A next-generation mindset: Veeva Commercial Summit 2024
Imagine a time when all your teams collaborate seamlessly. That’s what this year’s Veeva Commercial Summit posited as it commenced.
Chris Moore, president of Veeva Europe, opened the conference – the 12th such Veeva Commercial Summit in Europe – kicking things off by turning the clock back to the close of the 2023 Summit, when there had been distinct requests from the closing keynote participants to shake up the status quo in Commercial operations. Now, Veeva is doing just that, building next-generation capabilities connecting software and data.
This year’s Commercial Summit, as ever, provided a chance to share insights from industry leaders as they spoke of strategies that better serve patients and healthcare professionals. After all, patient experience must be more than a scheduled six-month visit with repetition of the same message, or multiple sources saying the same things ever in a disconnected way. It is, then, highly important to connect Sales, Marketing, and Medical teams for joined interactions that matter to the HCP and, ultimately, to the patient. Concurrently, focus on core values is critical, also.
The next point of revolution in Commercial operations
Matt Farrell, executive VP of Commercial strategy, took to the stage next, providing the vision and progress of Commercial at Veeva. His own experience with the company goes back to the earliest days of Veeva CRM and he truly believes that we are now at the next point of revolution.
Access levels have changed, HCP engagement records have evolved, and focus on rare disease and specialty drugs has intensified. Such changes create an opportunity, and potentially a necessity, to rethink customer engagement, he said, honing in on shifting to greater customer centricity.
Veeva wholly supports this shift, fully committed to building the industry cloud. Farrell ran through the component parts – Software, Data, Business Consulting, i.e., Development, Commercial, and Data Cloud. And the impact in the Commercial environment today? Siloing must desist, and Veeva wants to assist the challenging process of connecting each with each; connecting the data currently held in disparate systems with different data and different processes.
So, one platform, one database: this is what can break down silos, said Farrell, as connecting software and data permits the connection of teams and processes. Why? For one view of the customer, with one integrated process. With the teams all operating in one database, a marketer can then easily pull in specific instances of HCP data and records, and provide the necessary personalisation and impact. There is veritable power in this.
Enabling such a possibility is Veeva Commercial Cloud, which includes the Vault Platform, consisting of Content (PromoMats); Medical (MedComms, MedInquiry); CRM Suite (Core CRM, Events, Align, Service Center, Campaign Manager – this last available from December 2024); Patient (Patient CRM); and Crossix (Consumer, HCP, Audiences) capabilities. Modular content is also cost-effective. Additionally, the Veeva Data Cloud, the modern data platform for life sciences, offers OpenData (Commercial, Clinical); Link (Key People, Key Accounts, Medical Insights, Workflow); and Compass (Patient, Prescriber, National).
Farrell spoke also of the Common Data Architecture for Life Sciences (CDA), organised into kernels and created together with an advisory council of biopharma leaders. CDA is being built into Veeva’s products, though it is optional, rather than required. However, as more adopt the CDA, it will become easier as an industry to share data and connect across systems. After all, if all the data used by all is standardised, how powerful would that be? asked Farrell.
From global to local: Partnering and an AI-filled future
Supporting the end-to-end needs of global life sciences, Farrell explained Veeva’s outlook when it comes to its offerings both worldwide and regionally. From Germany and Italy to Brazil, integration with local and regional technology is also important. Of course, markets like China, where WhatsApp is banned, are critical to understand and address as well.
Other Vault CRM innovations will include: new content supply chain, with real-time tracking and analysis of CRM content on the platform itself; medical engagement reimagined, seeking to provide a new CRM experience, with flexibility in documenting discussions; expanded key account management, with integration set to be deeper, leveraging insights for a next-level experience; and the full possibilities of WhatsApp as a compliant channel now.
But it is the partnership with Microsoft that holds veritable excitement. Embedded in the Microsoft 365 Suite and innovations in AI, there are three main components: application bots for key processes where automation is not enough; Direct Data API for high-speed data delivery and accuracy; as well as the AI Partner Program, designing applications that fit seamlessly into applications, with the flexibility to change as the technology evolves also. There is no locking into one particular AI model here.
