Blog
Analysis of Next-generation Customer Experience Platforms
Robert Massimilian, Associate Director, IQVIA Technologies
Jan 18, 2024

IQVIA has been named a Leader in the Everest Group Life Sciences Next-Generation Customer Engagement Platforms PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2023.

Check out this blog post to see why, out of the 23 leading life sciences customer engagement platform providers, IQVIA’s Orchestrated Customer Engagement (OCE) suite was identified as a member of the “Leader” category due to its comprehensive customer engagement channel optimization functionalities.

In recent years, business strategies have shifted to prioritize the personalization of the Customer Experience (CX). The challenge of increasing functionality across Customer Relationship Management (CRM), content management systems and marketing tools is a top concern across enterprises, particularly in the life sciences industry. To address these concerns, organizations are enhancing CRM platforms to enable omnichannel engagement and real-time customer analytics. Organizations are seeking out vendors that provide these customer-centric solutions to improve business performance and deliver a competitive edge.

In 2023, the Everest Group analyst firm examined 23 platform providers from leading life sciences customer engagement platforms (CEPs). The resulting report relied upon interactions with CEP providers, client reference checks and an ongoing analysis of the life sciences CEP market. The Everest Group identified specific requisites and qualifications to sort the 23 platform providers into three categories: “Leaders,” “Major Contenders” and “Aspirants.”

  • Leaders: Identified by having “a strong vision to enhance traditional CRM capabilities with more experience-focused functionalities throughout the customer life cycle, leveraging their strong vertical and technical capabilities.” This group provided robust CEP platform implementation assistance including change management and on-demand-customization support. This category of contenders balanced coverage across the commercial engagement layer, which includes content management, channel optimization and training, as well as the cognitive and functional layer, which includes recommendations, low code workflows, automated reporting and sales, marketing, medical affairs and patient services, respectively. Another critical aspect of this category was an extensive partnership network and global portfolio, which remain open to innovative commercial models across midsized to large target clients.
  • Major Contenders: Identified as organizations that exemplified high clientele satisfaction and confidence in modules but may have lacked a few modules across the commercial engagement layer, the cognitive layer and the functional layer. These organizations continue to make investments in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) and challenge the “Leaders” with this investment. This category caters to small and large enterprises across geographic markets, providing flexibility in pricing and engagement models.
  • Aspirants: Identified as organizations that maintained a high focus on selective areas of CEP, which may include customer engagement modules, target clients or geographies. However, this group was identified as needing to enhance brand recall and increase their presence among larger life science accounts in order to complement their domain experience.

IQVIA’s Orchestrated Customer Engagement (OCE) suite was identified as a member of the “Leader” category due to its comprehensive customer engagement channel optimization functionalities. Strengths identified in IQVIA’s OCE suite include the ability to cater to each commercial stakeholder’s needs, such as sales, marketing, medical affairs, patient services and market access. OCE also provides role-specific functionalities and CX-based functionalities, which include multilingual application support journey view campaigns, suggestions pane, in-application chatbot support and social media tracking. IQVIA’s OCE was also categorized as “one of the better value-for-money offerings” amongst its peers in the “Leader” category. Finally, IQVIA’s extensive track record across organizations in the pharmaceutical industry and its ability to disseminate industry-leading practices contributed to this high position.

Evidence of IQVIA’s Customer Engagement Platform Strengths

Case Study #1: Tailoring OCE with Role-Specific Configuration to Different Personas

  • In a case study, one IQVIA customer faced issues with their current CRM, which had limited functionality and flexibility to serve multiple personas within their commercial team. The customer decided to adopt IQVIA OCE and was able to seamlessly integrate the CRM platform into their business unit ecosystem. With OCE’s ability to integrate all touchpoints across customer-facing roles and enable full collaboration across team members, the customer saw improved productivity and more effective customer engagements across all channels.

Case Study #2: Improving Field Force Execution with OCE+

  • In another case study, an IQVIA client realized that its current digital ecosystem was restricting its capacity to enhance field force execution and engagement with non-personal channels. In selecting IQVIA OCE+, an integration of IQVIA Next Best Action AI recommendation engine into the OCE platform, the organization was able to optimize sales and marketing activities using actionable insights and real-time intelligence to drive speed and precision decision making. With these capabilities, the organization was able to eliminate duplicative activities and time-consuming processes. This implementation resulted in improvements to field force productivity and tool satisfaction.

The Everest Group’s extensive examination of life science organizations’ CEP capabilities and their subsequent market impact identified specific strengths that determine what vendors provide customer centric solutions that can improve performance and engagement. Continuing to invest in leading enterprises that provide comprehensive channel optimization functionalities, adapt to commercial stakeholder’s needs and provide customer specific functionalities, such as IQVIA’s OCE, will continue to improve the performance and personalization of the customer experience.

IQVIA Orchestrated Customer Engagement (OCE) spearheads innovation in life sciences customer engagement, addressing the ever-evolving demands of today's healthcare landscape. OCE empowers life sciences commercial teams to improve engagements with Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) worldwide. It fosters collaborative relationships between life science companies and HCPs, championing a patient-centric approach to healthcare delivery. OCE streamlines communication channels, optimizes resource allocation, and personalizes interactions to individual preferences, enabling clients to swiftly deliver life-altering therapies to the market.

Note: Blog is derived from Everest Group Life Sciences Next-generations Customer Engagement Platforms (CEP) PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2023

IQVIA has presented a strong vision for the life sciences commercial function to secure the highest position as Leader. They are evolving their OCE platform to include more CX-based functionalities, delivering on a robust product roadmap, and growing their strategic partnership ecosystem to deliver more personalized customer experiences.

Chunky Satija
Vice President, Everest Group

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