What happens when digital transformation meets dental care? Robert “RJ” Jerome, senior vice president and chief digital officer at Heartland Dental, reveals how SAP solutions contributed to the company’s technological journey.
See how Heartland Dental uses SAP cloud ERP to manage data across its dental practices
Heartland Dental is the largest dental support organization in the United States, with over 3,000 supported doctors in more than 1,900 supported practices across 39 states and Washington, D.C. But beyond numbers, what sets Heartland apart is its tight knit community and people culture. As Jerome shared, “The first thing I associate with Heartland is community; we’re doctor-led. In our support role, we don’t tell dentists how to practice. Our role is to make their lives easier—enabling dentists to concentrate on patient care.”
Making lives easier is a vision Heartland shares not only for its supported dentists but for its own operations. The company’s digital journey began “backwards” starting in 2018 with SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), instead of with ERP, to resolve disparate data from all over. Once SAP BTP was established and adopted by the organization, it then began to incorporate SAP Cloud ERP.
What makes this journey truly stand out is how Heartland is using technology to serve people, supported through seamless integration with tools like SAP Concur solutions, embedded AI—such as smart invoice management—and embedded analytics. These features are freeing up time and resources so teams can focus on what matters most: supporting doctors and improving patient care.
The team has rolled out SAP Build Work Zone across its supported practices and is investing in AI tools like Joule to help employees access information faster, automate repetitive tasks, and focus on what really matters—patient care and experiences. Jerome explained, “Just like we take the administrative burden off our supported doctors, SAP takes the tech burden off us, so we can focus on supporting doctors and their teams.”
Heartland’s next big milestone is going live with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and taking AI a step further to automation.
Heartland Dental’s story shows that with the strategic adoption of technological innovations, it’s possible to build a future-ready healthcare support organization grounded in people and purpose.
Chris Putvinski is a communications specialist at SAP.
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