We’re currently evaluating Bahmni for an upcoming implementation and had a few questions. I’d appreciate guidance from the community or anyone who has implemented Bahmni in production:
Implementation cost
What are the typical cost components involved in a Bahmni implementation (setup, customization, integrations, hosting, support, etc.)?
Are there any ballpark estimates or examples from past implementations?
Commercial support / sales or partners
Since Bahmni is open source, what is the recommended way to connect with an official team, implementation partners, or vendors who provide paid support and services?
Is there a central place to find certified or commonly used Bahmni partners?
Additional / custom development
How is custom development usually handled on top of the existing Bahmni platform?
What are the best practices for extending Bahmni (custom modules, integrations, UI changes, workflows, etc.) while staying upgrade-friendly?
Any documentation links, partner recommendations, or real-world experiences would be very helpful.
We’re currently going through the process at the moment and contacted a few partners, with the quote received varying considerably in terms of quality and cost. Ironically, the lower cost quotes actually came across with far more confidence in knowledge, expertise and ability to deliver. You can find a list here: Implementation Partners — Bahmni™
Take the supported locations with a grain of salt, as in reality anywhere globally can be supported so long as you can make the timezones work.
For the best quote we received, it included project management, installation, configuration (clinical module, lab module, ERP module, reports), customisation, training and then ongoing support.
I’ll let someone who is better versed regarding the last point to advise, as that’s one I’m interested in also.
Bahmni’s main costs are for services, not licenses. You should plan to spend money on implementation (setting up clinical, lab, and ERP systems), integrations, hosting, training, and support. Customization is what usually makes things more expensive. Small sites can be lean, but hospitals grow quickly.
People usually work with bahmni implementation partners instead of a central sales team when they need paid help. References are important because quality and price can be very different.
It’s common to do custom development, but don’t fork core. Add on openmrs modules, odoo extensions, and integrations to keep your system up to date.
Ongoing support & maintenance (SLAs, upgrades, issue resolution)
The common approach is:
Work with experienced implementation partners who actively deploy and maintain Bahmni
Refer to the community-maintained partner list here: Implementation Partners — Bahmni™ (use as guidance, not a hard limitation)
Evaluate partners based on past production deployments, not just proposals
Time zones and geography are usually manageable if communication and support processes are clear.
If you need practical guidance, partner evaluation help, or implementation support, the team at Sunyaek can assist across implementation, customization, integration, and ongoing support.
https://sunyaek.org
Happy to share more details or lessons learned if helpful.
