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IQVIA, Alibaba Cloud and Salesforce: The First Life Science Collaboration to Deliver Compliant Salesforce-based Products in China
Susan Hill, VP & GM, Customer Engagement, IQVIA
Jul 10, 2023

Navigating the Life Science Industry in China

While the Life Science industry in China is dynamic and growing, it has unique needs that require specialized approaches for engagement with healthcare providers by commercial stakeholders. In combination with recent increases in data management regulations in China, this complexity creates a business environment requiring a targeted Life Science focus to navigate engagements and manage information in a compliant manner.

Certain market conditions have contributed to China’s data complexity:

  1. China’s unique business and social interaction perspectives require specialized approaches to customer engagement. For Life Science companies, targeted and innovative solutions are needed to address the complexities of daily interactions between drug manufacturers, healthcare professionals and patients.
  2. Dynamic evolution of data compliance regulations in China has created a need for industry-specific solutions that ensure compliance with the new laws.
  3. Regulatory and technology requirements around privacy contribute to data in China remaining siloed from that of other countries, creating challenges with creating coordinated and consistent views of customers.

These factors lead to data management and performance challenges that can limit the value and actionability of Life Sciences data.

A Closer Look at China’s Data Regulatory Environment

China has seen an evolution of data privacy and residency regulations in recent years that has created a need for Life Science solutions that support these requirements.

In April of 2023, the People’s Republic of China announced plans to consolidate the country’s data protection functions into a single national data bureau tasked with regulating data privacy and data transfers for a nation of over 1.4 billion people. The announcement follows the following recent regulations:

  1. The Cybersecurity Law (CSL) enacted in 2017 that limits transfer of ‘personal’ and ‘important’ data outside of the People’s Republic of China.
  2. The Data Security Law (DSL) enacted in 2021 that created a new framework for processing of collected or generated data, inside and outside of China.
  3. The Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), enacted in 2021 requiring the local storage of personal data in Mainland China.

The Partnership – IQVIA is the First Technology Company Able to Host Salesforce-based Life Sciences Products Locally in China

A new partnership with Alibaba Cloud has put IQVIA in the position of being the first life sciences technology company to provide Salesforce-based products in China, designed to be compliant with China’s data privacy and residency regulations. IQVIA’s customer engagement products will now run on China’s leading cloud infrastructure provider, Alibaba Cloud, hosted locally in China.

IQVIA’s long-standing global partnership with Salesforce has enabled an end-to-end healthcare ecosystem that addresses global and local business needs on the market-leading Salesforce CRM platform, supporting all stakeholders through all stages of the product lifecycle. The addition of Alibaba Cloud to the collaboration expands the portfolio of healthcare-focused products, now designed for compliance in China.

Partnership Overview

  • IQVIA, a leading global provider of technology and service solutions to the life sciences industry;
  • Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, provides engagement platforms to support all stakeholders through all stages of the product lifecycle;
  • Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide inclusive of China.

IQVIA OCE for More Personalized Omnichannel Engagement

IQVIA Orchestrated Customer Engagement (OCE) enables superior omnichannel engagement by coordinating all touchpoints across customer-facing roles, such as Sales Representatives, Medical Science Liaisons, and Key Account Managers. OCE provides next-generation CRM and CLM with embedded real-time intelligence into user workflows, so commercial teams have actionable insights at their fingertips, enabling a more personalized, omnichannel customer experience.

OCE is accessible across a host of devices including web browsers, iPads, iPhones, and Android and Windows devices, as well as natively within WeChat, allowing you to reach customers in China where they already are. WeChat is the primary channel in China for pharmaceutical companies to reach their customers.

A Long-Term Commitment to the Greater China Region and Multinational Customers

IQVIA’s partnership with Alibaba Cloud is a continuation of a long-term commitment to customers and the life science industry, enabling both companies to continue to deliver truly innovative commercial capabilities built on the Salesforce platform. IQVIA is proud to be the first company who can deliver Salesforce-based technology offerings to all markets globally – thus enabling a single global platform to address specific local market and compliance needs across all regions around the world.

To learn more about IQVIA’s Orchestrated Customer Engagement visit iqvia.com/oce.

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