It would be something of an understatement to describe 2020 as being an ‘eventful’ year in pharma. However, the year that started with a mysterious virus and ended with a vaccination roll out and hope of ending the COVID-19 pandemic also saw some startling changes in technology adoption and a surge of interest in one of the industries major players, Veeva.
One element of their product ecosystem – Veeva Engage – saw a 3000% increase in search interest in just two months.
Remote engagement becoming a reality
The knock-on effects of COVID-19 have been felt across every industry and called on businesses to question the necessity of face to face interactions. In the pharma space with the attention of healthcare professionals (HCPs) very much drawn to combating the spread of the virus and treating the sick, meetings with medical sales reps slipped down the priority list, while the notion of inviting them into the healthcare facility for a meeting evaporated!
From this, the desire for more considered, focused, higher quality video meetings became an absolute necessity. Subsequently, ‘remote engagement’ became the new buzzword.
As far as Google is concerned, remote engagement simply wasn’t a term people were using at the turn of the year. However, by April 2020 searches were up by 2850% from just 30 recorded global searches in February 2020.
The challenge of maintaining the same or better ratios of good sell outcomes became very real for medical sales reps, with pharma brand teams and agencies hunting down best practice guides for adapting their technology and presentation styles. Detail aids needed adapting for remote presentations and reps were led to consider how to keep their audience interested and engaged. Behind it all, was the catapult to prominence of Veeva Engage.
Lift off for Veeva Engage
While Zoom took off among the general public, Veeva Engage became the go-to platform for pharma video conferencing. Google searches for Engage rocketed up by 2967% either side of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe and the US.
At twentyeightb, we were asked (and found on Google for) all manner of questions on Veeva Engage. Varying from the basic ‘what is it?’ to the more complex ‘how do I adapt CLM content for Engage?’.
As the initial scramble to adapt died down, interest in Engage and how it has become a gateway for better implementation of the wider Veeva ecosystem hasn’t faded. With pharma companies having to fast track their adoption of Veeva, the opportunity to enhance their digital content from flat to functional, while capturing and analysing valuable performance insights has only increased. We’ll be seeing plenty of Veeva Engage in 2021, that’s for sure.
Digital meetings generate data
With an increase in CLM content built to make use of Veeva’s analytics and provide actionable analysis, interest in Veeva MyInsights grew over the course of 2020 and is set to increase further in 2021. At twentyeightb, we saw a real spike in people finding our website for MyInsights related terms in both May and September, while over the course of 2020 there was a steady increase in Google search queries, with October 2020 being up 90% on the start of the year.
Enhanced detail aids result in enhanced data collection, which means 2021 could be a big year for Veeva MyInsights. You can get your head around the Veeva MyInsights basics in our article.
Last but not least, Veeva
2020 was a huge year for industry big hitters, Veeva. A vast suite of tools spanning data management & security, content management, CRM and crucially, compliance – Veeva’s stranglehold on digitisation in the life sciences industry has grown further still.
While the company stock price has soared, general interest in the business and its product ecosystem has steadily risen too. In the year where the phrases remote engagement and business continuity became commonplace, Veeva was the bedrock of the pharma industry.
Our relationship with Veeva as a Multichannel Partner continued to grow in 2020 and we’re looking forward to collaborating on further projects in the year ahead. If you’re getting started with Veeva, looking for development support across the solution suite or keen to press on in enhancing the performance and richness of data achievable through the platform, then get in touch with our expert team.