We’re often plagued by the idea that somehow – perhaps in a different city, company or even civilisation – we could be reaching new, higher, dizzier heights. Especially when you see rival colleagues using the latest mobile, tablet devices or driving off into the sunset in that brand new hatchback – yes, the one with the heated seats you saw on Top Gear last month – and giving you an obscene salute as they do so.

But is there any definitive way of knowing if you’d be better off somewhere else? Of course, there are those generic online tools that give you the average salary of every Londoner under the age of 90. But they are probably not the best benchmarking tools to use when plucking up the courage to ask your boss for a pay rise, during one of those awkward appraisals. Although, there is another way.

The Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey – which is now in its 12th year – provides a comprehensive temperature check on the essential elements of everyday working life for those toiling away in the medical sales sector. It gives those working within the pharmaceutical industry in the UK the opportunity to have their say on what matters the most to them.

The Survey has now been completed by more than 14,000 medical sales professionals since it was first launched in 2001. It accurately portrays the views of the industry on important motivation and satisfaction factors such as remuneration, bonuses, work-life balance, job security and company culture. Pharmaceutical bosses can also see how long their staff actually spend on CRM systems whilst in the field and also discover whether employees have had their head turned by that eye-catching aqua blue sports car and are ready to jump ship.

Yet it’s not just pharmaceutical companies who bene t from the results. The Survey is a friend to all. Much like a Swiss army knife, it has various tools and attributes to help those who access it. It’s a pen knife one minute slashing dated contracts of employment then a bottle opener the next popping open the bubbly to celebrate an improved Employer of Choice ranking place.

The Employer of Choice

Another facet to the Survey is the coveted Employer of Choice rankings. Respondents are asked to choose the company they’d most like to work for within the industry – bar their own of course! ­The company chosen the most wins the Employer of Choice gong. Simple.

In recent years it’s been a two horse race for the EoC accolade. Boehringer Ingelheim and Roche have got toe-to-toe for the top spot since 2007. But it’s been Boehringer which has come out on top for the last six years as the company which is deemed to be the most desirable to work for within the industry. Nick Doe, Sales Director, BI, says the credit must be placed at the company’s skilled workforce for keeping the company in the prized top spot for so long. “It is a real credit to everyone in our field force, our managers and all at Boehringer Ingelheim who are dedicated to putting the patient at the centre of the everything we do.”

The Employee

One experienced key account manager – who wished to remained anonymous, from a medium-sized pharmaceutical company – used the salary comparison tool to negotiate an improved deal after finding out she was being paid less than her industry counterparts. “I was quite surprised actually when I first read in Pf that I was being paid less than other people doing my job in the industry. In fact, I always considered myself to be well paid for the job that I do. For that reason I’d never really explored what other KAMs with the same level of experience were on – especially as I’d been with my company for a few years. I just assumed we’d all be on around the same figure. However, when I read one of the articles on salary in Pf and realised I could be getting more money elsewhere I couldn’t just ignore that fact.

“I went to speak with my superior to discuss a pay rise and showed him the comparison with other key account managers with my level of experience and how much more money they were receiving compared to me. Discussing money is always a tricky subject but the facts and figures were there in black and white to support my case. Thankfully the matter was addressed pretty swiftly. I’m so glad I took part in the survey and read the survey articles. Without the Pf Survey results I’d still be underpaid and none the wiser.”

Anonymous Key Account Manager from a medium-sized pharmaceutical company: you’re welcome.

The Employer

€The results from the Survey may have seen certain pharma companies having to dig a little deeper into their pockets to ensure valued staffŠ members are kept happy and motivated. But the data resulting from the survey results is valued in other ways. It’s not only field-based employees who keep a keen eye on the main motivating factors which matter to respondents. Pharma companies use these to entice hot talent away from competitors and keep their own main players happy.

When employees at Astellas raised concerns around a recent change to the car policy one year, the survey witnessed the biggest ever shift in one parameter when it acted upon the suggestions of staŠff and improved its company car scheme. Astellas wasn’t the only pharma company to listen to its staffŠ after the survey results were published.

Lundbeck UK calls upon its staffŠ to voice opinions on important decisions – a move which has seen them outscore industry rivals in a number of parameters. “€The scores that we have had for the latest survey results are significantly higher than that of our industry colleagues,” Helen Carberry, Lundbeck UK Head of Human Resources and Development said.

