The Evolution of CRM in Life Sciences: Navigating the Split

Published April 8, 2025

A Massive Change in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

The split between Veeva and Salesforce marks a significant shift in the CRM landscape.

Veeva is removing its CRM from the Salesforce cloud in September 2025 to focus on its “Veeva Vault” cloud solution for CRM. Veeva has communicated that it will maintain the current CRM product until September 2030 but will not be making any updates—and that it will absorb the cost of migration to the new Vault platform for all customers, excluding any customizations and integrations. Most life sciences companies have an array of customizations and integrations and so migration will come with additional costs.

Salesforce is bringing new Life Sciences Cloud solutions to market, including a pharma-focused CRM. (IQVIA spun off their OCE CRM platform and IP to Salesforce in October 2023.) The Salesforce offerings will provide one platform across HQ and CRM (Salesforce has Tableau and SFMC), providing integration that will connect field and HQ teams, and leading heavily with AI.

Life sciences companies on the legacy Veeva CRM platform have to make a choice by September 2030. Some companies are taking a “wait and see” approach to gain more information and insight, while others are making decisions now, pivoting from planning to implementation and even communicating these changes externally.

Differing Approaches: Veeva and Salesforce

Life sciences companies should be evaluating their choices with an informed perspective on what future go-to-market capabilities they’ll need.  It is likely that the last time a company made their CRM decision it was in a different time and context.  Both Veeva and Salesforce offer compelling views of the future and the capabilities they are bringing to market with this next wave of CRM innovations.  However, there are some differences based on what they are communicating externally—and companies should carefully consider what they will need for successful commercialization in the future to make a strategically grounded decision.

• Veeva provides a rep-centered, account-focused approach with robust content enablement features. Recently, Veeva announced the introduction of limited AI rep coaches, set to be available in late 2025.
• Salesforce emphasizes AI-enabled integration between sales and marketing, facilitating unified customer journeys and experiences on a single platform.

This divergence in focus points to the need for organizations to evaluate their specific requirements and strategic goals when selecting a CRM system.

Enabling Cross-Functional Collaboration

While it seems simple, integrating sales and marketing promotion to deliver and reinforce messaging is still aspirational.

We often say it takes a village to optimize care. Organizations are looking at models where sales, reimbursement managers, patient services, market access and other teams may all collaborate to secure reimbursement and dispensing.

To create a structure that supports this collaboration, many traditionally separate capabilities are needed:

• Talent: Organizations must have people with relevant experience and expertise across various business functions.
• Team structure: Clearly defined roles and responsibilities are critical to allow multiple areas of specialization to collaborate. CRM must no longer cater to a single function.
• Process management: Strong project management ensures that the business needs of all teams are identified, prioritized and met efficiently.
• Technology: Advanced technology is required to quickly and accurately elicit insights from data and support prompt, agile decision-making.

Building an Omnichannel Ecosystem

This is the right time for organizations to revisit their approach to make sure that CRM is integrated into their overall strategy and is part of how they are actioning the 5C’s:

• Building deeper understanding and a unified view of Customers
• Integrating CRM as a Channel to drive more personalized and relevant Content in a coordinated Cadence
• Enabling a Culture that fosters effective cross functional collaboration

The Five C’s of Customer Engagement

Trinity Customer Engagement experts have been advising clients to accelerate efforts to solidify a unified customer view that spans commercial, medical and access functions. This approach is essential for both large companies with ongoing integration efforts and smaller companies entering commercialization with a limited product portfolio.

No matter where an organization is on its journey to true omnichannel, this is a unique opportunity to redefine their strategy for future success.

Author: Nancy Phelan

1 Trinity Know Your Score study. Medical and Commercial versions. Oct 2024 to Feb 2025.

This blog is part of the One Chapter Ahead blog series, a Customer Engagement-focused thought leadership initiative to bring an informed, inspired point of view. Our intent is to bring a fresh perspective, driven by data, benchmarks, insights and expertise.

Other blog posts in this series:

• What Does “Good” Look Like in Customer Engagement? 
• Get Ready to Orchestrate a Better Customer Experience
• Integrated Data + Hyper-local + Cross‑channel = Customer Engagement
• Foundational Differentiation: CE Requires Efficient Operationalization of Data
• Key Takeaways and Learnings from HLTH 2024 
• Is Medical Omnichannel Poised for Growth?
• Are Pharma Brands Really Transformational?
• Culture and Collaboration: Keys to Customer Engagement Success
• Medical Affairs Customer Engagement: What’s Next?

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