The 2030 life sciences CRM cliff is a mirage: why your real deadline is now

For commercial and IT leaders in life sciences, the Veeva-Salesforce split has become the strategic planning issue that overshadows all others. The headline everyone knows: 2030, when Veeva's Salesforce-based CRM reaches end-of-life.

That the date is five years away creates a dangerous illusion of comfort. It suggests ample runway, a challenge for future planning cycles, something to address after more pressing priorities. But this perception fundamentally misreads the situation. According to Branden Mittra, Epista's Director of Advisory & Delivery for Commercial & Medical Excellence, organizations treating 2030 as their target date have already critically miscalculated the timeline. “If you’re planning around 2030, you’re already behind. The real deadline isn’t when support ends, it’s when the ecosystem runs out of capacity—and that happens years earlier.”

Indeed, the true deadline to secure qualified partners, validate your approach, and transform your commercial model without accepting avoidable business risk is as soon as 2026. And that's not when you finish. That's when you must start, or risk joining a traffic jam of companies fighting for vendor attention while your competitors execute from positions of strength.

The coming traffic jam

The most immediate threat to life science organizations isn't the technology itself, but the capacity of the market to implement it.

If the majority of the industry waits until 2028 or 2029 to begin their migration—whether moving to Salesforce’s Agentforce for Life Sciences, sticking with Veeva, or adopting another platform—we will see a massive bottleneck. "Pushing the decision out places significant strain on the business because there will be an influx of additional companies making that move later on,” Branden warns.

We are heading toward a "traffic jam" in the implementation ecosystem characterized by the following:

• Partner scarcity: By 2026 and 2027, early adopters will have secured the best talent and attention from vendors. Companies that wait will be fighting for resources in a saturated market.

• Compounding delays: A CRM migration isn't just an IT install; it requires overhauling your business infrastructure, rethinking your engagement model, aligning operating models, redesigning key processes, and preparing the organization for new ways of working. If you plan to be live before the end of 2029, starting in 2028 is already too late.

• The "early adopter" advantage: 2026 is the optimal time to start the move because the products (Vault CRM and Agentforce for Life Sciences) are both in general availability, but you are still early enough to get high-level attention and collaborate on future direction with vendors.

The "flip of a switch" myth: board-level risks

A dangerous misconception circulating in the industry is that migrating from Veeva CRM to Vault CRM is a simple upgrade—a "flip of a switch."

In reality, there are a multitude of other considerations that need to be taken into account outside of simply choosing whether you wish to stay within the Veeva ecosystem or not. While the end-user experience for a rep on an iPad might remain largely unchanged, the backend is a significant platform shift.

This inertia is not just an IT backlog item, but an actual risk to how the entire organization operated that boards must evaluate immediately:

• Data integrity: Because this is a platform shift, there is a genuine risk of data loss or misalignment. Data migration integrity must be verified to ensure historical continuity.

• Integration breakage: Commercial ecosystems are complex. Integrations that work today on Veeva CRM may break on the new platform. Organizations need to inventory all integrations and run pilot migrations well in advance.

• Content migration: It is often estimated that up to 20% of commercial content is functional or active. You cannot simply drag and drop this content; it requires a level of adaptation and rigorous testing to ensure it functions correctly on the new operating architecture.

The cost of delay: it’s a P&L line item

Beyond the logistical risks, there is a severe opportunity cost to waiting. Every quarter of delay represents a missed opportunity to modernize.

The legacy platforms currently in use were not built with today's AI requirements in mind. The new waves of CRM technology—whether Vault CRM or Agentforce—are built to be AI-ready. But in order to capitalize on new features and capabilities, you must first put in place a foundation that supports them.

Delaying the move means delaying the benefits of:

1. Generative AI and automation: Utilizing "agentic" workflows that require modern architecture.

2. Omnichannel evolution: Moving away from the "Rolodex" model. We currently see companies spend millions on CRM technology only to use a fraction of its capabilities, essentially treating it as a storage place for business cards.

3. Competitive advantage: While laggards struggle with migrations in 2029, early movers will have spent three years refining their customer engagement models on superior tech.

Strategic neutrality is key

With the market splitting between Veeva and Salesforce, customers are being forced to make a tough choice. However, there is no single "right" answer for every company. It comes down to re-envisioning and re-inventing your commercial engagement model.

This is why engaging a tech-neutral partner is critical. You need an advisor who can look at the decision not just as a software purchase, but as a business readiness lifecycle—from governance and selection to change management.

Conclusion

The timeline is deceiving. While the support cutoff is 2030, the window for a strategic, low-risk, and high-value migration is already closing. From assessment to rollout, CRM transformation can take as long as 12-36 months depending on the size of the organization, the scope of the implementation, and a host of other complex variables.

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