Delivering Multichannel CRM – Notes from Veeva Commercial Summit 2014

Multichannel CRM enables life sciences companies to understand customers better, meet their needs with content and messages tailored to their interests, and communicate through their preferred channels. At Veeva Commercial Summit 2014, channel enablement was one of the key subject areas. Customers and experts shared their best practices on multichannel implementation and channel effectiveness.

As one of the industry’s greatest business imperatives, increasing multichannel effectiveness was an overarching theme of the event—but there were a few standout highlights and takeaways.

In the customer session “Delivering Value with Veeva Commercial Cloud,” we learned about how companies can leverage multiple Veeva Commercial Cloud applications in concert to design their commercial systems and processes. It was a great example of how Veeva Commercial Cloud allows companies to enhance and unify their data, content, and customer interactions. With Veeva Network, the customer gained control over customer data while raising its quality, and Veeva CRM Approved Email, combined with compliant content from Veeva Vault, helped the organization improve outreach and the delivery of promotional materials.

Another session, “Multichannel Content Management: Multiple Channels, Single Repository,” focused on how life sciences companies can meet the need to efficiently create, distribute, and withdraw promotional and medical materials across channels, with an end-to-end solution. Some of the key points included:

• Leveraging Veeva Vault as a multichannel content repository for Veeva CRM allows for efficient content management and distribution processes across channels.
• As Veeva CRM and Veeva Vault are a part of Commercial Cloud, all content updates, versions, expirations, and usage are automatically reflected in CRM.
• Veeva Commercial Cloud simplifies content creation and multichannel publishing.

With life sciences customers demanding more digital access to information, online engagement with customers becomes essential. A session was devoted to discussing how life sciences can address customers’ desire to access personalized information anytime using the device of their choice. During “HCP Interactions Anytime, Anywhere with Veeva CRM Engage,” attendees learned about delivering seamless customer experiences and increasing channel effectiveness in a multichannel world.

Along with multichannel, mobile, big data, cloud, and social are major trends changing today’s business environment. In another very interesting session, “Transforming to Digital Pharma with Veeva CRM and the Salesforce1 Platform,” Todd Pierce from salesforce.com discussed the changes pharma companies are making to adapt to this reality. He detailed customers’ use of Veeva CRM and the Salesforce1 platform to accelerate time-to-market, increase collaboration, and connect businesses to customers in new ways.

“Delivering Customer Value Through the Use of Veeva CRM Approved Email” was another well-attended session where an industry leader took us through their customer journey, describing how the organization is extending engagement with Approved Email and tailoring it to customer needs. They shared a base plan for successfully implementing the solution, with five key steps:

• Building internal awareness
• Starting with a small pilot
• Limiting the initial content
• Putting governance in place, making sure to establish and follow best practices
• Measuring and publishing the key performance indicators

During the course of Commercial Summit 2014, we were excited to see the industry come together to discuss overcoming the challenges around coordinating a multichannel customer experience. It was an honor to hear your ideas and learn about your experiences firsthand. Let’s continue the dialogue, until we gather again in 2015!

Jerome Mead is director of multichannel strategy at Veeva