Less than 9 months after implementing a new CRM application, Accera Pharmaceuticals began searching for a replacement. The commercial-stage biotechnology company, which launched Axona™ (a prescription-only medical food for the clinical dietary management of the metabolic processes associated with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease) around the same time as it implemented its current system, had quickly outgrown the generic CRM tool. Accera required a flexible, industry-specific solution that could handle its unique needs and rapid growth pace. It turned to Veeva CRM™ from Veeva Systems – the leader in SaaS solutions for the global life sciences industry.
Accera executives wanted their new system to be built on the multi-tenant SaaS model. “As a venture-backed company, we are cost-conscious so we wanted a SaaS solution that didn’t require the purchase of expensive system infrastructure or countless hours spent on managing it,” said Ian Elverson, manager of information technology at Accera. “SaaS-based and pharma-specific, Veeva CRM had everything we were looking for.”
Accera selected Veeva’s VBioPharma Primary Care Edition CRM, VMobile, and VInsights Analytics – all part of the Veeva CRM suite of multi-tenant SaaS applications. The company’s entire team of field sales representatives and sales operations team will go live with Veeva CRM by January 2010.
Ed Bach, Accera’s Director of Sales Operations, said, “Our previous product had serious scalability issues. We can’t be trapped by a solution that hampers our ability to grow in size or scope. Veeva’s SaaS solution makes it easy to scale up and change without disrupting existing functionality.”
The company expects the new system to dramatically improve its field team’s efficiency as well as increase the scope of data that sales operations can collect. “Our vice president of commercial development immediately began dreaming up new reports when he saw all of the information we can mine from this system,” continued Elverson.
“We started out with a vanilla CRM system that we needed to modify heavily to meet our specific needs. We were reinventing the wheel and we were not thrilled with the result, especially knowing that there was already a technology provider out there that knew this space,” added Bach. “Compared to alternatives, Veeva CRM has more robust reporting capabilities, a more intuitive interface, and many more pharma-specific capabilities. It’s the CRM solution for the life sciences industry.”
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