the healthcare system and guarantee appropriate operational management of each organisation. As such, the ERP BU provides C4H (Complete ERP for Healthcare) and the Dedalus C4H – ERP platform. C4H is a Centralized Multitenant Solution built to support customers in different countries, on public and private markets, with an aim to enhance the Business Process Review by optimising organisational performance, improving decision-making, enabling change management and monitoring management control.
To deliver effective KPIs and offer the specific capabilities needed by stakeholders, C4H provides a wide range of modules covering all functional areas, from Financial Accounting and Revenue Cycle Management to Procurement, the Supply Chain, Stocks and Pharmacy Management.
C4H enables hospitals and health organisations to integrate and streamline their data and process flows to provide benefits and profits. C4H is deeply integrated with the Patient Administration System (PAS), as well as with several other modules, including those dedicated to Prescription (EPMA), the Electronic Medical Record (EMR), operating rooms, testing laboratories, diagnostic, imaging, and general practitioners, thus providing a single, holistic ecosystem.
C4H – ERP is integrated with mobile innovative technologies and can leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. C4H – ERP improves organisations’ productivity thanks to these features and feeds end-to-end processes with accurate, timely and cost-effective data. Above all, inventory management requires strict product traceability in the context of pharmaceutical and medical devices. C4H includes specific ICT features to support lot tracking and traceability, monitor expiry dates, manage electronic data interchange (EDI) integration, and track costs in a granular manner. Each functionality is strictly interfaced
with accounting and warehouse management.
By accessing the Dedalus C4H – ERP, end users can retrieve data in a powerful analysis environment that provides a comprehensive real-time overview of information and graphs and statistics related to each business event and activity. Dedalus C4H – ERP is also capable of producing predictive analyses for effective decision-making.
“Our C4H – ERP is highly customisable and offers huge key advantages to healthcare organisations, including reduced costs, planning abilities, hardware independence, high data visibility and increased flexibility, overcoming the adoption of the paradigm used in commercial software. When a client deals with Dedalus, they deal with one counterpart only rather than with several – the latter usually being what happens with traditional vendors.”, Pietro explains.
Underlying the Dedalus C4H – ERP is Dedalus’s experience and Dedalus’s belief that solutions must be implemented in the Cloud to guarantee maximum operational functionality in terms of accessibility, scalability, and security. C4H improves customers’ organisations by enhancing Business Processes. C4H also helps customers manage change within their organisation by allowing them to tailor processes to their needs, leveraging C4H’s high flexibility. Significant efficiency gains are achieved thanks to powerful cost control measures and to KPIs providing management teams with the right data to reduce their costs. Said teams are also able to increase their revenue thanks to the innovative ERP platform, all while bringing innovation to frontend services.
“Dedalus’s view is that clinical data is a key component in the implementation of the C4H – ERP, in that it provides information related to patients’ lives. Only through a deep integration of the clinical healthcare environment can there be an C4H – ERP which recognises the relationship between costs, general activities and services provided to patients, assigning benefits and costs correctly. “Moreover, the added value offered by the adoption of C4H is not just a matter of technical innovation but also a matter of deep, expert and global knowledge of healthcare solutions”, Pietro says.
Thanks to the expertise of its specialised global Healthcare-ERP Team, the ERP BU offers services which customers view as valuable and complementary for their business. It is worth noting once again that Dedalus operates in the healthcare industry only – Dedalus teams thus have decades of specialised experience.
The target we work towards each day is that of empowering the healthcare industry by giving access to a dedicated C4H – ERP. “We believe that implementing an exclusively verticalized, open-source based ERP for Healthcare, is the direction we have to take” Pietro adds.
Pietro highlights that the current market is sensitive to change, and requires a flexible, more clinically oriented solution. The market response confirms this assumption completely: “UKI is a consolidated market for C4H in Europe, as we are the official supplier of the National Health Service (NHS), with high growth expectations. Besides, we have solid prospects for the introduction of C4H in the Iberia, MEA and Latam Markets”.
The ERP BU is based in Italy but also has members in several other locations. In addition, the ERP BU has main offices and products in France, Germany and Spain.
Moving to Young Talent as Factor of Success
Dedalus supports best practices by employing young people to create an inclusive and empathetic working environment. This specific approach is based on the belief that young resources represent the added value for our teams to support smart and innovative solutions.
“In my view, which reflects Dedalus’s approach, attracting and preserving young talents is one of the main challenges for organisations around the globe.”
Pietro’s leadership extends to different teams in Italy, Europe and countries on other continents. He dedicates time and effort to constantly interacting with the teams and supporting them, without putting any pressure on them when problems or difficulties arise.
Pietro believes in striving to make his team members feel motivated and inspired.
To achieve continuity, quality and the highest levels of performance, Pietro follows inclusive yet guiding leadership practices. “Shared motivation, cross-generational collaboration, and responsibility in the decision-making process represent success factors in leading the young” says Pietro.
Technological and specialist skills are core elements sought when hiring employees, given the deep digital transformation which is currently underway. However, positive thinking, enthusiasm, trustworthiness and a collaborative spirit remain the main qualities required to join Dedalus and our team.
Dedalus ERP BU Value
- Less Medicines and Pharmaceutics Wasting
- Chemical and raw material savings
- Less paper use thanks through all the digitalized internal processes
- HR Software could help to minimise the gender diversity gap providing the same progression opportunities
- Innovations advance gender equality and womend’s empowerment
- Thanks to our Rostering solution we improve the work-life balance for a better quality of life
Dr. Pietro Macrì
ERP Global Business Unit Director
Pietro Macrì is an inspiring and team-oriented leader with over 20 years of successful experience in Healthcare ERP (C4H – ERP).
As Director of the Dedalus ERP Department, he was in charge of developing the C4H Platform, the innovative ERP solution of the Dedalus Group specifically tailored to the needs of the healthcare market worldwide.
As the leader of the ERP Global Business Unit, he is managing Dedalus International Product Managers and R&D teams working on Finance, Revenue Cycle Management, Warehouse, Human Resources and Patient Administration System.