SC

Strategy Canon

Veeva: sourced choices

32 product and go-to-market choices, oldest first. Back to the case study

  1. 2007Product · Origin Gassner, after a career in general-purpose software at IBM, PeopleSoft and Salesforce, decided in 2007 to build industry-specific software in the cloud, starting with pharmaceutical CRM. VE6
  2. 2007Product · Founder background Wallach had been general manager of Siebel Systems' pharmaceuticals and biotechnology division from 1998 to 2003 before co-founding Veeva. VE1
  3. 2007Product · Platform Veeva built its CRM on Force.com, the Salesforce platform Gassner had helped build. VE14
  4. 2007Go_To_Market · Price Gassner set prices for a premium product, arguing that the price sets the expectation of quality. VE6
  5. 2007Go_To_Market · Services rule From the company's first months professional services were never given away, even if a deal failed as a result. VE6
  6. 2007Go_To_Market · Capital Veeva raised $7 million and used about $3 million, holding capital fixed against investor pressure to spend more. VE6
  7. 2007-07Product · Launch Veeva's first product, cloud CRM for life sciences and pharmaceutical companies, debuted in July 2007. VE8
  8. 2008-06Go_To_Market · Venture round Emergence Capital invested $4 million in June 2008; Gordon Ritter joined the board. VE14
  9. 2008-06Go_To_Market · Unused capital Emergence says Veeva never used the money it raised from the firm. VE17
  10. 2009-04Product · Industry features VBioPharma offered physician and account profiling, samples management and analytics, with versions for the iPhone, tablets and handhelds. VE7
  11. 2010Product · Second product line In 2010 the management team decided to become a multi-product company and started content management. VE6
  12. 2010Product · Vault platform For content management Veeva evaluated open-source tools such as Alfresco and building on Salesforce, found neither fit, and built its own platform. VE16
  13. 2010-10Go_To_Market · Top pharma More than 50 biopharmaceutical companies used Veeva CRM and three of the five largest pharmaceutical companies had selected it. VE11
  14. 2010-10Go_To_Market · Novartis Novartis selected Veeva CRM for global deployments. VE19
  15. 2010-12Go_To_Market · International Veeva opened its first overseas office, in Barcelona, in December 2010. VE8
  16. 2011Product · Mobile Veeva introduced iRep, an offline iPad application, in 2011; by 2013 over 75 percent of CRM customers used it. VE1
  17. 2011Product · Vault Vault launched in 2011 with an application for promotional materials; in September 2012 it added applications for submissions, clinical trials and quality documents. VE1
  18. 2012-08Go_To_Market · Customer success Gassner described customer success as the company's number one value. VE8
  19. 2013Product · Validation Veeva validated each version of its solutions against 21 CFR Part 11 and EU Annex 11 through a third-party firm, so customers could skip installation and operational qualification. VE1
  20. 2013Product · Network Veeva Network, a customer master for physician and organization records announced in 2013, used updates from one customer to improve the data available to all. VE1
  21. 2013Go_To_Market · Hiring The prospectus made customer success a growth strategy, including recruiting and developing employees focused on it. VE1
  22. 2013Go_To_Market · Services and retention Professional services were 43 percent of revenue in the year to January 2013; subscription revenue retention was 192, 159 and 187 percent in fiscal 2011 to 2013. VE1
  23. 2013Go_To_Market · Salesforce terms Veeva could sell Salesforce-based sales automation only to drug makers; Salesforce would not build or back competing pharma sales-automation applications; Veeva owed minimum payments; the agreement ran to September 2015. VE1
  24. 2014-03Go_To_Market · Extension The Salesforce agreement was extended to September 1, 2025, with $500 million in minimum orders from March 1, 2014. VE12
  25. 2015-05Product · OpenData OpenData reference data came with a standard third-party agreement that let customers share the data with anyone holding it, in contrast to closed data vendors. VE9
  26. 2016-03Product · Own platforms Vault and Network ran on Veeva's own proprietary platforms, while CRM ran on Salesforce. VE12
  27. 2016-03Product · Integrated suite Wallach described best-of-breed applications in an integrated suite that saved customers integration costs. VE13
  28. 2017Go_To_Market · Sales coverage Gassner hired slightly fewer salespeople than demand allowed, giving up revenue to keep reps from pressing large customers. VE6
  29. 2022-12Go_To_Market · Leaving Salesforce Veeva announced it would move CRM from Salesforce's platform to Vault CRM. VE20
  30. 2023-08Product · Vault CRM Vault CRM, built on the Vault Platform, won its first customer, with availability set for April 2024. VE3
  31. 2025-09Go_To_Market · Rival entry Salesforce launched Life Sciences Cloud for Customer Engagement with Pfizer and Fidia as early adopters. VE4
  32. 2026-01Product · CRM migration By the end of fiscal 2026 more than 125 customers were live on Vault CRM and 10 top 20 biopharmas had committed to it. VE5