The most frequent message after the Big Three Pharma CX report went live?

"Great framework. But what about [vendor name]?"

I got that question dozens of times. From CDOs, commercial leads, even vendors themselves.

Adobe, Salesforce, and Veeva dominate pharma CX conversations. But the Big Three report proved what many suspected: no single vendor scores above 4.0 across all five dimensions. If your CX architecture inevitably involves multiple platforms (and it will), evaluating only the obvious three is like grading a group project by checking three students and assuming the rest don't matter.

So I did what the community asked.

Same framework. Same 5 dimensions. Same 31 sub-criteria. Same scoring methodology (1 to 5, evidence-based, verified against 48+ sources). Applied to 10 vendors that most pharma organizations have never benchmarked side by side.

The five that scored highest in the assessment:

𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼

𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗲𝘃𝗼

𝗛𝘆𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗼 (𝗟𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗼)

𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲

𝗣𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗜𝗤 + 𝗔𝗸𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗮

(Listed alphabetically. Scores and rankings are for the full report.)

What I can share already:

𝟭. 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.

Not marginally. Decisively.

𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 "𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲" 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴.

Several of these platforms run enterprise-scale operations at top-20 pharma companies right now. Calling them niche is comfortable, not accurate.

𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗫 𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝘁.

The Big Three report hinted at this. The holistic assessment makes it undeniable.

𝟰. 𝗔𝗜 𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

If those are your gaps, the Big Three might not be your answer.

A word on the Big Three report: it has been downloaded far beyond what I expected, and the feedback has been outstanding. Based on input from the community and from vendors directly, an updated version with refined scores and additional evidence is coming.

The holistic platforms report drops soon, covering these five and five additional vendors. After that: more vendors, more waves, a growing landscape to help you select across all five dimensions.

My 9-year-old saw the spreadsheet and asked why some cells are red and some are green. I told her green means a company is good at something and red means they are not. She said: "So nobody is all green?" Correct. Welcome to enterprise software.

If you are making CX platform decisions in 2026 or 2027, don't commit before you see the full landscape.

Follow along for the release. And if you need help designing a vendor evaluation that spans all five CX dimensions, that is exactly what we do at ImpactWorks.

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