Arno Sosna, GM of CRM Products at Veeva, took to the stage to explore AI integration into Commercial processes more fully. With these new capabilities, companies can deploy AI that will have immediate value by boosting field productivity. Delivering AI within its products is part of Veeva’s overall strategy to help enable AI for the life sciences industry. Veeva also provides the Veeva AI Partner Program that enables customers and partners to more easily build AI applications that integrate seamlessly with Vault applications.
In Content, there is the MLR Bot, a Veeva-hosted large language model (LLM) soon to be available in Veeva Vault PromoMat. Designed, built, and operated by Veeva, this is an AI that takes an asset, a document, and does all checks necessary at speed for pre-check purposes. Keeping the human in the loop, the final approver is the human, but when it comes to thinking of traditional review times, that is to be cut drastically. Available from late 2025, the MLR Bot is an add-on and will carry its own license.
Scalable and able to directly embed a customer's choice of LLM into Vault CRM is another AI update: the Veeva CRM Bot, also available from late 2025. The CRM Bot takes a different approach - with the clear need for continued flexibility, it permits customers bringing their own model with them, but Veeva provides the infrastructure: the interface, the logic layer, as well as the data layer. Working ‘out of the box’ with Microsoft AI, the CRM Bot is to be a feature within Vault CRM, rather than an add-on requiring an extra license.
A third announcement revealed another example of AI in CRM: Voice Control, an Apple Intelligence capability on devices, focused on voice use cases. Again available from late 2025, Voice Control was developed in partnership with Apple. Permitting hands-free operation of CRM, voice can also be used as an input mechanism. This too is to become a core feature set in Vault CRM, with no add-on license cost, but compatible devices are required, of course.
A case study fireside chat: GSK, BioNTech, and Boehringer Ingelheim
Just last week, Boehringer Ingelheim fully committed to Veeva Vault CRM.
Why are these customers moving? It is, said Farrell, because it is a trusted platform for speed and efficacy; one that focuses on customer centricity, product excellence, and trusted partnerships.
In a fireside chat with Chris Moore, innovators who took the Veeva plunge discussed their reasons for doing so.
Kieron Scrutton, senior VP of global medical affairs in digital and technology at GSK, discussed the background progression to onboarding with Veeva over the past year. Investment in clear processes and investment discipline had paid off, but he admitted that integration technology under-investment had made things more difficult. Full integration with Veeva envisaged to be wrapped up by Q3 in 2025, GSK anticipates being fully on Veeva Vault CRM wall-to-wall. On this point, Moore commented that it was about innovation, rather than a direct solving problem for GSK. Scrutton agreed: they didn’t see a second ready-to-go life sciences CRM. “There isn’t one out there,” he said.
Raimond Jahn, global head of digital and IT at BioNTech, addressed consolidation in R&D and Commercial with Veeva, highlighting how it met with the company’s three guiding principles: business enablement and excellence; process first; and safeguarding simplicity wherever possible. Jahn noted that one of the reasons for choosing Veeva right from the start was its industry expertise and insight. He “knows what good looks like,” and the CRM deployment for Medical was a “lightspeed development”. A lesson learned, he said, would be to focus on execution, and not restrict to end of product: 80% is sufficient to begin with and “yesterday’s 100% is not tomorrow’s 100%,” after all.
Uday Kumar Bose, head of global customer experience in excellence and business steering at Boehringer Ingelheim, discussed why the company is expanding its relationship with Veeva now: what they wanted to avoid at all costs was disruption. Rather, and importantly, the focus is on patients and on getting medicines to them, and this move to Veeva shouldn’t detract from that. Boehringer Ingelheim has been on the journey with Veeva for 13 years or so and avoiding disruption was a key driver behind the decision.
Moving towards true customer centricity
So, what’s it all about?
In the ‘Vault CRM Suite Keynote: Next-Generation Commercial Platform’, it was explained how Vault CRM Suite innovations unify Sales, Marketing, Medical, and Service teams on a single life sciences-specific platform for personalised HCP journeys, streamlined operations, and better patient outcomes.
Philipp Luik, Veeva’s VP of Commercial strategy Europe, shared Veeva’s vision on customer centricity. Omnichannel, personalisation, customer 360, Commercial excellence, customer experience – everyone attending the Summit is working on it. But why is it so difficult to achieve? he asked. Because you need to have one picture of the customer that all the different functions can agree on.
