The role of customer relationship management (CRM) is no longer confined to tracking calls or logging sample requests. Today’s platforms now integrate more aspects of the customer experience and serve as the connective tissue across commercial functions, integrating marketing automation, sales enablement, medical affairs, field service, and data analytics tools.
The evolution of intelligent customer engagement
CRM platforms have evolved in part because of the changing nature of life sciences business. CRMs used to focus on tracking call activity, order forms, and samples fulfillment and housing it all in a single platform. Today, emphasis has shifted away from logging interactions to focus on equipping sales and service teams with information so they can be as prepared as possible before they approach providers. The platforms can guide sales reps on the best time to make contact and send personal emails to physicians and procurement teams.
CRM systems now integrate more aspects of the customer experience by helping to orchestrate omnichannel engagement, capturing real-time insights from every touchpoint, and supporting personalized, compliant interactions across the customer journey. The platforms are now central to how modern pharma and life sciences organizations, including medtech firms, operate and grow.
As CRM systems have evolved, they have grown more interconnected than ever before. Currently, many vendors and services connect directly to a company’s CRM. These include software for data analytics, document management, product ordering, and more. When starting out, many small-to-medium pharma and life sciences businesses began with a pragmatic focus on immediate growth, prioritizing sales enablement over long-term infrastructure. Later integrations were added piecemeal around the CRM system, rather than built on a unified data foundation.
Now is the time to evaluate whether the interconnectedness and integration of the platform should continue as is, or whether to explore other alternatives, such as moving to a centralized data warehouse and building integrations to the CRM system to avoid being beholden to any one company or technology. In addition to considering workflows, companies should evaluate data architecture and whether their current strategy will work moving forward.
Build a foundation for innovation
Due in part to the integration of AI-driven customer insights, the pharma and biotech CRM market is projected to grow by 18.1% per year between now and 2029, according to data from the Business Research Company. Companies that delay CRM modernization risk being left behind.
As they embark on assessment and planning, now is the time for every company to evaluate its end-to-end workflows and develop its use cases for emerging technologies such as AI. Some use cases will be helpful for all medtech companies. But each company will have their own, individual use cases that are unique to their business.
If a company rushes headlong into using AI without a cohesive strategy, it risks repeating the mistakes many companies made when rushing out to implement a CRM solution. Without a solid foundation, even the most advanced tools risk underperformance and disengagement from the teams that might benefit from them.
Approach the decision thoughtfully
The CRM selection process must go beyond features and cost to align with the company’s long-term strategy, support data-driven decision-making, and adapt as business needs evolve. To ensure CRM decision-making is grounded in operational reality, companies should inventory their current ecosystem; assess their current strategy; benchmark CRM providers based on scalability, interoperability, and fit; and make a forward-looking decision that will support future growth.
In parallel, companies should factor in the broader operational realities that will influence their timeline and approach, such as resource planning, timing and alignment with business initiatives, and change management such as user training.
Above all, companies should treat their CRM selection as more than a software upgrade. This is a foundational decision—one that will shape how businesses capture insights, engage customers, and deliver value for the decade ahead.
Leveraging a managed service provider—one that has deep domain expertise in both Veeva and Salesforce who can evaluate how your existing ecosystem is built today—can help companies better understand how moving CRM platforms will impact the future of their business. Industry reports indicate that more than two-thirds of top-performing businesses rely on a managed service provider to bolster their strategic advantage.
At Conexus Solutions, Inc., we guide life sciences organizations through this pivotal decision with a structured, use-case-driven approach that ensures alignment between technology and business goals. Our process helps clients look beyond features and cost to ensure the CRM platform supports their long-term vision, data strategy, and commercial ambitions.
From call tracker to powerful tool
As CRM has evolved, the two largest CRM providers, Veeva and Salesforce, recently ended their long-running partnership. This means that 85–90% of the life sciences market are evaluating their CRM future, and because migrating to a new CRM platform can take some organizations 2–3 years, businesses must begin their assessment and planning now to prepare for their move.
The window for assessment and planning is closing quickly. Whichever way small-to-medium medtech companies decide to go, this transition will be more than a simple lift and shift from one CRM to the next, even for companies staying with the same provider.
Success depends on more than just choosing the right CRM platform; it requires aligning that platform with optimized business processes, a clear data strategy, and long-term commercial goals. When all of these elements work together, the CRM platform becomes a powerful tool to support growth, innovation, and sustained value.
Editor’ Note: Akshay Kapadia is the founder and chief executive officer of Conexus Solutions, Inc., a managed service technology provider focused on the life sciences. He brings 30 years of industry experience and founded Conexus to deliver nimble, high-quality, cost-effective outsourcing for the commercial operations of small to mid-size life sciences companies.
