Founded and managed by healthcare specialists, Santéch offers web-based solutions and services that allow payors, practices, hospitals, providers, and networks to transform their provider and network management capabilities. Santéch’s data management platform manages crucial documents; everything from the paperwork needed to onboard a provider to managing provider data such as profiles and addresses. Built for scalability and high performance, the company’s enterprise-caliber solutions are designed to meet the needs of small, midsize, and large healthcare organizations.
The Challenge
Santéch’s customers can host the company’s solutions on-premise – mostly done by larger providers who already have their own data centers, or in the cloud. But increasingly, customers want to rid themselves of the burden of maintaining their own hardware infrastructure and focus on providing superior healthcare solutions.
As a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, Santéch was in the same position. The company wanted to scale and continually improve its I-Network and I-Enroll products, without draining resources on maintaining an in-house infrastructure. “We did not want to go down the route of hosting our own solutions in-house,” says Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer Neeraj K. Sharma. “I’m a strong believer that it’s a specialized job that should be handled by hardware, networking, software, and security experts.”
The Solution
Neeraj led the search for a cloud-hosting infrastructure provider. He had several criteria in mind: scalability, dedicated healthcare domain expertise, unparalleled knowledge of the security and compliance issues related to the healthcare industry, full HIPAA compliance, and disaster recovery (DR) capabilities.
Because the choice of a cloud provider was so integral and crucial to the company’s success, he and his team narrowed the possibilities down to two vendors and ran test cycles over several months with both. They worked hands-on with technical teams from both companies.
“ClearDATA was remarkable, especially when it came to HIPAA compliance security, exclusive healthcare focus, DR, and scalability,” Neeraj says. “And ClearDATA has a wonderful set of people dedicated to working with us hand-in-hand. I would say it was a delightful experience, one you don’t get from a large provider to whom you’re just one of many, many clients.”
The Results
Solid Cloud Offering: Santéch is now able to offer its clients a fully HIPAA-compliant cloud offering so it can be a better partner to its healthcare customers and continually improve its products.
High-Touch, Expert Experience: At one point, Santéch had a privacy question about some of the documentation and protected health information (PHI) it was handling. Neeraj was able to speak directly to ClearDATA’s Chief Privacy Officer to establish the necessary safeguards. ClearDATA’s extensive experience saves Santéch from having to build the necessary security and privacy expertise internally and can deliver more value to clients needing healthcare provider data management.
“Other cloud infrastructure providers may offer more self-service capabilities, but you never get to talk to a real person who understands your situation and your needs – and they’re not going to forge a dedicated relationship unless you are a very large client,” says Bert Fajardo, vice president of strategy and sales for Santéch. “With ClearDATA, you don’t get shuffled off to a call center where you have to repeat your issue over and over again.”
Cost Savings: Santéch now has a consistent, reliable cloud infrastructure that makes economic sense. “It was crystal clear to us that it wasn’t economically feasible to build our own cloud-hosting infrastructure when we looked at what we would need in terms of real estate, software, and hardware,” Neeraj says.
Conclusion
When Santéch needed a healthcare-specific, HIPAA-compliant cloud infrastructure provider, it turned to ClearDATA. Since then, the two companies have formed a true partnership that is as much about the people as it is about the technology.
Says Neeraj, “With ClearDATA we have dedicated account and technical managers that work hand-in-glove with us. When people are behind the technology and provide the level of support ClearDATA does, it should not only be appreciated – it should be celebrated.”
