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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

Form 10-K

 

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2019

OR

For transition period from           to          

Commission File Number 001-36121

 

Veeva Systems Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

4280 Hacienda Drive

Pleasanton, California 94588

(Address of principal executive offices)

(925) 452-6500

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act:

None

 

Indicate by a check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

The aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant on the last business day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, which was July 31, 2018, based on the closing price of $75.63 for shares of the Registrant’s Class A common stock as reported by the New York Stock Exchange, was approximately $9.4 billion. Shares of Class A common stock or Class B common stock held by each executive officer, director, and their affiliated holders have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

As of February 28, 2019, there were 126,191,070 shares of the Registrant’s Class A common stock outstanding and 20,234,372 shares of the Registrant’s Class B common stock outstanding.  

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the Registrant’s Proxy Statement for the 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated herein by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. The proxy statement will be filed by the Registrant with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the Registrant’s fiscal year ended January 31, 2019.

 

 

 

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Pursuant to Part IV, Item 16, a summary of Form 10-K content follows, including hyperlinked cross-references (in the EDGAR filing). This allows users to easily locate the corresponding items in this annual report on Form 10-K where the disclosure is fully presented. The summary does not include certain Part III information that will be incorporated by reference from the Proxy Statement for the 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed within 120 days after our fiscal year ended January 31, 2019.

 

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements that are based on our beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to us. Forward-looking statements include information concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations and expenses, business strategies and plans, trends, market sizing, competitive position, industry environment, potential growth opportunities and product capabilities, among other things. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and, in some cases, can be identified by terms such as “aim,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “potential,” “predicts,” “projects,” “seeks,” “should,” “strive,” “will,” “would” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those described in “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in this Form 10-K. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Any forward-looking statement made by us in this Form 10-K speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

As used in this Form 10-K, the terms “Veeva,” “Registrant,” “we,” “us,” and “our” mean Veeva Systems Inc. and its subsidiaries unless the context indicates otherwise.

 

 

 

 

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ITEM 1.    BUSINESS

Overview

Veeva is the leading provider of industry cloud solutions for the global life sciences industry. We were founded in 2007 on the premise that industry-specific cloud solutions could best address the operating challenges and regulatory requirements of life sciences companies. Our solutions are designed to meet the unique needs of our customers and their most strategic business functions—from research and development (R&D) to commercialization. Our solutions are designed to help life sciences companies develop and bring products to market faster and more efficiently, market and sell more effectively, and maintain compliance with government regulations.

Customer success is one of our core values, and our focus on it has allowed us to deepen and expand our strategic relationships with customers over time. Because of our industry focus, we have a unique, in-depth perspective into the needs and best practices of life sciences companies. This allows us to develop targeted solutions, quickly adapt to regulatory changes, and incorporate highly relevant enhancements into our existing solutions at a rapid pace.

Our goal is to become the most strategic technology partner to the life sciences industry and achieve long-term leadership with our solutions that support the R&D and commercial functions of life sciences companies. Our commercial solutions help life sciences companies achieve better, more intelligent engagement with healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations across multiple communication channels, including face-to-face, email, and web. Our R&D solutions for the clinical, regulatory, quality, and, when available, safety functions help life sciences companies streamline their end-to-end product development processes to increase operational efficiency and maintain regulatory compliance throughout the product lifecycle.

We are now also bringing the benefits of our content and data management solutions to a new set of customers outside of life sciences in regulated industries, including consumer goods, chemicals, and cosmetics. We believe that the ability of our solutions to meet the demanding business and compliance requirements of life sciences companies translates well into many other regulated industries. Our application currently offered to companies outside of life sciences is designed to help customers efficiently manage critical regulated processes and content in a compliant way and to enable secure collaboration across internal and external stakeholders, including outsourcing partners and vendors.

Executing in the Veeva Way

Fundamental to our business model is what we call The Veeva Way. The Veeva Way is key to our disciplined approach to achieve our goal of long-term leadership in each of the product markets we serve.

We start with a focus on addressing clear and correct target markets. Those are large product markets in which the problem being addressed by our solution is strategic to the businesses of our customers and in which we believe Veeva can become the leader over the long-term if we execute well. We embrace the concept of running to complexity, an approach in which we strive to solve the most important and challenging information technology problems our customers face.

We focus on delivering product excellence and cloud innovation. Our product development process begins with assembling and investing in strong product teams focused on building deep, best-in-class applications in every product market we serve. Through innovative cloud technology, we also aim to eliminate disparate systems by delivering unified application suites that work together on a common platform.  

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We strive to forge strong relationships with our customers and focus on customer success. When we enter a new product market, we begin with a small number of early adopter customers. We focus on learning from these early adopters and ensuring that they are successful with our products. Once successful, our early adopters have developed into vocal advocates, enabling our reference selling model.  

