Growing a $300K Account to $1.2M Through Strategic Expansion

The Challenge

A regional healthcare network had purchased our MFA solution for their IT department — 500 users at $300K. The initial deployment was successful, but the account was stagnant. The original champion saw the purchase as complete and had no plans to expand. Meanwhile, 4,500 other employees across clinical, administrative, and research departments remained on legacy password-only authentication.

The Approach

I conducted a quarterly business review that expanded beyond the IT department's metrics. I presented data showing that 78% of the healthcare network's credential-based security incidents originated from non-IT departments — the very departments not yet on our platform. I also highlighted that HIPAA compliance required consistent authentication across all systems accessing protected health information, not just IT systems.

With the CISO's support, I scheduled discovery meetings with the heads of clinical IT, research computing, and the administrative shared services center. Each department had unique requirements: clinical needed tap-and-go badge authentication for shared workstations, research needed smart card integration for grant compliance, and admin needed mobile-friendly MFA for remote workers.

The Result

Over 18 months the account grew from $300K to $1.2M through three expansion phases: clinical ($400K), administrative ($250K), and research ($250K). Each expansion was funded by a different department budget, which meant I was not competing with other priorities for a single pool of money. The account is now in discussions for a $200K professional services engagement to optimize their deployment.

Key Takeaway

Land-and-expand works best when you map every department's unique needs rather than trying to sell the same solution to everyone. Understanding that clinical, research, and administrative departments have different authentication requirements allows you to create three separate value propositions from a single platform.