Verticals onDemand Signs 15th Life Sciences Customer, Marking the Dawn of an Industry-Wide Conversion from Client/Server to SaaS CRM Technology.

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- In the last nine months, fifteen life sciences companies have signed with Verticals onDemand, the pharmaceutical industry's only provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) CRM solutions. Verticals onDemand's latest customer, UK-based ProStrakan Group plc (www.prostrakan-usa.com), selected VBioPharma shortly after establishing their U.S. division earlier this year. Verticals onDemand's client roster also includes some of the world's largest pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as several emerging market leaders.

ProStrakan has been recruiting both specialty and managed markets sales representatives to commercialize ProStrakan's products in the U.S. The unique sales force will initially 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 Managed Markets & Supply Chain at ProStrakan. "Hands down, VBioPharma was the CRM solution that best suited our organizational needs with its flexibility, ease of use, and cost-efficiency. SaaS is definitely where we're heading, and Verticals onDemand is leveraging all of SaaS' benefits to satisfy the highly specific needs of life sciences companies," added Bidawid.

Now, with at least fifteen life sciences companies using Verticals on Demand's SaaS CRM application, industry experts anticipate the technology to ripple throughout the industry. In fact, one industry analyst, Datamonitor, predicted this major industry shift in a Pharma CRM report published last year, entitled "Decision Matrix: Selecting a CRM Vendor in the Pharmaceutical Industry."

Verticals onDemand customer, Indevus Pharmaceuticals, recently deployed VBioPharma to its 110 person specialty pharmaceutical salesforce. One of the features of the system required by Indevus was to support the regulatory requirements of sampling pharmaceuticals to physicians. The system efficiently automates the capturing of signatures electronically on smartphones.

Thomas Farb, President & COO of Indevus Pharmaceuticals, described "Indevus now has a cost-effective, automated solution for supporting the sale of multiple products and product types by different selling teams into more than one medical specialty. Verticals onDemand has built a best-in-class product and has proven to be a valuable and strategic business partner for Indevus."

VBioPharma is the life sciences industry's first SaaS CRM solution and the only pharmaceutical CRM solution to come pre-validated for PDMA and CFR Part 11 compliance. Built on the Force.com platform from salesforce.com, VBioPharma delivers all the advantages of the SaaS model, and provides complete life sciences functionality including:

* physician and account profiling;

* visual affiliations tracking;

* call scheduling and route management;

* call reporting and mobile call reporting with electronic signature capture; and,

* full samples management.

"SaaS is becoming the standard technology platform for CRM applications in the life sciences industry," said Matt Wallach, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Verticals onDemand. "The technology is much more flexible and cost-effective than client/server systems of 10 years ago, making it incredibly attractive to pharma and biotech companies of all sizes."

Verticals onDemand developed its CRM application to provide a cost-efficient alternative over legacy client/server CRM systems, now considered inflexible, complex, and overly expensive. VBioPharma is delivered as a reliable service over the Internet, accessible through any web browser, and completely customizable at no additional cost. In addition, it runs in a disconnected mode on smartphones, laptops, and tablet PCs to ensure maximum user adoption.

VBioPharma also combines full-featured functionality for primary care selling, specialty care selling, managed care account executives, and key opinion leader management in a single application, empowering all of the pharmaceutical industry's customer-facing teams to integrate their strategies for optimum success.

"In the not so distant past, companies built their entire organization around their old bricks and mortar systems. Pharma companies today simply cannot invest financial resources in these types of infrastructure," said ProStrakan's Bidawid. "You need a system that shifts with business demands. For a rapidly growing company such as ProStrakan, SaaS is a perfect solution. As we grow, SaaS allows new functions to be added quickly."

About Verticals onDemand

Verticals onDemand leverages the Force.com platform to deliver onDemand customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for specific industry segments. Founded by software industry veterans, the company combines deep industry domain expertise, CRM deployment experience, and Software as a Service (SaaS) operations savvy with Force.com from salesforce.com, the world's first multitenant, on-demand platform. With an initial focus on the life sciences industry, Verticals onDemand customers will achieve the fastest time to value through the deployment of fully functional CRM applications that are simple to deploy, inexpensive to operate, and provide a superior user experience.

Verticals onDemand is a privately-held company headquartered in Pleasanton, CA. For more information and online product demonstrations, visit www.verticalsondemand.com.