SaaS Featured Article

Verticals onDemand, a CRM products-for-pharma vendor, today launched a new category of on-demand applications, “Mobility-as-a-Service,” described by company officials as providing offline access to the VBioPharma CRM system.

 

Life sciences companies “can deploy mobile applications that do not require additional maintenance costs or effort to support and enhance,” company officials say.

 

The new VMobile application runs on any Microsoft Windows XP or Vista-based laptop or Tablet PC. Like other multitenant SaaS (News - Alert) applications, all VMobile users run the same version of the underlying software code, enabling back-office upgrades. VMobile also automatically reads the VBioPharma metadata, allowing customers to configure the application only once for deployment both online and offline.

 

Similar to user synchronization sessions with traditional mobile applications, VMobile sends new data to the server and downloads relevant data updates for the user.

 

“But, unlike other mobile products,” company officials say, “any new versions of the application, software updates, and metadata are also included in this same synchronization session without any IT staff involvement.”

 

The new MaaS application is an extension of VBioPharma, Verticals onDemand’s SaaS CRM application launched in 2007.

 

Last month, company officials say, fifteen life sciences companies have signed with Verticals onDemand. Verticals onDemand’s latest customer, United Kingdom-based ProStrakan Group, selected VBioPharma shortly after establishing their U.S. division earlier this year.

 

Verticals onDemand’s client roster also includes biotechnology companies.

 

ProStrakan has been recruiting both specialty and managed markets sales representatives to commercialize ProStrakan’s products in the United States. The sales force will promote the company’s new oncology supportive care product, currently under FDA review. Verticals onDemand’s professional services team is now implementing VBioPharma to the managed markets account team at ProStrakan.

 

“I already knew the pluses and minuses of most of the major pharma CRM vendors from previous experience,” said Paul Bidawid, vice president of the Managed Markets & Supply Chain at ProStrakan. “SaaS is definitely where we’re heading.”

 

One industry analyst, Datamonitor, predicted just such a major industry shift in a Pharma CRM report published last year, titled “Decision Matrix: Selecting a CRM Vendor in the Pharmaceutical Industry.”