Idorsia has successfully implemented Veeva’s industry cloud for life sciences to manage their R&D and commercial requirements. Veeva’s solution captures all the management and technology checkpoints for Idorsia’s procedure and integrates with another fundamental tool in their clinical operations, pre-defining standard chapters required by the FDA. Industry clouds offer industry-based tooling that addresses regulatory challenges and controls in different sectors and data models specific to different vertical sectors. The ecosystem of industry clouds is collaborative and must stitch different technologies together and solve different problems. CIOs must think strategically before selecting an existing industry cloud solution or building a custom industry cloud with a partner by rewiring their value chain. The industry cloud is an evolving ecosystem of standardized, reusable, and interoperable digital assets, driving differentiation and growth through new products, platforms, and experiences.
Industry-Specific Clouds Provide Significant Business Value
Cloud solutions designed for specific industries, known as “industry clouds,” are proving to be beneficial for companies across a variety of sectors. These cloud solutions are created in partnership with industry leaders and are ecosystem-centric by design. Industry clouds are forming a rapidly-evolving and complex market that CIOs need to approach strategically.
Idorsia, a Swiss biopharmaceutical company, is one of the many companies finding value in industry clouds. In 2017, Idorsia was a new company with no systems or technology platforms, 650 employees, a strong discovery pipeline, early-stage clinical assets, and plans to launch commercial products in five years. To navigate the scientific process and regulatory processes that come with drug launches, Idorsia partnered with Veeva, an industry cloud provider for life sciences.
Joseph Bejjani, CIO of Idorsia, says that he had no other choice but to use cloud technology to address the company’s challenges. Veeva’s industry cloud provides a user-friendly interface that covers a broad range of Idorsia’s needs, from clinical development to quality regulatory affairs. Veeva’s cloud not only handles Idorsia’s regulatory, sustainability, and commercial processes but also includes predefined FDA formatting.
The most significant benefit of using an industry cloud, according to Bejjani, is gaining access to Veeva’s extensive knowledge base, which includes data from other major pharmaceutical giants like Merck, Bayer, and Kronos. Bejjani says that Idorsia also relies on Veeva’s expertise to navigate the various regulatory issues that differ from one country to another. As a startup, it’s a significant advantage to have access to the collective knowledge of Veeva’s customer base and industry best practices.
Hundreds of industry clouds tailored to specific verticals have been developed by a range of vendors, including hypervisors that sponsor vertical solutions and consulting firms that have built custom clouds for select clients. The clouds are often differentiated by the underlying partnership that resulted in the solution or the underlying platform on which the cloud runs. For example, Veeva’s cloud runs on Salesforce CRM.
Idorsia Chooses Veeva Cloud for R&D and Commercial Requirements
Idorsia, a biopharmaceutical company, has implemented Veeva’s industry cloud for life sciences to manage their R&D and commercial requirements. Joseph Bejjani, Idorsia’s CIO, chose Veeva in the final phase of a clinical study of their first commercial insomnia drug. With only nine months to complete the process before submitting the application to the FDA, Idorsia required a solution that captured all the management and technology checkpoints for their procedure.
Bejjani notes that Veeva’s solution integrates with another fundamental tool in their clinical operations, capturing all the data they use to submit their procedure, pre-defined with standard chapters required by the FDA. Veeva’s industry cloud for life sciences provides a large scope of functionality and systems that benefit Idorsia. Bejjani adds that choosing an industry cloud is better than building their own Salesforce-based solution because they inherit the industry cloud provider’s research work.
Idorsia’s current configuration with Veeva has been extremely beneficial, allowing the company to launch two products commercially, with ten more products in clinical development, half of which are in the late stages. Bejjani credits the unique setup and strong industry knowledge of Veeva for the company’s success.
Industry Cloud Market
The industry cloud market has grown vast and complex, with a variety of approaches and solutions available. Consulting firms like KPMG and Accenture agree that there is no clear definition of what an industry cloud is, and its components, services, and technology stacks are still evolving.
KPMG’s US leader for cloud, Marcus Murph, says that industry cloud is still forming, but they all agree that it’s using cloud technology to solve problems specific to an industry sector. For example, Microsoft has a financial solutions industry cloud, but many enterprises use IBM for financial services in the cloud, while other financial companies have developed a high-end solution in partnership with NASDAQ that includes analytics and machine learning models.
Industry Clouds Offer Industry-Based Tooling
The focus of industry clouds has primarily been on foundational aspects of doing business in the cloud, such as migrating workloads to the cloud and redesigning them into cloud-native applications. However, some industry clouds, such as Veeva, offer industry-based tooling that addresses regulatory challenges and controls in different sectors, as well as data models specific to different vertical sectors.
Industry clouds remain collaborative affairs due to their nature. They must be an ecosystem that stitches different technologies together and solves different problems. One company dominating an industry cloud alone is unlikely, according to Marcus Murph, KPMG’s US leader for cloud.
CIOs must think strategically before selecting an existing industry cloud solution or building a custom industry cloud with a partner. This involves rewiring their value chain of products, solutions, and services by rethinking their tech stack more strategically, orchestrating multiple data assets and unlocking data from many sources.
Industry clouds are evolving ecosystems of standardized, reusable, and interoperable digital assets. The holy grail of the industry cloud is driving differentiation and growth through new products, new platforms, and new experiences.
For enterprises like Idorsia whose tech stacks aren’t their key differentiator, the value proposition of industry clouds is compelling. Embracing an early but established industry cloud has enabled Idorsia to turn its R&D into a profitable business.
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