After delivering our first project targeting Veeva’s iRep platform, here are some initial thoughts on creating content for these two widely used apps.
In many ways comparing Next Interact with Veeva iRep is not a fair comparison. Next Interact is a platform dedicated to managing and displaying digital content. Veeva’s origins are as a cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. In this area, Veeva is a market leader in the industry and it’s Closed Loop Marketing (CLM) capability is an add-on. In other words, Next Interact is a dedicated CLM, whereas Veeva iRep does both. Clearly the additional capability of a CRM gives the Veeva platform many advantages, but this review will focus on content development in the CLM area only.
Media compatibility
The following table is an overview only:
| Next Interact | Veeva iRep |
| HTML 5 | Yes | Yes |
| Video | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes |
| Interactive PDF | Yes | No |
Next Interact has a slight advantage here in that it supports Interactive PDF’s, which are often a cheaper alternative to HTML development were complex interactivity and animations are not required. We do not see this as a major issue as we expect Veeva to simplify content creation in the future.
Metrics
One of Veeva’s key selling points is the ability to gather metrics. Whilst some sales reps may see this as yet another intrusion, quantitative data on what messages are viewed most for example, has enormous potential to improve and tailor future messages. As content creators, we are excited to see where this will take us.
Development Costs
Veeva’s ability to collect metrics can affect development workflow. There are two ways for developers to prepare presentations for metrics collection. In single html sites, content creators can use Veeva’s Javascript library to write data to Veeva’s Call Clickstream object. The other option is to separate a site into individual html pages (or slides) and upload them separately together with full-screen and thumbnail images of each slide. The advantage of this approach is that the Veeva iRep UI uses these thumbnail images as navigation elements. The disadvantage is that it increases development time significantly. As part of a broader Commercial Cloud solution, Veeva streamlines the end to end content review, approval, and distribution process. New Veeva capabilities planned for this year are expected to dramatically simplify content development and administration and become a competitive advantage for the Veeva platform.
For now, developing HTML content for Next Interact is more streamlined and with an Interactive PDF capability, makes the Next Interact platform a more cost effective platform from the perspective of content creation.
Interactive Surveys
Another interesting feature is Veeva’s support for interactive surveys including the ability to embed surveys into sales presentations. This will enable marketers to control the flow of a presentation i.e. a physician’s response to a question can guide the presentation to appropriate messages. This opens up a number questions for pharma. Firstly, what are the legal and privacy issues around surveys? Secondly, what view will Regulatory Affairs have on this capability and thirdly – is it appropriate within the context of our customer relationships? In other words “Just because we CAN (technological capability), does not mean we CAN (legally), and just because we CAN does not mean we SHOULD (relationship management)”. In addition, Medicines Australia will likely have a view on this issue, so it is perhaps a case of ‘watch this space!’
Our views on surveys are influenced by our work in highly specialised markets. We do not envisage a strong need for surveys in markets where the prescribing group is small and the relationships between clinicians and industry is strong. Quant data in larger speciality areas and primary care however, can be incredibly valuable eg. market segmentation.
Conclusion
We are big fans of Next Interact – purely on the grounds of ease of use. Purpose built as a CLM, its support of interactive PDFs is very attractive and content development is relatively simple. Veeva’s dominance as a CRM however, plus its ability to gather metrics and embed surveys, clearly positions Veeva as the market leader. Whilst content development is more involved and costly, this is largely the result of Veeva’s additional feature set and not likely to be of major concern to big pharma. We would anticipate that for Next Interact to survive will require either a merger with (or sale to) an existing global CRM player, significant investment in a CRM platform or expansion into non-healthcare markets.
To discuss your next Veeva or Next Interactive project, contact Justin at Leo Creative.
Note: Leo Creative is not a Veeva Agency Partner