Finally, our goal is to drive strong growth and profitability through highly efficient, targeted sales and marketing, disciplined product planning, and profitable professional services. Our strong growth and profitability has allowed us to make ongoing investments for continued product innovation in our existing markets and provides us with the resources to continue to invest in new market opportunities.

Our Industry Cloud Solutions for Life Sciences

Our industry cloud solutions for the life sciences industry are grouped into two key product areas—Veeva Commercial Cloud and Veeva Vault—and are designed to address pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies’ most pressing strategic needs in their commercial and R&D operations as illustrated in the graphic below.

 

Veeva Commercial Cloud

Veeva Commercial Cloud is a suite of multichannel customer relationship management (CRM) applications, a commercial data warehouse, territory allocation and alignment applications, a master data management application, and customer reference and key opinion leader data and services, designed to help companies drive smarter, more proactive engagement with healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations and ensure compliance.

Our multichannel CRM applications that are part of Veeva Commercial Cloud include:

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Our data solutions that are part of Veeva Commercial Cloud include:

Our master data management solution that is part of Veeva Commercial Cloud includes:

Veeva Commercial Cloud also includes our next-generation commercial data warehouse, Veeva Nitro. Nitro eliminates the time and effort of custom data warehouse development and maintenance and provides a foundation for artificial intelligence and advanced analytics. With an industry-specific data model and standard data connectors, Nitro enables life sciences companies to more easily unify their most important data sources, such as prescription, sales, formulary, and claims data.

Veeva Vault

Veeva Vault is a unified suite of cloud-based, enterprise content and data management applications, all built on our proprietary Veeva Vault Platform. Our Veeva Vault applications address the content management requirements for our customers’ commercial functions, including medical and sales and marketing, and key R&D functions, including clinical, regulatory, quality, and, when available, safety.  

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Veeva Vault’s unique ability to handle content and data allows us to build content- and data-centric applications to help customers streamline end-to-end business processes and eliminate manual processes and siloed systems. Veeva Vault can be deployed one application at a time or as an integrated solution with multiple applications that enables our customers to unify and manage important documents and related data in a single, global system.

Our Veeva Vault applications for life sciences are organized into two product areas: Veeva Vault for Commercial Content Management and Veeva Development Cloud.

Veeva Vault for Commercial Content Management

The increasing use of content in the sales and marketing efforts of life sciences companies requires rapid creation of materials and better management of commercial content, with continuous strict regulatory compliance across channels and geographies. The Veeva Vault applications primarily used by the commercial and medical departments of life sciences companies to manage commercial and medical content include:

Veeva Development Cloud

Veeva Development Cloud brings together application suites for the clinical, regulatory, quality, and, when available, safety functions of life sciences companies on the Veeva Vault Platform to enable companies to streamline product development lifecycles and eliminate manual processes and siloed systems. These applications help life sciences companies achieve greater efficiency and agility in product development, while maintaining regulatory compliance. Our Veeva Development Cloud applications each have a unique data model, deep functionality, and pre-defined workflows to support industry-specific processes.

The Veeva Development Cloud application suites are:

Veeva Vault Clinical

Veeva Vault Clinical is the industry’s first cloud application suite that combines electronic data capture (EDC), clinical trial management (CTMS), electronic trial master file (eTMF), and study start-up applications to unify clinical data management and clinical operations. Veeva also offers a solution to help clinical research sites seamlessly manage regulatory documents and trial information.

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Veeva Vault RIM

Veeva Vault RIM is a suite of applications that provides fully integrated regulatory information management (RIM) capabilities on a single cloud platform.

Veeva Vault Quality

Veeva Vault Quality is the industry’s first unified suite of quality applications for life sciences, contract manufacturers, and suppliers to seamlessly manage quality processes and content in a single platform for greater visibility and control.

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Veeva Vault Safety

Veeva Vault Safety consists of applications that will help the pharmacovigilance and safety departments of life sciences companies increase efficiency and maintain compliance in the management of safety processes. Vault Safety is planned to be available for customers in the second half of 2019.

Solutions for Regulated Industries Outside of Life Sciences

Our initial applications for customers outside of life sciences address specific content and data management processes within regulated industries, including consumer goods, chemicals, and cosmetics. Veeva QualityOne is a robust quality management, document management, and training solution. Veeva RegulatoryOne helps companies manage regulatory submission content.  Veeva Claims, expected to be available in 2019, addresses the marketing claims management process.

Professional Services and Support

We also offer professional services to help customers maximize the value of our solutions. Our service teams possess industry expertise, project management capabilities, and deep technical acumen that we believe our customers highly value. Our professional services teams work with our systems integrator partners to deliver projects. We offer the following professional services:

We organize our professional services teams by specific expertise so that they can provide advice and support for best industry practices in the research and development and commercial departments of our customers.

Our global systems integrator partners also deliver implementation and selected support services to customers who wish to utilize them. Our systems integrator partners include Accenture, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Deloitte Consulting, and other life sciences specialty firms.