“We consistently outperform in the industry averages. Ratings for ‘belief in products’ is really strong and that is our highest satisfactory score. Also, for ‘company culture’ we are almost double the score across the industry in that parameter,” Helen added.

Yet these top-of-the-table rankings have not come about by chance, as explained by Helen. “We do have a real focus on people here at Lundbeck UK,” she said. “It’s something which is important to us because that is ultimately how we achieve our results. We have high levels of loyalty and commitment within the organisation, and our own internal satisfaction survey highlights that.

“In terms of our strategy, there are three pillars which support everything that we do. One of those pillars is being great place to work. We set out this year, very much like the 12 months prior to that, that our focus is on delivering excellent results, delivering value to customers, whilst also being a great place to work. As part of that, developing people and living our culture are the two main foundations which support that strategic pillar of being a great place to work. People are really, really important to us.”

This was re™flected as Lundbeck UK was awarded the Best Companies One Star Accreditation in 2012. € The company now aims to build on the success of its survey results as it adapts to the changing market place in the UK. “We are a lean organisation, which means we are very, very ™ exible. We have developed a structure that can be either built on as and when new products come through or simply added to over time. Lundbeck UK can only go from strength to strength.”

€The 2013 Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey can now be completed at www.pharmasurvey.co.uk. It is managed by Dr B Payne of Conker Statistics (a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society) and provides a benchmark of field force remuneration, motivation, satisfaction, perception and recruitment. Confidentiality is of paramount importance and your anonymity is therefore guaranteed. It takes only minutes to have your say at pharmasurvey.co.uk.

How do you view CRM: as a chore, as a way of saving effort, or as a valuable window on your customers’ world? Leading CRM vendors tell Pf where the pharmaceutical industry sometimes gets it wrong – and how a combination of new business thinking and new technology can turn customer data into powerful insight.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is more than an electronic system for data handling. It’s a well-established business strategy for collecting and utilising the most relevant information about the market. As such, it is a function of the whole company that lends itself well to an integrated commercial strategy. A glance at the industry’s news shows that customer and sales data affect every aspect of a pharmaceutical company. Moreover, how a company uses those data to develop its products and communicate their value to customers can have a significant impact on customer relationships.

But is CRM in danger of going stale? Has it become something that only sales people use, and even then not whole-heartedly? Is a perceived lack of progress with CRM due to problems with the technology, the people using it, or companies’ approach to it?

The answer, according to the specialist CRM suppliers Pf spoke with, is all three. But as they also told us, these drivers of fail need to change. A new ‘golden age’ of CRM is on the way.

Dead-end data
According to David Round, General Manager at Cegedim UK, the most common problem of CRM use in the pharma industry is poor awareness of its potential: “If you have a particular group of users who don’t feel the system works for them, and therefore don’t put in the richness of information that they could, that has a bigger impact on the CRM project as a whole.” Unless the company is using CRM to its best advantage, field sales professionals may lack confidence in it as a tool. 

In addition, Round argues, not every CRM system is fit for purpose: “Where technology can be a hindrance is where the way that it works is relatively fixed or determined in some dark room somewhere, and it doesn’t match the day to day process of the people who are using it. The technology, if it’s not designed correctly with the end users in mind, can actually contribute to a lack of return or a reduced return on investment for the CRM solution.”

Adam Nicholson, Commercial Director at Conigi, identifies four sources of CRM blues: CRM only seen as a sales team tool, thinking limited by previous CRM experiences, fear of the system’s complexity and (conversely) fear/perception that it cannot deal with new commercial realities. All of these, he says, are consequences of narrow thinking: “The reality is that if you pick the right vendor and the right solution, you have enough headroom for development to build what you need now and as your business changes.”
Not seeing the wood for the trees, the insights for the data, is another source of CRM frustration. Dan Goldsmith, General Manager at Veeva Europe, argues that the most successful pharma companies are able to derive “rich and insightful information” from CRM by moving “beyond the operational or transactional information” to a deeper analysis of customer behaviours – with the CRM supplier “not just supporting their business processes but helping them innovate the way they engage and architect the customer experience”. 

