Epic’s healthcare ERP could prove to be either a true market disruptor or a long-term strategic bet that will gradually force healthcare systems to rethink their application stacks. Signals from recent Epic user conferences and HIMSS25 suggest the latter: a slow, deliberate push toward a natively integrated ERP that complements Epic’s growing AI roadmap and seeks to further integrate a health system’s operational backbone into the Epic ecosystem.
ERP dedicated to healthcare
At this year’s Epic User Group Meeting (UGM), Epic updated customers on progress toward a native healthcare-focused ERP designed to work seamlessly with the Epic electronic health record (EHR). The goal would be to reduce reliance on external ERP integrations by offering an operational platform that shares the same data model as the core clinical system.
According to recent analysisthe functional roadmap covers three areas:
- Workforce management: time and attendance, accreditation, staffing and scheduling, payroll, human resources
- Supply chain/materials management: inventory, purchasing, supplier and contract management, product catalog
- Finance: general ledger, cost accounting, budgeting, accounts payable
Epic’s own executives emphasize that this system is designed “to be healthcare-focused from the ground up,” unlike industry-agnostic ERPs that are healthcare-focused. Seth Howard, Epic’s senior vice president of R&D, said customers “have expressed the need for an ERP solution integrated with their EHR” and that a natively integrated ERP can, for example, predict supply needs based on upcoming surgeries and case backlogs or use EHR data to analyze staffing metrics such as overtime and forecast future needs.
Timelines remain conservative, as 2027 is the earliest the market expects Epic’s ERP to be robust enough to meaningfully support health system operations, with full depth across all areas taking longer. Epic has already released and tested individual components such as a staff scheduling tool (Teamwork), but it has “not disclosed the names of these initial customers or provided a timeline for large-scale deployment.”
A single platform or best in class
Today, most Epic customers combine Epic EHR/Financial with a separate ERP from Oracle, Workday, or Infor, and frequently add Strata or similar platforms for advanced cost accounting, budgeting, and performance analytics. Experts summarize the best current model as follows:
- Benefits include deep finance, supply chain, and HCM capabilities, as well as enhanced cost accounting and margin insights through tools like Strata.
- Disadvantages include multiple vendor contracts, complex EHR-ERP analytics integrations, IT overhead, and higher data latency.
In contrast, Epic’s native ERP model promises reduced interfaces and closer alignment between clinical, financial and workforce data, with a shared data model across care delivery and operations and fewer moving parts for IT teams to manage. Potential benefits reported by experts include fewer interfaces (and less IT overhead) and a smoother end-user experience for Epic-first organizations; disadvantages include immature modules, functional depth that may lag behind Oracle/Workday/Infor in financial and supply chain areas, and gaps in advanced cost accounting that still require tools like Strata.
Epic’s own staff would implement and support the ERP, which could appeal to health systems that prefer a relationship with a single primary vendor.
AI as gravitational pull
The ERP work runs alongside Epic’s broader AI strategy, which HealthLeaders in September 2025 describes as a “big AI bet” to build a connected health universe linked by hundreds of tools and services infused by AI. At Epic’s UGM 2025, CEO Judy Faulkner touted hundreds of AI features already available and hundreds more in the works, positioning Epic as the gravitational center for health systems looking to integrate AI into clinical and operational workflows.
Key components of AI include:
- Emmie, a MyChart bot that helps patients with scheduling, navigation and education
- Art, a co-pilot to help clinicians with administrative tasks, data retrieval and synthesis
- Penny, a revenue cycle co-pilot for billing and financial operations.
Epic also highlighted an ambient AI tool developed with Microsoft, integrated into the EHR to counter a crowded market of third-party ambient documentation providers and encourage health systems to consolidate on Epic’s own solution. In interviews around HIMSS25Howard said Epic has “integrated AI into the core capabilities” of its platform, built an agentic platform with about 125 generative AI features in development, and uses models like OpenAI’s through infrastructure that can support multiple LLM providers.
Taken together, the ERP roadmap and AI program reinforce Epic’s argument that being “in Epic’s orbit” ensures access to the latest integrated capabilities – from clinical agents to staffing to supply chain forecasts – while raising questions about how open this universe is to non-Epic systems.
What this means for ERP insiders
Switching to Epic’s ERP is a strategic option and not an immediate replacement. With significant scale not expected until 2027, Epic’s ERP is unlikely to replace Oracle, Workday, or Infor in the near term, particularly for finance and supply chain leaders who rely on mature capabilities and established analytics ecosystems. Epic store ERP programs should view this as a long-term scenario to be modeled in roadmaps and RFPs, not as a short-term response to current gaps.
The real differentiator is the unification of data and AI, not ERP labels. Epic’s narrative is based on combining EHR, ERP and AI co-pilots around a shared data model and operational platform. For ERP leaders, the key question is less “Epic vs. Oracle/Workday/Infor” and more about how closely clinical, personnel, and financial data should be coupled to support next-generation planning, costing, and automation.
The opening of ecosystems and the risk of supplier concentration require explicit governance. Epic’s growing AI and ERP footprint can bring real simplification to Epic-first organizations, but it also increases reliance on a single vendor and raises new interoperability questions for adjacent systems. Boards and CIOs must pair any Epic consolidation strategy with clear exit and integration plans, continued participation in national interoperability frameworks, and a deliberate stance on where best-in-class still matters.