Veeva aims to boost efficiency with cloud-based data alignment tool

01-Jun-2014 - Last updated on 02-Jun-2014 at 12:02 GMT

Veeva Systems says its new global alignment solution for pharmaceutical companies will bring together data interactions and content into its Commercial Cloud.

The firm made the announcement at a recent customer summit in Philadelphia, US saying the new product - Veeva Align - promises to replace the complex tangle of one-off applications and integration points so as to boost efficiency and speed and increase the accuracy of resource planning.

Reduced access and the rapidly shifting relationships of healthcare professionals with healthcare organisations mean there is a need for faster, more frequent alignments, the company says, and the greater use of alternative communications like email and social media further complicates decisions about allocating resources.

“We are putting all of the components required to do an alignment such as rep roster, product and customer master, business rules, territory optimization and field validation capabilities all together and all working inter-operably,” Paul Shawah, Vice President of Commercial Strategy for Veeva, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com.

“What we have done with our Commercial Cloud is bring together data, interactions and content, making those components work seamlessly with each other. We are doing exactly the same with Veeva Align,” Shawah explained. “Customers will not have to worry about all the different components. They can focus on the business process.”

Veeva Align will recognise that customers want to be communicated with not only face to face, but across other communication channels, like web, email and phone.

Veeva noted that life sciences organisations often struggle to efficiently answer questions about which customers they are targeting and what resources should be allocated to a particular territory. Align offers a solution for small and medium enterprises as well as large international companies, biotechs and pharmaceutical companies.

The service will be available in Q2 2015; for now, Veeva is to work closely with a handful of early adopters that will be the first to introduce Align in a live production environment.

“This will largely be an add-on for existing customers. So if you are a Veeva CRM customer, this is a very logical extension for you,” said Shawah. “But for companies that are not already using Veeva CRM, this is yet another reason to start to move their capabilities into the cloud, in order to get this level of flexibility and speed from a cloud-based system.”