Nick Plank, Director, C&C Group, says that CRM systems, like pharma’s operational model, have evolved to meet the needs of a changing NHS in the past decade – and will evolve further as technology continues to advance. “Ten years ago, the environment was very much focused on the rep and in particular on the traditional one-to-one face-to-face style of territory organised sales forces. Fast forward to the present and CRM looks very different, with KAM structured teams engaging with customers on an account basis as opposed to a geographical brick structure, plus a variety of new stakeholders in CRM from medical development advisors to medical science liaison. A fully-integrated CRM accessible to multiple stakeholders is now essential if business functions throughout the enterprise are to have holistic visibility of the account and contribute data from their specific areas such as information gathered during digital engagement.”

Keep taking the tablets
All relevant stakeholders are agreed on the revolutionary importance of the iPad and similar tablet computers for CRM in the context of field sales. These devices take CRM out of the office and onto the road more effectively than ever before. They also have the power to support closed-loop marketing and related strategies, giving CRM a more dynamic role in the customer relationship and in the pharma company.

David Round comments: “I think that CRM is about to enter a pretty golden age, because the birth of the tablet computer and the iPad in particular means that the rep can use the system much more effectively on the go. Reps are more inclined to enter information just after the call than wait until they get home, and what the iPad does is give them the ability to record this information with much more richness and much quicker after the interaction. Obviously, mobile access to the internet is still limited in many medical locations, and for this reason, the CRM must be able to provide most of its functionality in an office mode. As many reps would point out – what’s the point of having a mobile CRM that only really works online?”

In addition, the iPad gives the field-based sales rep rapid access to market information at a time when the UK drug market is going through dramatic change. The ability to keep track of the changing customer base and to structure new relationships with new types of customer is essential, and new technology is vital for this. As Adam Nicholson observes: “Gone are the days when you had a linear customer relationship in place and a linear CRM system to manage that. With the changes in the NHS, you’re going to have to have dynamic processes in place and a dynamic solution to manage it as you move forward.”

The iPad is arguably the first technology to make mobile CRM an effective reality. Dan Goldsmith argues that “it really hasn’t been until the introduction of the iPad that we’ve seen both widespread adoption and significant results delivered to pharma”. There are three reasons for that, he says: the mainstream adoption of mobile technology, the industry’s new appetite for “advances in digital and interactive presentations with customers”, and the reliability and simplicity of the iPad itself – “the ideal device at the ideal time”.    

A recent IMS report highlighted the growing importance of embedded business intelligence within the fully-integrated CRM. “This is where hosted European sales data warehouses are particularly useful, because they reduce costs by providing a single integration for analytical CRM across Europe,” says Nick Plank. “A managed hosted European approach to analytical CRM means employees across Europe can access market intelligence online when and where they need it without installing software. It also aligns well with the current move from on-premise systems to Cloud CRM because analytical data can be passed directly to the operational vendor using site-to-site integration – giving reps access to information immediately, wherever they are, via their mobile CRM tools or mobile business intelligence apps.”

Building dynamic relationships
What makes for an effective CRM system? The answer depends on how the sales professional and the company use the system. CRM is not about customer data: it’s about customer relationships.
David Round emphasises the need for “human-centred design”: it’s essential for the CRM user to be able to see the data in context and react appropriately. He uses the analogy of a sat nav system: it’s a superb tool to get you through unknown territory, but you also have to keep your eyes on the road. So the best systems support customer relationships instead of providing an electronic surrogate for them.

Round also warns against being too well-informed. If a rep greets a new customer they have never met before with the words Hi, I’m Jo. How are your children Sally and Billy? the relationship will get off to a bad start. What the rep really needs is the relevant background information to understand the customer’s role and make proactive suggestions from the start.

As Adam Nicholson observes, the CRM system has to deliver insights at both the quick overview and the deeper insight level: “We are rich with data within the industry; the old challenge has always been how you turn that data into information. Successful solutions should allow an individual to look at their data at a top level when they need it, but give them the ability to drill down into the customer data or the sales data to gain more in-depth analysis when needed.” 

The best CRM solutions are able to serve the needs of the most ambitious sales professionals and companies. Dan Goldsmith comments that cutting-edge CRM systems are enabling “interactive presentations, delivering better segmentation and targeting down to a more individual level, as well as collecting more psychographic or behavioural information”. The ultimate (and realisable) goal is a “behavioural profile” of each customer that feeds back into the sales message and interaction.

