Pharma
CRM
Let’s try to
understand the foundation behind the concept of Pharma CRM along
with recent initiatives. New regulatory and market trends are
driving pharmaceutical (Pharma) companies to think beyond
traditional CRM models. Such enterprise vendors as Siebel, Dendrite
and SAP -- as well as such smaller vendors as StayinFront and
Synavant -- are offering advanced Pharma CRM applications that
incorporate contact center operations and multichannel touch points
into a CRM strategy. "For Pharma, especially big Pharma, the
challenge has always been about sales force automation (SFA)," said
Roddy Martin, AMR Research service director. The sales rep has to be
effective in making appointments with the doctor, has to know the
appropriate information to share with the doctor, and be able to
manage and track the samples left with the doctor, Martin told
CRMDaily.com and hence the need for Pharma
CRM.
To say that
pharmaceutical companies traditionally have focused their CRM
endeavors on sales force automation (SFA) technology understates the
sophistication and in-depth processes they have used to reach their
customers -- specifically the doctors who prescribe their brand of
drugs and Pharma CRM provide the solution to this problem
effectively. "Essentially, Pharma CRM for pharmaceutical companies
started with SFA applications," Stephen Andrade, vice president and
general manager for Siebel Life Science, told CRMDaily. "But
companies are now realizing that they are interfacing with
physicians in many different ways." Not that the traditional way
to interact with physicians were ever easy without using Pharma
CRM.
The bar always
has been high for Pharma sales reps, according to AMR Research
senior analyst Kara Romanow and due to direct advertising by the
pharmaceutical companies to reach actual patients, some 60 percent
of consumers already ask for a particular brand of drug. And the
face time the sales reps have with physicians is extremely limited
-- maybe three minutes at a time. Moreover, regulatory issues are
also a concern, especially for reps that leave samples with doctors
-- and most do. And Pharma CRM is the solution to this requirement.
There are many Pharma CRM service providers are available in the
market depending upon the ease of use, cost and other mission
critical requirements such as enterprise vendors like Siebel,
Dendrite and SAP -- as well as such smaller vendors as StayinFront
and Synavant.
For example,
Sales Logix Pharma is a Pharma CRM application that provides
out-of-the-box functionality specifically designed for the
Pharmaceutical Industry. Users of this front-office application may
be field-based medical representatives, specialty/hospital
representatives, sales managers, marketing and product management as
well as the medical department. By the nature of their respective
roles, these users require access to the database across a range of
platforms and devices as well as having interfaces and functionality
that is relevant to their role. Not only does Sales Logix Pharma CRM
provide access through traditional client/server computing, via
Citrix Server based computing and the internet, using PCs, laptops
and handheld devices but it’s Architect allows each company to
configure and manage the application in line with each user’s
needs.
Sales Logix
Pharma CRM includes best of breed ETMS features and also reflects
the new challenges where future success requires that multiple
departments have access to customer information as well as having
the tools to leverage it. In addition, the internet has changed the
way information can be accessed and distributed, opening up
opportunities to develop new ways to interact and share information
with customers - from Patients to Physicians. Sales Logix Pharma CRM
provides an in-depth range of operational tools for territory
planning, managing clinical meetings, set-ting up and managing
contact profiles, managing medical requests and defects. Pharma CRM
also provides analytical tools to dissect and correlate data,
calculate performance and present it in both text and graphical
formats helpful to the user. Sales Logix Pharma CRM also provides
collaborative tools to manage all customer touch-points (all means
by which a customer might interact – phone, e-mail, fax, WebPages
etc).