Every function, however, is working with their own view of the customer. Sales, Marketing, Service, Market Access, and Medical – they each have their own customer picture. Every function is therefore working with a blurred picture, and this results in a disconnected HCP experience. Veeva’s vision, though, is different: they want everyone working with the same, clear picture of the customer. Hence, Vault CRM Suite, providing a ‘Single Vault Architecture’.
Arno Sosna, Veeva’s GM of CRM Products, once more took to the stage. There are themes, north stars towards which they work, he said, and those are customer centricity, simplification, enable AI, and full functionality. The CRM Suite consists of Core CRM, Approved Email, Engage, Events management, Align, Service Center, and Campaign Manager. Veeva is further adding new applications to round out the suite, however.
When it comes to content, they are investing in the supply chain; when it comes to channels, digital engagement is intrinsic. From Email to Engage, those fundamentals are joined by Kakao Talk, Zoom, Teams, Fax, SMS, WhatsApp, Viber, and Line – broadening and unbundling the capabilities. The deep integration with Microsoft 365 will permit collaboration in management of cases, opportunities, and accounts.
Meanwhile, My Insights is a no-code platform for personalised experience within Vault CRM, including CRM, Nitro, Link, Compass, 3rd Party Data, and AI. Operating cross-platform, Veeva is rebranding this offering to X-Pages – ‘X’ standing for extensible, cross-platform, and – ever importantly – inexpensive.
A customer insight: Astellas
Johan Brus, global CRM activation lead at Astellas, spoke with pharmaphorum about the evolving role of the field force and how Astellas is identifying and embracing the trend of two-way communication between reps and HCPs.
When it comes to an ‘evolution’ in the field, Brus cautioned that such a process of evolving is yet ongoing. But now it’s about HCP centricity, as opposed to siloed teams and KPIs.
“We are still very much in the process of evolving,” said Brus. “For us, we see quite a clear need of making sure that we think more centrically about our HCPs, instead of thinking about whether or not we are Medical, Commercial, Market Access, or our KPIs, but think more about what would actually benefit our HCP. In the end, our way of interacting with that HCP is in the hope to support better patient outcomes. That's crucial.”
“We are trying to not present new technologies and new channels and new ways of working as KPI-driven,” he continued. “We would rather have them see it, wanting to use it, and see the benefits themselves.”
The end goal is still to break the siloes that teams work in, and work together and across the different sections. This is becoming permissible with channels and Key Account Management initiatives, as well as centralising the customer journey.
“I know that that's very optimistic, futuristic, and we're a long way from being there, but at least that's one of the things that we think we should be working on,” said Brus. “We're doing that with channels now, but we're doing that as well with key account management [KAM] initiatives. At the same time, we're also trying to do customer journey type activities where you plan more your ‘happy path’.”
Astellas itself is identifying and embracing the trend for two-way communication between reps and HCPs by doing away with the top-down approach. Rather, they are driven by responding to local needs and developing out globally from there: the local driver is the seed of need. Citing the example of their recent work in Italy, Brus alluded to how such an approach permits eventual scalability. And that scalability is, of course, critical.
“We first started thinking about Engage Connect, actually, here at the Summit last year,” admitted Brus. “We had a couple of our bigger affiliates, like Spain and France and Italy being here, joining these sessions, and we already got some exciting [feedback]. Then, following that, we had Italy reaching out to us, and based on what we wanted to achieve with their use cases in hand, we developed a global way of incorporating this new technology, but in such a way that what we can do now in Italy, we can already scale and implement everywhere else.”
And as regards Compliant Chat, a mere six weeks ago Astellas went live with this function for its field reps.
“The uptake, or at least the registration, is very promising,” said Brus. “Based on the QR code, we've got somewhere between 40% and 50% of the people actually registering, so that's good. We have also 24% registering without even an engagement direct with a rep, so remotely, which is also quite astonishing. If you look at the content users, you see that the actual open rates of content is far higher than we have with approved email or the email-type channels. We actually hear reps and HCPs being happy about the channel.”
It is about rapid response, at the end of the day; this kind of communication naturally permits an accelerated process. The potential come from bi-relational interactions permitted by utilising Engage Connect is very clear indeed.
“For Europe, we think there is a lot more appetite for Engage Connect because you don't need phone numbers, you do not have the Meta rules, and you can truly establish a bidirectional relationship.”