The bigger picture
The closed-loop marketing model implied by this approach cannot begin and end with sales. Adam Nicholson speaks for all forward-thinking CRM vendors when he says: “If you really want to make CRM work, it’s about engaging all the functions, be that marketing, medical, regulatory or finance, because if you implement the theory of CRM it actually impacts and improves business processes across all the functions.”

If you started reading this article with the mental image of a lonely sales rep (that’s you, that is) wrestling with interminable on-screen figures on a laptop in a hotel room, or on a tiny mobile phone screen in a rail station café, maybe it’s time for you and your company to consider upgrading your hardware, software and probably footwear. New CRM systems are able to support an integrated strategy of commercial interaction at every level of your company, and mobile devices exist to make the most sophisticated CRM systems easily applicable wherever you are.

With the right CRM system, the right mobile platform and the right attitude, you can: research each customer’s needs and behaviours; gain up-to-date information on the rapidly changing customer base; be fully primed with the right clinical information and tailored marketing messages; read and record key information without eyestrain or signal problems; and fit the technology to your individual needs and your company’s business goals. It’s up to you.

UK pharma companies are not doing enough to help medical sales professionals succeed in the modern environment, new qualitative research has shown.

The study, designed to understand the real world challenges of field-based executives, indicates that the working practices of UK pharma sales executives have changed dramatically in the past three years.

The combination of a maturing KAM model, the emergence of joint working and an increasing reliance on iPad technology, is driving a radical shift in the NHS/pharma relationship – and is forcing medical representatives to develop new skills to thrive in the new environment.

But many sales professionals claim that they have been given inadequate support to help them prosper in an evolving marketplace, and that some employers remain reliant upon traditional training methodologies to see them through, despite rhetoric to the contrary.

The findings are the result of the first phase of an ongoing research exercise by Pharmaceutical Field, and follow a series of one-to-one interviews and roundtable discussions with existing sales professionals in the first two months of 2012. “Early indications, from what will be a sustained research programme throughout 2012, are that, across the board, the role of the medical sales professional has evolved considerably,” says Chris Ross, Editor of Pharmaceutical Field. “In 2008, when we conducted a similar exercise, whilst the term Key Account Management was beginning to gain traction, the concept of joint working with the NHS barely merited a mention. But it would seem that both aspects are now playing a central role in the day-to-day work of the medical representative. The problem is, too many argue that the training they are given to manage relationships with their local health economies – and indeed the metrics upon which they are judged – mirrors that of the traditional drugs rep. And when it comes to joint working, the majority of respondents are describing confusion on both sides of the NHS/pharma equation. The industry clearly has work to do in this regard.”

The 2010 launch of the iPad, along with the subsequent introduction of similar mobile devices, has revolutionised customer communications for many industries – and it would appear that pharma is also beginning to enjoy the benefits of digital technologies, albeit slowly. It is estimated that around 25% of UK medical sales professionals are now using iPad or equivalent to detail their products to customers – and this is very much in line with Pf’s research. A fifth of those canvassed have been issued with mobile devices and are using them with customers. Feedback suggests that HCPs find multimedia presentations more engaging and memorable. One regional account manager, from a medium-sized UK pharma company, said: “Gaining time with customers remains one of our biggest challenges, and it’s not unusual to be given just a few minutes in a corridor or a hospital canteen. Making the most of that time is imperative. We’re finding that detailing our products via the iPad has a much greater impact than printed leave-pieces, and the customer experience is significantly improved.”

Despite this, representatives from some of the smaller pharmaceutical companies that have taken part in the study still appear to be using traditional detail aids – and believe that it will take some time before the use of tablet devices in the field reaches a critical mass.

The Pf study also indicated an increasing number of medical sales professionals are choosing to work on contract, rather than on headcount at mainstream pharmaceutical companies – with job security cited as one of the key factors.

Tracking and responding to NHS change in a highly competitive Olympic year will be a test of endurance for medical sales professionals. In a light-hearted article, David Round examines why winning a place amongst the medals will depend upon getting your preparation right.