Our Customers

As of January 31, 2019, we served 719 customers. For an explanation of how we define current customers, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Components of Results of Operations.” We deliver solutions to companies throughout the life sciences industry, including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies, contract sales organizations, and contract research organizations. Our customers range from the largest global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies such as Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Eli Lilly and Company, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., and Novartis International AG, to smaller pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Alkermes plc, Grupo Ferrer Internacional S.A., Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and LEO Pharma A/S. For our fiscal years ended January 31, 2017, 2018, and 2019, we did not have any single customer that represented more than 10% of our total revenues.

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Our Employees

As of January 31, 2019, we employed 2,553 people worldwide. We also engage temporary employees and consultants. Our employees in the United States are not represented by a labor union, however, in certain foreign locations, there are workers’ councils that represent our employees. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and we consider our relations with our employees to be very good.

Research and Development

Our R&D organization is responsible for the design, development, and testing of our solutions and applications. Based on customer feedback and needs, we focus our efforts on developing new solutions functionality, applications, and core technologies and further enhancing the usability, functionality, reliability, performance, and flexibility of existing solutions and applications.

Sales and Marketing

We sell our solutions through our direct sales organization. In large life sciences companies, the R&D and commercial business functions commonly have separate technology and business decision makers. Accordingly, we market and sell our solutions to align with the distinct characteristics of those decision makers. We have distinct R&D and commercial sales teams, which we further segment to focus on selling to large global life sciences companies and smaller life sciences companies. We also have a distinct sales team for our sales efforts to companies in regulated industries outside of life sciences.

Technology Infrastructure and Operations

Our solutions utilize a pod-based architecture that allows for scalability, operational simplicity, and security. Our products are hosted in data centers located in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Japan. We utilize third-parties to provide our computing infrastructure and manage the infrastructure on which our solutions operate. For example, for Veeva CRM and certain of our multichannel CRM applications, we utilize the hosting infrastructure provided by salesforce.com. For our Veeva Vault applications, Veeva Network applications, and certain other Veeva Commercial Cloud applications, we utilize Amazon Web Services.

Our infrastructure providers employ advanced measures to ensure physical integrity and security, including redundant power and cooling systems, fire and flood prevention mechanisms, continual security coverage, biometric readers at entry points and anonymous exteriors. We also implement various disaster recovery measures such that data loss would be minimized in the event of a single data center disaster. We architect our solutions using redundant configurations to minimize service interruptions. We continually monitor our solutions for any sign of failure or pending failure, and we take preemptive action to attempt to minimize or prevent downtime.

Our technology is based on multitenant architectures that apply common, consistent management practices for all customers using our solutions. We enable multiple customers to share the same version of our solutions while securely partitioning their respective data. Portions of our multichannel customer relationship management applications are built on the Salesforce1 Platform of salesforce.com inc. Veeva Vault, Veeva Network, and portions of our other Commercial Cloud applications are built upon our own proprietary platforms.

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Quality and Compliance Program

Veeva maintains a quality management system certified to ISO9001 to ensure process controls conform to established industry standards across our product offerings. To comply with IT healthcare regulations, certain capabilities such as robust audit trail tracking, compliant electronic signature capture, data encryption, and secure access controls must be designed for and embedded in our solutions. In addition to design requirements, our solutions must be thoroughly tested to comply with the regulations that apply to electronic record keeping systems for the life sciences industry, which include:

 

 

Each version of our solutions that are subject to regulations that require companies to maintain certain records and submit information to regulators as part of compliance verification undergoes validation testing against these and other relevant standards.

Security Program

Veeva maintains an information security management system certified to ISO 27001 to ensure security controls conform to established standards across both product and infrastructure components. Our solution undergoes internal vulnerability testing prior to release, and we employ a third party to perform penetration and vulnerability tests on our solutions on at least an annual basis. We also obtain independent third-party audit opinions related to security and availability annually, such as SOC 2, Type II reports and ISO 27001 attestation reports. We also require role-based security and security awareness training and have defined security incident response processes.

Privacy Program

Veeva maintains a global privacy program aligned to applicable laws and regulations, including the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Veeva also maintains an EU-U.S. Privacy Shield certification and a Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield certification in order to allow the transfer of EU and Swiss personal data to the United States. In addition, Veeva maintains privacy policies and procedures and requires role-based privacy awareness training.

Competition

The markets for our solutions are global, rapidly evolving, highly competitive, and subject to changing regulations, advancing technology, and shifting customer needs. In new sales cycles, we generally compete with other cloud-based solutions from providers that make applications geared toward the life sciences industry. The principal such competitor for our Veeva Commercial Cloud applications is IQVIA Inc. (which offers a CRM application built on the Salesforce1 Platform, various data products, and other applications). While no single vendor offers products that compete with all of our Veeva Vault applications, IQVIA, Medidata Solutions, Inc., OpenText Corporation, Oracle Corporation, and other smaller application providers offer applications that compete with certain of our Veeva Vault applications.

