MRO is the leading clinical data release platform in healthcare and the KLAS-rated No. 1 provider of release of information (ROI) solutions. After acquiring more than a dozen companies, MRO outgrew its legacy QuickBooks system and needed a better way to create multi-entity financial reports. It turned to Armanino to help it deploy and integrate Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as its new ERP system and implement Solver for its reporting needs.
A leader in the clinical data release market, MRO has been providing personal health information (PHI) disclosure and exchange solutions for the healthcare industry since 2002. The company’s solutions securely, efficiently and compliantly connect more than 200 electronic health records (EHR) and practice management systems, extract more than 10,200 clinical data elements and engage nearly 200,000 providers.
A $100 million organization with more than 1,700 employees, MRO is on a high-growth trajectory. Supported by a leading growth-oriented private equity (PE) firm, MRO acquired more than a dozen companies since 2012. It’s been ranked on the Inc. 5000 annual list of fastest-growing private companies for eight consecutive years.
After completing three acquisitions in a recent 18-month span, MRO and its PE partner decided it was time for the company and its acquired entities to move away from their legacy Intuit QuickBooks system and adopt a robust enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
“It was increasingly difficult to provide our private equity partner with the detailed, multi-entity financial reporting it required,” says Brian Kornet, SVP of accounting at MRO. “We needed an ERP system built to support multiple entities and currencies as well as integrations with other financial and operational systems to streamline our processes.”
The PE partner recommended that MRO move to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and work with Armanino LLP as an implementation partner. Armanino, one of the 20 largest independent accounting and consulting firms in the U.S., had successfully implemented Business Central at another of the PE firm’s portfolio companies.
Considering that Armanino is a Gold Certified Inner Circle Microsoft Dynamics partner with decades of experience across key verticals such as healthcare — and with a track record of hundreds of successful implementations, integrations and upgrades within the Microsoft Dynamics suite of solutions — the PE partner had confidence that the Armanino team could help MRO with its complex rollout across multiple companies.
Working hand-in-hand with MRO, Armanino used its rapid implementation methodology to migrate the company from QuickBooks to the Business Central solution and integrate the new ERP with MRO’s other business software, including its human resources and payroll system, expense reporting software, data warehouse and operational platform. Armanino also deployed the Solver solution to handle MRO’s reporting, budgeting and planning requirements.
“Armanino helped us create reports for our private equity firm as well as our department heads to give them better insight across their areas of financial responsibility,” says Kornet. “Thanks to guidance from Armanino, the reports were designed to be user friendly while still providing all the information needed.”
While the rollouts of Business Central to MRO’s acquired companies are ongoing, Kornet is pleased with the extensive improvements the company has experienced already. “With Business Central, we can slice and dice the information by departments, offices, lines of business and more,” says Kornet. “And it’s much easier to integrate Business Central with our other systems.”
The combination of Business Central and Solver significantly reduced the amount of time and effort required to create the detailed reporting the PE firm expects from its portfolio companies. “We no longer have to go through the exercise of mapping QuickBooks financials to the format that we need,” says Kornet. “Armanino recreated the financial reporting in the correct format for our private equity firm within Solver and Business Central. Now it’s just a touch of a button to generate the reports.”
Deploying Business Central also enabled MRO to move its entities to the same chart of accounts. “Before Business Central, we had four different charts of accounts that we had to map each time,” says Kornet. “With everyone on one chart, consolidations will be much easier going forward.”
Kornet is also anticipating significant time savings on currency conversions within Business Central. “Converting rupees to U.S. dollars will be much easier for us,” he says. “This is one of many processes that is more efficient now that we have Business Central.”
As the first phase of the deployment and integration project wraps up, Kornet anticipates working with Armanino on additional system integrations to further improve processes and enhance visibility into the company’s business operations — all the more important given MRO’s acquisition strategy.
“With an integrated, modern ERP system, we can quickly onboard newly acquired companies and easily provide the detailed financial performance reporting our executives and partners need,” says Kornet.