It’s a well-worn cliché that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But as the UK pharmaceutical industry heads into an Olympic year when the pace of change amongst its NHS customer-base will undoubtedly increase, medical sales professionals will need to demonstrate more than a little knowledge to achieve a podium position for their products. The Health and Social Care Bill may still be some way from the finishing line, but as the health service continues its transition towards the seemingly inevitable, changes on the ground are already taking place. And the implications for pharma are huge. The industry cannot afford to sit and wait – it needs to act now to ensure its sales and marketing communications are reaching the right customers, with the right message at the right time. For pharmaceutical sales executives, it’s about developing more than knowledge: it’s a question of intelligence. And the answers may be right at their fingertips.

It has been widely documented that the NHS is working its way through a period of unprecedented change – both in its working practices and, of course, in its organisational structure. As a result, pharmaceutical companies – often criticised for being ‘data rich but information poor’ – will, more than ever before, need to maximise their data assets to deliver a more customer-centric approach to selling. And sales professionals will need to draw on all the information at their disposal to develop and deliver relevant and robust value propositions that satisfy customer need.

The noise-driven, share of voice model of pharmaceutical sales and marketing has become like Monty Python’s parrot: it has ceased to be. Today’s approach, which relies on a reduction in call volumes, is less linear, more selective and much more sophisticated. Key Account Management is leading the industry pack. But whilst the approach is, in theory, more measured, making it work requires quality customer data as a platform to identify ‘key accounts’ and, crucially, the ability to translate that data into meaningful market intelligence. Companies are becoming much smarter in segmenting their key customers – but faced with moving targets across a changing NHS, maintaining the accuracy, and in the process the efficiency, of the approach is not easy. It is, however, imperative.

The race to reform
The transition towards the new environment is already well under way. Last year in England 152 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) were reorganised into 51 PCT Clusters of variable size, while the ten Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) were restructured to form four large regional clusters. By April 2013, PCTs and SHAs will be extinct and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and the National Commissioning Board will spearhead the commissioning of NHS services under a new-look structure. If you throw into the mix the onset of Clinical Senates, Health and Wellbeing Boards and new Commissioning Support units (which may well emerge as private organisations and therefore new customers), it is easy to see that an already complex customer matrix is set to become even more complicated. And that’s simply the start line.

Critics of the reforms claim that the situation on the ground is fast approaching chaos within the NHS, as the wider organisation struggles to implement changes even before the Health and Social Care Bill has achieved Royal Assent. But in the interim period while the health service readies itself for the inevitable, UK pharmaceutical companies cannot afford to let their sales and marketing operations become similarly chaotic. Tracking and more importantly responding to change throughout the transition period will be vital for medical sales professionals if they are to support their customers through the metamorphosis and, in the process, meet their own commercial objectives.

Access to quality data that can not only enable Account Managers to make the right targeting decisions, but can also help them engage in the most appropriate customer dialogue, will be critical to success. It is not simply a case of knowing who to target – understanding why and how they should be approached is equally important. It is this understanding that separates knowledge from intelligence. And separates winners from also-rans.

Keeping on track
Sales professionals not only need to identify their ‘key accounts’, they also need to understand the varied environments in which these individuals operate. What challenges do they face? What are their key priorities? Do they carry out more than one role – or sit on a variety of boards and committees in addition to their main job? If so, how does this impact their spheres of influence? How pivotal are they in driving service redesign, influencing formulary decisions, or facilitating joint working within their local organisation? Where do their roles and their needs overlap with your product or service?

This is standard market access. And it’s vital. Pharmaceutical sales professionals need to define how they engage with the NHS and why their customers should want to engage with them. They need to establish how they are going to deliver value and improve outcomes for the health service and its patients. And to achieve this, they must understand their local health economy, its priorities and objectives, and identify the key stakeholders whom they can help support to meet those needs. What is the structure of the local organisation? What is its indicative budget and its strategic plan? Who is responsible for commissioning in your disease area? What areas are emerging Commissioning Support Units going to be supporting commissioning in – and what are they not? As PCT clusters evolve and CCGs take shape, which customers are most relevant today, and how relevant will they be tomorrow or indeed in two years’ time? Only by tracking customers in real time as they make their transitional journey towards the new NHS can sales professionals be sure that their interactions are aligned with that change, and be prepared to respond accordingly when required.

