The effort began in 1996 with a failed attempt to standardize on SAP AG's software. After spending US$120 million, the company turned to Lawson Software Inc. for its ERP applications in 2002.

By next month the San Francisco-based health care system, the country's eighth largest, will have rolled out supply chain, finance and human resources applications from St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson to 31 of its facilities.

The $54 million Lawson project, slated for completion by the end of next year, is replacing 200 internally developed and packaged legacy systems.

CHW officials said that the project has already cut supply costs by $1.5 million and annual IT support and paper costs by $1 million apiece. CHW officials are projecting a 144 percent return on investment over the next eight years, or $94 million in savings.

Almost 80 percent of CHW facilities in California, Arizona and Nevada are now running the new applications.