Case Study on Innovaccer

Problem Objective
Innovaccer is a healthcare Software-as-a-service platform that envisages to be the best healthcare
platform through its cloud-based data integration and analytics services. Innovaccer’s main focus is
on the US-market where it is one of the fastest growing and provides multiple solutions through
Datashop, its healthcare platform, like electronics healthcare records (EHRs), insurance claims data,
patient admit and discharge feeds (ADT), lab tests, practice management systems, static excel sheets
for records and various paper records management.
Innovaccer, through Datashop, essentially looks at reducing the data related complexities for the
healthcare providers, while storing and integrating their data in the clouds and deriving insights from
them in order to make those institutions more efficient and robust. The product and the industry that
Innovaccer is in requires a lot of customization in order to fit the bill of the individual costumer, so
essentially the base product they have is a proof-of-concept that may need customization to adhere to
the customer’s requirement. Datashop is sold to hospitals by Innovaccer and they want to increase
their business 10 times, and require to look into avenues to propel that growth.
Current Status
Innovaccer currently has more than 20 different customers across US and is one of the fastest growing
healthcare platform companies. The healthcare sector in the US is also going through a sea-change
with payment models in the $3 trillion healthcare industry shifting more towards a value based model,
with incentives of the healthcare professionals dependent on wellness of patients.
This is exactly where the Innovaccer model fits in. Using its big data repository, Integrated Data Lake
which can collect, clean, standardize and monitor data formats, Datashop can help healthcare
providers like hospitals to increase their efficiency, thus providing superior service to the patients as
well as improving on the average occupation and turnaround time with the help of data based insights.
Opportunity and Market Situation
Aggregator services in terms of data management for the healthcare sector is still in its infancy and is
especially beneficial for hospitals and similar institutions who have to deal with, maintain and retrieve
large volumes of data, be it patient records, insurance claims, lab tests or management system data.
The very fact that Innovaccer only has 20 supportive customers currently gives it immense potential
in terms of growth in the near future. Innovaccer has already managed to acquire big conglomerates
and healthcare platforms as its customers, like Compass medical, Catalyst Health, Mercy ACO, Osler.
The insurance companies in the US has a big role to play, especially in context of the healthcare
sector and hence it is a potential region of opportunity to look into for Innovaccer.
Gap Assessment
The market for data analytics services provided through a private cloud is relatively in its early stages
and hence there is considerable scope for Innovaccer for market development for long term
sustainability. Since the challenge is to increase the business ten folds in a relatively short period of
time, we can look at various factors in order to enhance market share for Datashop. We can look at
product enhancement through additional features in order to make it more lucrative for potential
buyers. We can also look at an expansion strategy into other geographies which would increase
Datashop’s potential market size, thus helping in expanding its market. Being a SaaS, Innovaccer can
look at alternative subscription models for use of its products by healthcare institutions. Innovaccer
can also look at its current marketing communication strategy and make strategic decisions about
typing up with or acquiring other stakeholders in order to increase its business significantly.
Recommendations
Innovaccer can look into providing additional features in its products in order to make its product
more lucrative. Since it is already in the business of acquiring and storing large volumes of data,
developing a second opinion service to provide to its customers would be a great business value
proposition. The healthcare sector is increasingly moving to a stage, where the trend for acquiring a
second opinion before final diagnosis becomes important. This is especially pronounced for hospitals
and healthcare portals dealing in complex sectors like oncology where an early correct diagnosis can
potentially save lives. It is in this context that the second opinion service, integrated into Innovaccer’s
already existing cloud based design comes in. Since Innovaccer already has access to years and years
of diagnosis data from various fronts, it can swiftly use its analytics services to arrive at opinion-
based-on-symptoms service with a considerably high level of accuracy. This would make the product
lucrative for large hospitals and healthcare portals who could project it as a unique offering in order to
attract more patients in its immediate vicinity. Having acquired those hospitals would also have a
recursive effect of getting more diagnostic related data in order to perfect the product.
Innovaccer has a unique advantage in the fact that its product is cloud based and hence is a geography
agnostic offering. This gives it the scope to quickly expand across geographies, thus fostering growth.
The fact that requirements are to be customized for each of the customers, actually would work in the
benefit of the company, since it can take up more diverse challenges and integrate with more diverse
networks because of its experience in the domain. While the US caters for a large section of $8.7
trillion healthcare industry, there are other developed economies in other geographies as well where
healthcare spending is growing at a steady rate like Western Europe (growing at 4%) and other parts
of North America (growing at 4.2%). Geographical diversification would be a quick and efficient way
of ensuring high growth since the basic requirement from the product across all geographies remain
the same.
Using a Software as a Service platform would also allow Innovaccer in designing a revenue model
different from the traditional IT and software services. Cloud services would help it to move to a pay-
per-user model which may be more acceptable and flexible for the healthcare institutions which
would use its services. It would also create a point of differentiation for the product and help
Datashop create a niche for itself in a sector, where retention rates are generally high due to the nature
of the offering.
For ensuring growth in the geography that Innovaccer is currently operating in, ie, the United States,
the company can look at various organic and inorganic measures both in the long and short term.
Innovaccer can potentially look at its channels of marketing communication for enhancing visibility
of its product. In technical products like Datashop, getting the message across about what problems it
would potentially solve for its consumers become very important. Hence, the compa. ny needs to
specially focus on its marketing communication strategy. Positioning the product as a one-stop
solution for the hospitals with quantitative data about efficiency enhancements in its current
deployment locations across US will play a big role in assuring potential consumers about the
competitive advantage that the product will provide.
Since Datashop is a B2B product where the management board of hospitals involving doctors take the
final decision about technology infrastructure development, making sure that top doctors from various
institutes get exposed to the functionalities and benefits of the product would be a top priority for
Innovaccer. Hence it can sponsor top medical conferences across the country, taking up some airtime
in return in order to present its case to the doctors and medical representatives from top medical
institutions across the country. Since Innovaccer is trying to introduce a new product to its target
market, they can also take the route of influencer marketing as a part of its digital reachout campaign.
In sectors like healthcare, influencers can play a big role in initiating trial of a new product and hence
the company can leverage that as a means of an opportunity to showcase the importance of its product
and hence sealing the final deal.
Innovaccer can also look at tie-ups and partnerships with stakeholders in the healthcare sector in order
to expand its market share. Nearly all of the top medical institutions would use some form of
customer management system and have a high capacity network bandwidth as a backbone to support
its schemes. Demonstrating an ability to successfully integrate to the institution’s existing IT
infrastructure without using up a lot of it’s resources would highly benefit in marketing of its
products. They can also look at typing up with various medical associations and healthcare body
associations who enjoy considerable patronage and have a large section of people involved in decision
making for our target group.
Innovaccer can also look into inorganic modes of growth like acquisitions. Expanding through
strategic acquisitions can play a big role in achieving a high growth target in a short period of time.
However, for this to happen Innovaccer would need financial resources, not only for acquiring, but
various other tasks like operational and legal due diligence. Identifying potential companies with
complementing expertise and assets would be a challenge of its own, but can pay rich dividends in
terms of market reach out.