Technology in a team sport
The Key Account Manager in the modern market must, therefore, have the mental preparation of an Olympic athlete – but work on the basis that the race is never won. The NHS is a dynamic marketplace where change is continual. The Key Account teams that are best able to track, capture and share intelligence will be best placed to emerge victorious. The role of the Key Account Manager is, after all, an individual pursuit in a team sport.

The tools to support ‘informed’ Account Management are already here. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems that help capture and share vital customer intelligence have been in common currency across the UK drug sector for many years. But never before has their value to the medical sales professional been so important. Industry surveys suggest that CRM usage amongst front-line sales professionals could still be improved – and this is essential. CRM systems are only as good as the data that is put into them. But when collected and shared properly, that data is there to help medical sales professionals. In a fast-evolving customer environment that will almost certainly intensify as the NHS continues its inexorable march towards a new structure, key account management can only be enhanced by the knowledge and intelligence a good CRM system can help deliver.

In fact, the sheer volume of likely NHS change in the next 12 months could provide a catalyst for 2012 to become the year when CRM finally comes of age. And those sales professionals who recognise its potential to significantly support customer interactions – and make for a more intelligent and appropriate engagement – will undoubtedly reap the rewards.

But the time to act is now. In an Olympic year, the fast track is the only option. After all, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

David Round is UK General Manager, Cegedim Relationship Management.

Despite huge investments into CRM systems some pharma companies still struggle to get all of their staff to embrace and fully interact with them. Pf’s Iain Bate explores why, and what the future holds for technology in the industry.

There’s no doubt that technological developments have changed the way we live and work from year to year – maybe even from month to month in the 21st Century. But has the world of healthcare been travelling in the slow lane of the intergalactic highway?

The potential that technology offers to pharma, and the general world of healthcare, is enormous. But is the pharmaceutical industry, and its staff in particular, using it to maximise the returns of billion-dollar investments?

It would seem that technology is the ‘buzz word’ on the lips of a few of healthcare’s major players at present. The DH recently invited people to nominate their favourite health-related mobile phone ‘app’ – be it for keeping fit, to locate a hospital or chemist, or helping to manage an illness. Creative minds were also asked to design their own health app with a panel of DH judges deciding on their favourite from the most popular entries.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley says it’s the Government’s intention to give people better access to information using modern technology and the exercise is a “unique opportunity for the NHS and those who develop apps to not only showcase their work, but to bring to life new ideas and realise true innovation in healthcare”.

As part of the DH’s technology revolution, patients may also soon be offered online consultations with their GPs using programmes such as Skype. Clearly the Government is embracing the convenience technology offers to patients, but are other sectors in healthcare as interested? It would seem there is still some way to go.

 

In two minds

Pf ’s 2010/11 annual Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey suggests that not all respondents are completely convinced by the power of technology in the workplace. Although the Survey – which relates to 2010 and the early part of this year – found that nearly 90% of respondents have access to a CRM system, only 43% find time to use it in the field and more than a fifth of people fail to accurately record post-call reports with important clients.

Questions have to be asked as to why, despite multimillion pound investment and training by pharma companies, there remains a percentage of staff that still ignore the power and potential of the technology at their finger tips.

Results from the Survey reveal there’s no difference in uptake by key account managers, primary and secondary care representatives, those in primary care roles only, firstline sales managers and secondline sales managers and the use of CRM technology between differing age groups – although surprisingly 10% of respondents in these positions with less than two years of experience said they did not have a CRM system, compared to just 5% more experienced colleagues.

The launch of the iPad in March 2010 promised to revolutionise the way sales representatives, and those in similar roles, use CRM systems in the field. However, nearly three-quarters (70%) of respondents from the Survey are still presently sent out with laptops containing their customer-relationship systems.

When quizzed on what they’d change about the hardware which houses their system, the majority of respondents said that their CRM was too awkward to carry, with poor running systems an issue and that batteries ran out too quickly. Apple claims its second-generation iPad now enjoys ten hours of use away from a plug socket in the field.

