A Clinical-Stage Biopharma’s Proactive Move to Connect Teams and Serve KOLs
Collaboration and shared responsibility to the customer are closely held values at one clinical-stage biopharma. So, when its clinical and medical teams crossed wires and unknowingly contacted the same key opinion leaders (KOLs), the CIO recommended adopting a CRM.
It was a forward-thinking choice for an early-stage biopharma: Most don’t implement a customer engagement solution until the completion of Phase 3 trials. However, the CIO looked at the separate spreadsheets in use and recognized the need for an application like Veeva Vault CRM. He decided not to wait to give teams clarity and transparency.
Moving fast and trying new things go hand-in-hand
“The first objective for us all the time is how can we do it fast, but well,” explains the CIO. But, like many clinical-stage biopharmas, the company’s staff and budgets are lean. The medical and clinical teams worked as quickly as possible to find and track KOLs and potential HCPs for trials using the technology at hand. However, they noticed duplicate entries and conflicting information once they began running multiple trials.
The CIO recalls, “We found the spreadsheets were out of sync, with the same physician appearing in multiple places, leading to inconsistencies. The teams came to me asking, ‘Can we improve this? We need a better system.’”
While the company could have added a temporary solution to get teams through to the next phase, the CIO embraced the company’s value of teamwork. He understood that early implementation of Vault CRM could foster trust among thought leaders, improve team collaboration, and provide faster insights. “Leveraging best practices and an accelerated implementation — those are the advantages we get with Veeva, and that’s why we chose Vault CRM.”
Set up for growth and long-term success
By proactively implementing a customer engagement solution pre-launch, the CIO helped teams overcome their immediate challenges and prepared them to establish long-term relationships with KOLs. “Centralizing our data is one of the ways we can encourage groups to cooperate to engage customers better,” he says.
In the process, he and his teams laid the foundation for unifying all functions on one life-sciences-specific platform. Today and long into the future, teams ranging from sales, marketing, medical, and services will see ‘one customer’ and present as one company because they’ll share data within Vault CRM. The CIO adds that the technology has also better positioned the company to compete against mature life sciences companies that have made significant investments in data and software.
The company’s path, from R&D to commercial investment
Start early and smartly invest in technology
Because the CIO is hands-on in everything from IT support to informatics and information security, he sought a technology partner to offer reliable support and help streamline operations. He says the implementation process was quick due to Veeva’s scalable technology, which doesn’t require customization.
The company is taking a ‘crawl, walk, run’ approach to its technology buildout. The CIO explains, “Vault CRM is the first step in preparing for commercialization. We plan to add Veeva’s content management solutions through Veeva Vault PromoMats and Veeva Vault MedComms to support sales and medical field teams.”
He advises other clinical-stage companies to consider long-term data and technology needs to avoid wasting time and money on short-term fixes. “We didn’t want to invest in a system that would be outdated after commercialization,” he adds.
The company quickly built a technology infrastructure that fosters teamwork and transparency. Eventually, they’ll use the same CRM for post-launch performance tracking. The CIO’s takeaway: “It’s crucial to think about how teams can and should work together to serve customers well from the beginning.”
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