How commitment to customer success paved the way for all Okta healthcare customers
Connecting roughly 50 million unique users within a network of clinics, offices, practitioners, and specialists across the USA means securely storing extremely sensitive data—then sharing it with thousands of healthcare providers, partners, and vendors. This responsibility is embraced by the Okta customer facilitating this network, despite the ever-evolving rules governing this process. To stay compliant, organisations must remain vigilant.
This customer originally partnered with Okta to achieve dual objectives:
- Protect users through strong authentications and proper access permissions.
- Deliver a consistent, unified experience.
One hurdle on the path to success is compliance. To meet regulatory certifications under the 21st Century Cures Act, Okta’s Josh Pritchett, Senior Enterprise Customer Success Manager (CSM) stepped in to ensure the necessary updates to Okta’s system were prioritised, ran on time, and smoothly. The stakes were high, as failure to comply would have serious consequences.
A pressing regulatory deadline
Stringent industry regulation was one of the main reasons this organisation chose Okta. Being designed for compliance with major regulatory frameworks, they could feel confident that Okta considered the details to be essential. No regulation is more vital than another—total adherence is critical.
“The 21st Century Cures Act was rolled out under the Obama administration to accelerate and guide the innovation of healthcare in a safe and secure manner,” says Josh. It includes "a set of standards—SMART on FHIR—that regulates how APIs manage healthcare records."
This is the type of fine-print regulation that may go unnoticed by even the most compliance-conscious of software companies. To stay up-to-date with the diverse needs of specific verticals, Okta must be strategic with partners and customers. This openness leads to grateful customers who can proactively highlight the constant changes in their particular niche.
When first announced, Okta and the customer considered the new SMART on FHIR regulation, but it took time for both organisations to understand the individual components needed to reach full compliance. Once this information was known, Josh and the Okta team partnered with the customer to craft a plan, and both companies went to work. “The customer structured their internal roadmap to be fully compliant well before the deadline. This decision allowed Okta to prioritise and drive urgency on a business-critical roadmap to unblock the customer from achieving full compliance.” Josh’s advocacy was vital to securing a place of priority for the work within Okta’s ambitious product roadmap, a plan that’s continuously packed with innovations.
How Josh and the Okta team achieved success
Josh wasn’t daunted by the complexity of the request or the high stakes. “If the customer could not certify due to Okta limitations, there could have been financial impacts; specifically, losing out on the ability to provide government rebates to their existing customers, and by extension, being unable to sell to new customers,” he explains. “They didn't necessarily share their backup plans—I don't know if they even had any. Essentially, not getting certified was not an option.”
The customer’s goal was to be ready for recertification—ahead of the deadline. Here are three ways Josh supported their success:
- Making connections. When the timeline was established, Josh immediately connected the right people and teams throughout Okta, including engineers and product experts.
- Advocating for the customer. Josh acted on behalf of his customer, advocating to drive urgency within Okta. He also secured senior-level approvals to embed this functionality into Okta’s product roadmap.
- Coordinating and communicating. “I acted as project manager and communication liaison,” says Josh. “I kept the customer informed on our progress and made sure they were able to test the product in development to ensure it met all their specifications.”
Josh has had plenty of practice with sensitive deployments. Before joining Okta, he oversaw enterprise customer accounts at a large web conferencing organisation and obtained his MBA from ESMT Berlin. After joining Okta, he established himself as an identity expert by earning both Okta Certified Professional and Okta Certified Administrator credentials.
A win for the entire healthcare ecosystem
Today, all healthcare customers benefit from Okta’s ability to support SMART on FHIR compliance. Both current customers and prospects are already finding value in Okta’s robust security posture. This is also thanks to Josh's initiative to share his experience with his peers, from fellow CSMs to the sales team: “I love that Customer Success is not one-size-fits-all. There's no right or wrong,” he says, “but sharing these stories with internal teams is how we all grow. I've had so many people reach out to me and ask about how I navigated this, and that's because there’s a culture of transparency.”
There’s also a culture of trust. Josh describes how “at Okta, 'customer first' is one of our core company values—being an advocate for the customer, understanding the needs of their business, and building a relationship with them.” With this approach, the team has completed an imposing number of complex identity deployments—15,000 and counting.
“I think where Customer Success Managers come into play is giving organisations a voice within Okta and actively advocating for them,” says Josh. “We speak up for them—helping them identify their goals, helping them set clear priorities, and taking their requests to the people who can make them a reality.”
CSMs are advocates, product experts, and dedicated advisors throughout a customer’s journey with Okta. By aligning Okta’s capabilities with the customer’s business initiatives, they invest deeply in ensuring success.
Josh is one member of the exceptional Customer First team at Okta, facing these challenges and delivering success for customers every day. Interested to learn more about how Okta ensures your success? Check out our Customer First team.
