Custom software for medical and pharma reps.
MedTech and pharma reps work in the field, in regulated environments, with formulary, sample, and visit-tracking requirements that don't fit a generic CRM. Here's the gap.
Generic CRM doesn't understand HCP relationships, sample chain-of-custody, formulary status, or compliant visit logging. Sector-specific CRMs (Veeva, IQVIA) work — for big pharma. For smaller MedTech and emerging pharma in Australia, the cost-to-fit ratio rarely makes sense. Custom often does.
The MedTech rep reality
A medical or pharma sales rep's day is fundamentally different from a generic field salesperson's:
- They visit healthcare professionals (HCPs) — doctors, specialists, pharmacists, hospital procurement — not generic prospects.
- They distribute samples, which must be chain-of-custody tracked from receipt → dispensing → reconciliation.
- They reference formulary status, which changes — knowing whether a product is on the PBS, on the hospital formulary, on the private prescription list matters per call.
- Their interactions are subject to industry codes (Medicines Australia Code of Conduct, MTAA Code) — what was promoted, to whom, under what circumstances, is auditable.
- They work in fragmented territories with mixed account types (private practice, hospital, group, pharmacy chain) — each with different access rules and engagement patterns.
Why generic CRM fails
Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho — none of them model HCPs, samples, formularies, or compliance evidence out of the box. You can bolt these on with custom fields and workflows, but you're rebuilding sector logic in a tool that wasn't designed for it. The result is fragile, slow, and constantly breaks when the underlying CRM upgrades.
Worse: generic CRM is designed for one-off sales cycles. MedTech is a long-cycle relationship business. Your rep talks to the same specialist 4 times a year for 5 years. The data model needs to support that, not constantly close-and-reopen-opportunities.
Why sector-specific CRMs are often overkill
Veeva CRM, IQVIA OneKey, Skura — the established MedTech/pharma CRMs are excellent if you're big pharma. They're priced for big pharma. A 20-rep Australian distributor selling a niche medical device pays $200k+/year for software designed for global rollouts.
The features you don't use vastly outnumber the features you do. The configuration overhead is non-trivial. Onboarding new reps is heavy.
This isn't a knock on those tools — they're fit for their market. They're just not fit for smaller Australian MedTech.
Where custom wins for MedTech
- Field-first mobile design. Built around how reps actually work — in clinics, in cars, between appointments. Offline-capable, fast, opinionated.
- HCP-centric data model. Specialist, practice, hospital, group, pharmacy — modeled correctly, with realistic affiliation patterns.
- Compliant visit logging. Time, location, attendees, materials shown, samples left, follow-up actions — captured in the call note, not as an afterthought.
- Sample chain-of-custody. From rep allocation → dispensing → expiry tracking → reconciliation, with audit trail.
- Sector-specific dashboards. Coverage by territory, share-of-voice by HCP, formulary changes, sample efficiency.
- Compliance evidence built in. If a Code Authority Committee asks for evidence of what was promoted when, to whom, you produce it in minutes — not by reconstructing emails.
MyRepDay — our MedTech product
We didn't write this article from theory. MyRepDay is Stacksy's field-force enablement product for Australian medical and pharmaceutical sales reps. It's the answer we built when our consulting clients kept describing the same gap.
MyRepDay covers visit logging, sample tracking, formulary reference, territory management, and compliance evidence — built around how reps actually work in the field. We use it ourselves; we sell it to MedTech distributors and emerging pharma companies in Australia.
For some organisations, MyRepDay off-the-shelf is the right answer. For others — particularly those with very specific workflows or integrations — a custom build (or MyRepDay customised) makes more sense. The Discovery Program is the cheapest way to figure out which.
The compliance angle
Australian medical and pharma sales operate under strict industry codes. The Medicines Australia Code of Conduct, MTAA Code, ARTG product information requirements, and various state-level rules around HCP promotion all have one thing in common: they require evidence.
Generic CRM captures sales activity. Compliance requires capturing what was said, to whom, with what materials, at what time. The two overlap but aren't the same. Software designed for the second naturally handles the first; software designed only for the first does the second badly.