Our Commercial Cloud and Veeva Vault application suites also compete to replace client server-based legacy solutions offered by companies such as Oracle, Microsoft Corporation, and other smaller application providers. Our customers may also choose to use horizontal cloud-based applications or platforms that are not life sciences specific—such as Box.com, Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft—for certain of the functions our applications provide.

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Our data products compete with IQVIA and other smaller data providers.

We sell certain of our Veeva Vault applications to companies outside the life sciences industry. In this segment of our business, we compete with solutions such as those offered by OpenText, Microsoft, Sparta Systems Inc., EtQ Management Consultants, LLC, Oracle, and Box and custom-built software developed by third-party vendors or in-house by our potential customers.

Our professional services offerings compete with a range of professional services firms.

Some of our actual and potential competitors have advantages over us, such as longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing or other resources, stronger brand and business recognition, larger intellectual property portfolios, and agreements with a broader set of system integrators and other partners. We expect competition to intensify in the future, and we may face competition from new market entrants as well.

We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include the following:

We believe that we generally compete favorably on the basis of these factors.

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Intellectual Property

We rely on a combination of patents, trade secrets, copyrights and trademarks, as well as contractual protections, to establish and protect our intellectual property rights. We have developed a process for seeking patent protection for our technology innovations. As of January 31, 2019, we have secured 17 U.S. patents, three Japanese patents, and two Chinese patents, which expire between May 2023 and January 2038, and we have over 40 pending U.S. and international patent applications. Our patents and patent applications cover technology within the following of our product categories: Veeva Commercial Cloud, Veeva Vault Platform, Veeva Vault Clinical, Veeva Vault RIM, Veeva Vault CDMS, and Veeva Vault Safety. We plan to continue expanding our patent portfolio. We require our employees, consultants and other third parties to enter into confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements and control access to software, documentation and other proprietary information. Although we rely on our intellectual property rights, as well as contractual protections to establish and protect our proprietary rights, we believe that factors such as the technological and creative skills of our personnel, creation of new features and functionality and frequent enhancements to our applications are essential to establishing and maintaining our technology leadership position as provider of software solutions and applications to the life sciences industry.

Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary technology and our intellectual property rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or obtain and use our technology to develop applications with the same functionality as our application. Policing unauthorized use of our technology and intellectual property rights is difficult, and protection of our rights through civil enforcement mechanisms may be expensive and time consuming.

Companies in our industry often own a number of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property or other rights. We are currently engaged in legal proceedings with competitors in which the competitors are asserting trade secret misappropriation and other claims, and we may face new allegations in the future that we have infringed the patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights of other competitors or non-practicing entities. We expect that we and others in our industry will continue to be subject to third-party infringement claims by competitors as the functionality of applications in different industry segments overlaps, and by non-practicing entities. Any of these third parties might make a claim of infringement against us at any time. For example, see the description of our current litigations in note 13 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements.

Corporate Information

We were incorporated in the state of Delaware in January 2007 and changed our name to Veeva Systems Inc. from Verticals onDemand, Inc. in April 2009. Our principal executive offices are located at 4280 Hacienda Drive, Pleasanton, California 94588. Our telephone number is (925) 452-6500. Our website address is http://www.veeva.com. Information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K, and you should not consider information contained on our website to be part of this Form 10-K or in deciding whether to purchase shares of our Class A common stock. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are available free of charge on the Investors portion of our website at http://ir.veeva.com as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC.

 

 

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ITEM 1A.    RISK FACTORS

Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below and in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” together with all of the other information in this Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before investing in our Class A common stock. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the price of our Class A common stock could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.  

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

If our security measures are breached or unauthorized access to customer data is otherwise obtained, our solutions may be perceived as not being secure, customers may reduce the use of or stop using our solutions, and we may incur significant liabilities.

Our solutions involve the storage and transmission of our customers’ proprietary information, including personal or identifying information regarding their employees and the medical professionals whom their sales personnel contact, sensitive proprietary data related to the regulatory submission process for new medical treatments, and other sensitive information, which may include personal health information. As a result, unauthorized access or security breaches as a result of third-party action, employee error, product defect, malfeasance, or otherwise could result in the loss of information, inappropriate use of or access to information, service interruption, service degradation, outages, service level credits, litigation, indemnity obligations, damage to our reputation, and other liability. While we maintain and continue to improve our security measures, we may be unable to adequately anticipate security threats or to implement adequate preventative measures, in part, because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not identified until they are launched against a target. Moreover, the detection, prevention, and remediation of known or unknown securities vulnerabilities, including those arising from third-party hardware or software, may result in additional direct or indirect costs and management time. Any or all of these issues could adversely affect our ability to attract new customers, cause existing customers to elect to not renew their subscriptions, result in reputational damage, or subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines, mandatory disclosures, or other action or liability, which could adversely affect our operating results. Our insurance may not be adequate to cover losses associated with such events, and in any case, such insurance may not cover all of the types of costs, expenses, and losses we could incur to respond to and remediate a security breach. A security breach of another significant provider of cloud-based solutions may also negatively impact the demand for our solutions.

