Veeva CRM Moving Beyond Salesforce: What Lies Ahead?

Is the future of cloud-based customer management about to change with Veeva Systems’ departure from Salesforce?

Veeva System, a renowned industry cloud for life sciences is stepping toward a pivotal change in its technological foundation. The platform was launched in 2007 on top of Salesforce’s app development platform, but now it has decided to move from Salesforce to its bespoke technology.

This strategic move will lead Veeva to achieve self-resilience in cloud-based data management, however, left Veeva customers with a lot of concerns.

From rising costs, the need for data migration, and adapting the new system to how this transition will impact their day-to-day operations.

This is going to be a detailed blog covering all the information related to Veeva and Salesforce setting their path apart.

So, let’s get started with the detailed information about Veeva.

What is Veeva?

Veeva System provides cloud-based software solutions for the life sciences industry. The company has a suite of solutions for pharma and biotech companies to manage their clinical operations, regulatory compliances, safety, and quality management, The suite of applications includes Veeva CRM, a customer relationship management solution built on the Salesforce SaaS platform.

Veeva CRM leverages Salesforce’s robust and scalable cloud infrastructure to serve its global customers of all sizes.

Veeva and Salesforce: The Partnership

Veeva and Salesforce’s partnership led to the birth of a comprehensive and tailored CRM solution for life science organizations called Veeva CRM. This partnership brought a lot of benefits to Veeva including;

Reduced IT Complexities

Leveraging the Salesforce platform enabled Veeva to develop CRM solutions without the need to develop and maintain its cloud infrastructure. This partnership accelerated Veeva’s ability to product launch, so they can evolve in response to the growing need of pharmaceutical companies.

Improved Security Standards

Salesforce’s robust security standards helped Veeva to protect its customer’s data and privacy across its suite of applications. From advanced encryption, and user authentication protocols, to compliance with regulatory standards, Salesforce helped Veeva meet the security needs of its customers.

Scalability and Reliability

Salesforce’s scalable architecture enables Veeva to scale its CRM Solutions per the growing life sciences industry demands. Veeva product suite maintained optimal performance supporting the larger user population.

Robust Functionality

Veeva was leveraging the standard functionalities including reporting, configuration, and maintenance. Furthermore, Veeva was also using the Salesforce data model and application logic. Veeva CRM can be integrated with Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud to offer better functionality.

Salesforce’s Preferred Worldwide Partner

Veeva CRM has been Salesforce’s preferred solution for the life science industry for the past decade. Together, they have brought new industry-specific solutions.

Veeva CRM’s Move From Salesforce: Top Reasons and its New Bespoke Technology

Veeva CRM’s shift from its technology partner Salesforce is driven by several factors such as;

• The first was to reduce the Veeva CRM’s dependence on a single vendor. In the quarterly filings, the company said that they experienced downtime in the past due to Salesforce and AWS outages.
• Veeva is paying Salesforce a per-seat license fee which was taking 15% of its revenue. By shifting to its technology infrastructure Veeva aims to save this cost.
• Veeva Systems also wants to gain control over its technology stack and data.
• The company wants to expand its offering beyond CRM. Building its backend infrastructure, the company wants to develop more products and services for the life sciences industry.
• The company also said that this move will help them to improve the user experience.

Veeva CRM New Technology: Veeva Vault Platform

Veeva is moving its CRM to the homegrown technology hosted on the Veeva Vault platform.

Veeva Vault is a true cloud enterprise content management platform with a suite of applications purpose-built for the life-science industry. Similar to Salesforce, it operates on multi-tenant cloud infrastructure, enabling multiple customers to share the same computing resource while maintaining their data and configurations specific to their needs.

It is built using Java and open-source technologies along with web services from Amazon. The platform is hosted at SOC 1 Type II and ISO 2700-certified global data centers.

Veeva Vault platform has a suite of applications catering to different organizational needs like content management, data management, and more. All these applications are built on a common platform ensuring easy integration between them.

Furthermore, the Vault platform also supports REST-based APIs, facilitating the integration with third-party platforms.

Veeva vs Salesforce: What the Future Holds

Veeva announced its transition from Salesforce to its homegrown platform by 2025. This will reduce the operating cost of Veeva CRM. Veeva will be able to manage content and data on a single platform.

With the Salesforce and Veeva partnership ending, Veeva might introduce new solutions for healthcare-related sectors such as medical devices or pharmaceuticals. The company also set a revenue goal of $3 billion by 2025.

After the end of their partnership, Veeva won’t be able to use Salesforce functionalities. They have to work on building these functionalities from scratch. Veeva also has to work on scalability to meet the growing needs of the enterprises.

On the other hand, Salesforce is now free from its non-compete obligations and planning to develop purpose-built solutions for the life sciences industry. Salesforce has hired the former Veeva executive
As SVP and General Manager of Life Science, Salesforce has hired Frank Defesche, who was previously at Veeva. Salesforce leveraging his expertise to compete in the Veeve market.

Salesforce is planning to build its product for the life sciences industry, which will not be part of Salesforce industries. Leveraging the capabilities of Health Cloud, Media Cloud, and Energy & Utilities Cloud to build solutions for the pharmaceutical industry called Life Sciences Cloud.

This cloud is expected to be available from June 2024 and will benefit companies including biotech, pharma, consumer health, and MedTech.

Final Take

The long-standing partnership of Salesforce and Veeva will no longer be effective after 2025. This partnership was the cornerstone of the purpose-built solutions for the life sciences industry. This transition presents both challenges and opportunities for businesses dealing in pharmaceutical businesses.