Yet the switch to the latest convenient tablet devices may not necessarily be about high levels of investment, it may be down to maximising value for money as Paul Shawah, Vice President, Multi Channel Strategy, Veeva Systems explains. “I would say the life cycle of devices within the industry is generally about three years, sometimes a little bit longer,” he said. “When a company invests in new technology they typically depreciate that over that period, so they don’t want to replace it in the field for that time to maximise their investment.

“However, with the introduction of game changing technology like the iPad, this has changed. We see a number of our pharmaceutical customers are justifying the business case to move to the iPad even before their tablets are fully depreciated. This speaks to the business benefit that pharma expects to achieve from the iPad and the related applications only available on that device.”

A convenient shield

Despite technology eliminating mundane process in the workplace and offering the potential to assist employees and improve their efficiency at work, it has historically been used as a shield to mask poor performance and abused as a means to waste company time – a recent online survey by AOL found that nearly half of Americans (44.7%) rank surfing the web as their primary activity during the two hours they ‘waste’ each day at work.

But it would seem that a high number of respondents do value the opportunities CRM offers. Almost two-thirds (64%) said they always enter correctly the amount of customer sales they make into their CRM. But 21% admitted they fail to always report face-to-face meetings with clients. More surprisingly, over a fifth of participants said they do not always record the number of products they had sold to clients.

The lack of honest accuracy is surprising considering the amount of time spent using CRM systems each day. A third said they spend between one and two hours a day on their system with a fifth spending three hours or more on their CRM. During their time using the management system, more than half (55%) said that call reporting was the most useful feature.

Although respondents were less impressed with the KAM abilities of their software with only 19% believing it to be the most useful facility. When questioned about what they would change given the chance, 45% said they wanted an improved database, over a quarter (28%) called for their system to be overall more useful, and 18% said they would prefer their CRM to be easier to use.

 

The next level

But what of the future of CRM systems? Will they be easier to use and have improved customer databases? David Round, General Manager, UK, Cegedim Relationship Management, says the regular interaction we now have with technology means we’ve all come to expect the latest developments.

“End users are significantly more ‘technology-savvy’ than their counterparts of even five years ago,” he explained. “If anything, the challenge for companies is to ensure that they provide their end users with the types of technology that they use as consumers. It’s also important to focus on the usability of your software to ensure maximum use. Technology companies – and pharma – must work together to develop a better understanding of the interaction, to ensure it meets users’ needs in the field.”

One main reason that users have become more ‘savvy’ is down to the use and interaction with social media. Whether at home or at work, websites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and most recently Google+ have driven an increased use of various forms of technology – especially on devices such as smartphones or tablet devices which reps are calling for in the field.

Pharma companies, both in the US and UK, have flirted with the idea of fully embracing the power social media harnesses, but at present are restricted by the PMCPA’s Code of Practice and by the FDA – who has again delayed the publication of its guidance.

The FDA says it is “difficult to provide a timeframe... due to the extensive work and review process, or ‘Good Guidance Practices’, which ensures that FDA’s stakeholders are provided well vetted guidances articulating FDA’s current thinking on a topic”.

Although the FDA may be unsure on how to direct healthcare companies, David Round believes the introduction, both professionally and personally, of social media has had an impact on staff and their expectations.

“For the modern professional person, much of their everyday life is conducted online – for example on shopping, utilities, insurance or booking a holiday – and many users then want the same level of capability from the tools they use in their job,” he added.

Dan Goldsmith, General Manager, Veeva Europe, agrees there has been a significant shift in the way we operate and interact due to our experiences online through tagged posts or hash-tagged searches. But although the 800 million users on Facebook – more than half which ‘log-on’ every day – and 175 million people on Twitter have no problem saying hello to friends, pharma finds it more difficult reaching out to people.

“Social media create a new avenue for healthcare dialogue and will only continue to pervade our lives,” said Dan. “Consequently, I believe that pharma faces two challenges. The first is to decide how to participate in the online dialogue with stakeholders and then to create those interactions through the channels we’re all familiar with, such as Facebook and Twitter.

“The second is to figure out how to leverage the model of social dialogue internally to support stronger collaboration and more focused communication among employees. Already, we see some companies taking advantage of the latest social business tools to connect employees with one another and to access and share information in real time.”

Clearly CRM solution providers understand the potential modern technology and social media platforms offer to companies. Whether pharma and its workforce get fully up to speed on the intergalactic highway sooner or later remains to be seen.