We expect the future growth rate of our revenues to decline.

In our fiscal years ended January 31, 2017, 2018, and 2019, our total revenues grew by 35%, 25% and 25% respectively, as compared to total revenues from the prior fiscal years. In our fiscal years ended January 31, 2017, 2018, and 2019, our subscription revenues grew by 39%, 27% and 24% respectively, as compared to subscription revenues from the prior fiscal years. Please note that our total revenues and subscription revenues for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017 included, for the first time, a full year of revenue contribution from the Zinc Ahead business, which we acquired in the third quarter of the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016. We expect the growth rate of our total revenues and subscription revenues to continue to decline in future periods, which may adversely impact the value of our Class A common stock.

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Our results may fluctuate from period to period, which could prevent us from meeting security analyst or investor expectations or our own guidance and could cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline substantially.

Our results of operations, including our revenues, gross margin, operating margin, profitability, cash flows, and deferred revenue, as well as other metrics we may report, may vary from period to period for a variety of reasons, including those listed elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section, and period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. Accordingly, our quarterly results should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Additionally, from time to time, we issue guidance and provide commentary regarding our expectations for certain future financial results, including revenues, gross margin, operating margin, profitability, cash flows, deferred revenue, and other metrics on both a near-term and long-term basis. Our guidance is based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that are subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties that are beyond our control and are based upon assumptions about future business and accounting decisions that may change or be wrong. Our guidance may prove to be incorrect, and actual results may differ from our guidance. Fluctuations in our results or failure to achieve security analyst or investor expectations or our guidance, even if not materially, could cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline substantially, and our investors could incur substantial losses.

The markets in which we participate are highly competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

The markets for our solutions are highly competitive. In new sales cycles within our largest product categories, we generally compete with other cloud-based solutions from providers that make applications geared toward the life sciences industry. The principal such competitor for our Veeva Commercial Cloud applications is IQVIA Inc. (which offers a CRM application built on the Salesforce1 Platform, various data products, and other applications). While no single vendor offers products that compete with all of our Veeva Vault applications, IQVIA, Medidata Solutions, Inc., OpenText Corporation, Oracle Corporation, and other smaller application providers offer applications that compete with certain of our Veeva Vault applications. Our Commercial Cloud and Veeva Vault application suites also compete to replace client server-based legacy solutions offered by companies such as Oracle, Microsoft Corporation, and other smaller application providers. Our customers may also choose to use horizontal cloud-based applications or platforms that are not life sciences specific—such as Box.com, Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft—for certain of the functions our applications provide. Our data products compete with IQVIA and other smaller data providers. Our professional services offerings compete with a range of professional services firms. With the introduction of new technologies, we expect competition to intensify in the future, and we may face competition from new market entrants as well.

Some of our actual and potential competitors have advantages over us, such as longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing or other resources, stronger brand and business recognition, larger intellectual property portfolios, and agreements with a broader set of system integrators and other partners.

If our competitors’ products, services or technologies become more accepted than our solutions, if they are successful in bringing their products or services to market earlier than we are, if their products or services are more technologically capable than ours, or if customers replace our solutions with custom-built software, then our revenues could be adversely affected. Pricing pressures and increased competition could result in reduced sales, reduced margins, losses or a failure to maintain or improve our competitive market position, any of which could adversely affect our business. For all of these reasons, we may not be able to compete favorably against our current and future competitors.

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If our newer solutions are not successfully adopted by new and existing customers, the growth rate of our revenues and operating results will be adversely affected.

Our continued growth and profitability will depend on our ability to successfully develop and sell new solutions, including solutions we introduced relatively recently. It is uncertain whether these newer solutions will continue to grow as a percentage of revenues at a pace significant enough to support our expected overall growth. For instance, we have limited experience selling Veeva Vault CDMS, Veeva Nitro, and Veeva Vault Training among others. In addition, we have limited experience selling our products to companies outside the life sciences industry, and we cannot be certain that we will be successful with respect to newer solutions and markets. It may take us significant time, and we may incur significant expense, to effectively market and sell these solutions or to develop other new solutions and make enhancements to our existing solutions. If our newer solutions do not continue to gain traction in the market, or other solutions that we may develop and introduce in the future do not achieve market acceptance in a timely manner, the growth rate of our revenues and operating results will be adversely affected.

Our revenues are relatively concentrated within a small number of key customers, and the loss of one or more of such key customers, or their failure to renew or expand user subscriptions, could slow the growth rate of our revenues or cause our revenues to decline.

In our fiscal years ended January 31, 2017, 2018, and 2019, our top 10 customers accounted for 45%, 42%, and 39% of our total revenues, respectively. We rely on our reputation and recommendations from key customers in order to promote our solutions to potential customers. The loss of any of our key customers, or a failure of one or more of them to renew or expand user subscriptions, could have a significant impact on the growth rate of our revenues, our reputation, and our ability to obtain new customers. In the event of an acquisition of one of our customers or a business combination between two of our customers, we have in the past and may in the future suffer reductions in user subscriptions or non-renewal of their subscription orders. We are also likely to face increasing purchasing scrutiny at the renewal of these large customer subscription orders, which may result in reductions in user subscriptions or increased pricing pressure. The business impact of any of these negative events is particularly pronounced with respect to our largest customers.    

The majority of our subscription agreements with our customers are for a term of one year. If our existing customers do not renew their subscriptions annually, or do not buy additional solutions and user subscriptions from us, or renew at lower aggregate fee levels, our business and operating results will suffer.

We derive a significant portion of our revenues from the renewal of existing subscription orders. The majority of our customers’ orders for subscription services have one-year terms. However, more recently and with respect to solutions other than our core sales automation solution and particularly with respect to certain of our Vault applications, we have entered into a number of orders with terms of up to five years. Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions for our solutions after their orders expire. Thus, securing the renewal of our subscription orders and selling additional solutions and user subscriptions is critical to our future operating results. Factors that may affect the renewal rate for our solutions and our ability to sell additional solutions and user subscriptions include:

Veeva Systems Inc. | Form 10-K   13

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In addition, our customers may negotiate terms less advantageous to us upon renewal, which could reduce our revenues from these customers. As a customer’s total spend on Veeva solutions increases, we expect purchasing scrutiny at renewal to increase as well, which may result in reductions in user subscriptions or increased pricing pressure. Other factors that are not within our control may contribute to a reduction in our subscription services revenues. For instance, our customers may reduce their number of sales representatives, which would result in a corresponding reduction in the number of user subscriptions needed for some of our solutions and thus a lower aggregate renewal fee, or our customers may discontinue clinical trials for which our solutions are being used. If our customers fail to renew their subscription orders, renew their subscription orders with less favorable terms or at lower fee levels or fail to purchase new solutions, applications, or professional services from us, our revenues may decline or our future revenues may be constrained.

We rely on third-party providers—including salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services—for computing infrastructure, secure network connectivity, and other technology-related services needed to deliver our cloud solutions. We have migrated to Amazon Web Services for more of these services, particularly with respect to our solutions other than Veeva CRM. Any disruption in the services provided by such third-party providers could adversely affect our business and subject us to liability.

Our solutions are hosted from and use computing infrastructure provided by third parties, including salesforce.com with respect to Veeva CRM and certain of our multichannel CRM applications, Amazon Web Services with respect to Veeva Vault applications, Veeva Network applications, and certain other Veeva Commercial Cloud applications, and other computing infrastructure service providers. We have migrated most of our computing infrastructure needs to Amazon Web Services. Such migrations are risky and may cause disruptions to our cloud solutions, service outages, downtime, or other problems and may increase our costs.

We do not own or control the operation of the third-party facilities or equipment used to provide the services described above. Our computing infrastructure service providers have no obligation to renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we are unable to renew these agreements on commercially reasonable terms, or if one of our computing infrastructure service providers is acquired, we may be required to transition to a new provider and we may incur significant costs and possible service interruption in connection with doing so. In addition, such service providers could decide to close their facilities or change or suspend their service offerings without adequate notice to us. Moreover, any financial difficulties, such as bankruptcy, faced by such service providers may have negative effects on our business, the nature and extent of which are difficult to predict. Since we cannot easily switch computing infrastructure service providers, any disruption with respect to our current providers would impact our operations and our business could be adversely impacted.

Problems faced by our computing infrastructure service providers, including those operated by salesforce.com or Amazon Web Services, could adversely affect the experience of our customers. For example, salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services have experienced significant service outages and may do so again in the future. Additionally, if we fail to manage or react to an increase in demand sufficiently, this could have an adverse effect on our business. For example, a rapid expansion of our business could affect our service levels or cause such systems to fail. Our agreements with third-party computing infrastructure service providers may not entitle us to corresponding service level credits to those we offer to our customers. Any changes in third-party service levels at our computing infrastructure service providers or any related disruptions or performance problems with our solutions could adversely affect our reputation and may damage our customers’ stored files, result in lengthy interruptions in our services, or result in potential losses of customer data. Interruptions in our services might reduce our revenues, cause us to issue refunds to customers for prepaid and unused subscriptions, subject us to service level credit claims and potential liability, or adversely affect our renewal rates.

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An inability to attract and retain highly skilled employees could adversely affect our business.

To execute our growth plan, we must attract and retain highly qualified employees. Competition for these employees is intense, especially with respect to sales and marketing personnel and engineers with high levels of experience in enterprise software and internet-related services. We have, from time to time, experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining employees with the appropriate level of qualifications. With respect to sales professionals, even if we are successful in attracting highly qualified personnel, it may take six to nine months or longer before they are fully trained and productive. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced employees have greater resources than we have and may offer compensation packages that are perceived to be better than ours. For example, we offer equity awards to a substantial majority of our job candidates and existing employees as part of their overall compensation package. If the perceived value of our equity awards declines, including as a result of declines in the market price of our Class A common stock or changes in perception about our future prospects, it may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees. Additionally, changes in our compensation structure may be negatively received by employees and result in attrition or cause difficulty in the recruiting process. If we fail to attract new employees or fail to retain and motivate our current employees, our business and future growth prospects could be adversely affected.

 

As our costs increase, we may not be able to sustain the level of profitability we have achieved in the past.

We expect our future expenses to increase as we continue to invest in and grow our business. We expect to incur significant future expenditures related to:

If our efforts to increase revenues and manage our expenses are not successful, or if we incur costs, damages, fines, settlements, or judgments as a result of other risks and uncertainties described in this report, we may not be able to sustain or increase our historical levels of profitability.

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Defects or disruptions in our solutions could result in diminished demand for our solutions, a reduction in our revenues, and subject us to substantial liability.

We have from time to time found defects in our solutions, and new defects may be detected in the future. In addition, we have experienced, and may in the future experience, service disruptions, degradations, outages, and other performance problems. These types of problems may be caused by a variety of factors, including human or software errors, viruses, cyber attacks, fraud, spikes in customer usage, problems associated with our third-party computing infrastructure and network providers, infrastructure changes, and denial of service issues. Service disruptions may result from errors we make in delivery, configuring, or hosting our solutions, or designing, installing, expanding, or maintaining our computing infrastructure. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. It is also possible that such problems could result in losses of customer data.

Since our customers use our solutions for important aspects of their business, any errors, defects, disruptions, service degradations, or other performance problems with our solutions could hurt our reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. If that occurs, our customers may delay or withhold payment to us, cancel their agreements with us, elect not to renew, or make service credit claims, warranty claims, or other claims against us, and we could lose future sales. The occurrence of any of these events could result in diminishing demand for our solutions, a reduction of our revenues, an increase in our bad debt expense or in collection cycles for accounts receivable, or could require us to increase our warranty provisions or incur the expense of litigation or substantial liability.

If the third-party providers of healthcare reference data and prescription drug sales data do not allow our customers to upload and use such data in our solutions, our business may be negatively impacted.

Many of our customers license healthcare professional and healthcare organization data and data regarding the sales of prescription drugs from third parties such as IQVIA. In order for our customers to upload such data to the Veeva CRM, Veeva Network Customer Master, and Veeva Nitro solutions, such third-party data providers typically must consent to such uploads and often require that we enter into agreements regarding our obligations with respect to such data, which include confidentiality obligations and intellectual property rights with respect to such third-party data. We have experienced delays and difficulties in our negotiations with such third-party data providers in the past, and we expect to experience difficulties in the future. For instance, IQVIA currently will not consent to its healthcare professional or healthcare organization data being uploaded to Veeva Network Customer Master and this has negatively affected sales and customer adoption of Veeva Network Customer Master. To date, IQVIA has also restricted the uploading of IQVIA data to Veeva Nitro. Similarly, sales and customer adoption of Veeva OpenData has been negatively impacted by certain restrictions on the use of IQVIA data during customer transitions from IQVIA data to Veeva OpenData. If such third-party data providers do not consent to the uploading and use of their data in our solutions, delay consent or fail to offer reasonable conditions for the upload and use of such data in our solutions, our sales efforts, solution implementations and productive use of our solutions by customers may be harmed, and our business, in turn, may be negatively impacted.  

We have experienced rapid growth, and if we fail to manage our growth effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan.

Since we were founded, we have experienced rapid growth and expansion of our operations. Our revenues, customer count, product and service offerings, countries of operation, facilities, and computing infrastructure needs have all increased significantly, and we expect them to increase in the future. We have also experienced rapid growth in our employee base, and as we continue to grow, we must effectively integrate, develop, and motivate a large number of new employees, while executing our growth plan and maintaining the beneficial aspects of our culture. Our rapid growth has placed, and will continue to place, a significant strain on our management capabilities, administrative and operational infrastructure, facilities and other resources. We anticipate that additional investments in our facilities and computing

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infrastructure will be required to scale our operations. To effectively manage growth, we must continue to: improve our key business applications, processes, and computing infrastructure; enhance information and communication systems; and ensure that our policies and procedures evolve to reflect our current operations and are appropriately communicated to and observed by employees. These enhancements and improvements will require additional investments and allocation of valuable management and employee time and resources. Failure to effectively manage growth could result in difficulty or delays in deploying our solutions, declines in quality or customer satisfaction, increases in costs, difficulties in introducing new features or other operational difficulties, and any of these difficulties could adversely impact our business performance and results of operations.  

Nearly all of our revenues are generated by sales to customers in the life sciences industry, and factors that adversely affect this industry, including mergers within the life sciences industry or regulatory changes, could also adversely affect us.

Nearly all of our sales are to customers in the life sciences industry. Demand for our solutions could be affected by factors that adversely affect the life sciences industry, including:

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Accordingly, our operating results and our ability to efficiently provide our solutions to life sciences companies and to grow or maintain our customer base could be adversely affected as a result of factors that affect the life sciences industry generally.

Our revenues and gross margin from professional services fees are volatile and may not increase from quarter to quarter or at all.

We derive a significant portion of our revenue from professional services fees. Our professional services revenues fluctuate from quarter to quarter as a result of the requirements, complexity, and timing of our customers’ implementation projects in our professional services arrangements. Generally, a customer’s ongoing need for professional services decreases as the implementation and full deployment of such solutions is completed. Our customers may also choose to use third parties rather than us for certain professional services related to our solutions. As a result of these and other factors, our professional services revenues may not increase on a quarterly basis in the future or at all. Additionally, the gross margin generated from professional services fees fluctuates based on a number of factors which may be variable from period to period, including the average billable hours worked by our billable professional services personnel, our hourly rates for professional services and the margin on professional services subcontracted to our third-party systems integrator partners. As a result of these and other factors, the gross margin from our professional services may not increase on a quarterly basis in the future or at all.

We have been and may in the future be sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights or misappropriation of intellectual property and we may suffer damages or other harm from such proceedings.

There is considerable patent and other intellectual property development activity in our industry. Our competitors, as well as a number of other entities and individuals, including so-called non-practicing entities, or NPEs, may own or claim to own intellectual property relating to our solutions. From time to time, third parties may claim that we are infringing upon their intellectual property rights or that we have misappropriated their intellectual property. For example, in 2014, we settled a lawsuit with Prolifiq Software, Inc. in exchange for a license to certain asserted patents, and we are currently defending against assertions of trade secret misappropriation made by our competitors, Medidata and IQVIA, as described in note 13 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements. As competition in our market grows, the possibility of patent infringement and other intellectual property claims against us increases. In the future, we expect others to claim that our solutions and underlying technology infringe or violate their intellectual property rights. We may be unaware of the intellectual property rights that others may claim cover some or all of our technology or services. Any claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us, could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty payments, prevent us from offering our services, or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners or pay substantial settlement costs, including royalty payments, in connection with any such claim or litigation and to obtain licenses, modify applications or refund fees, which could be costly. Even if we were to prevail in such a dispute, any litigation regarding our intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming and divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations.

Our solutions address heavily regulated functions within the life sciences industry, and failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations could lessen the demand for our solutions or subject us to significant claims and losses.

Our customers use our solutions for business activities that are subject to a complex regime of global laws and regulations, including requirements for maintenance of electronic records and electronic

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signatures (as set forth in 21 CFR Part 11, EU Annex 11, and Japan PFSB Notification No. 0401022), requirements regarding drug sample tracking and distribution (as set forth in 21 CFR Part 203, EU Directive 201/83/EC Article 96), requirements regarding system validations (as set forth in 21 CFR Part 802.75 and 21 CFR Part 211.68), and other laws and regulations. Our solutions are expected to be capable of use by our customers in compliance with such laws and regulations. Our efforts to provide solutions that comply with such laws and regulations are time-consuming and costly and include validation procedures that may delay the release of new versions of our solutions. As these laws and regulations change over time, we may find it difficult to adjust our solutions to comply with such changes. For example, on June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum in which voters approved an exit from the European Union, commonly referred to as “Brexit.” Since a significant proportion of the regulatory framework in the United Kingdom is derived from EU directives and regulations, Brexit could materially affect the regulatory regime applicable to our customers with operations in the United Kingdom. The British Parliament is currently reviewing the withdrawal agreement and regulatory framework. If a compromise related to data use is achieved, then data may flow as normal between the UK’s departure from the EU and the end of the transition period currently scheduled to end on December 31, 2020. However, if a compromise is not met, changes to the regulatory regime could have a material adverse effect on life sciences and technology industries generally and on our ability to adjust our solutions to comply with such changes.

As we increase the number of products we offer and the number of countries in which we offer solutions, the complexity of adjusting our solutions to comply with legal and regulatory changes will increase. If we are unable to effectively manage this increase or if we are not able to provide solutions that can be used in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, customers may be unwilling to use our solutions and any such non-compliance could result in the termination of our customer agreements or claims arising from such agreements with our customers.

Additionally, any failure of our customers to comply with laws and regulations applicable to the functions for which our solutions are used could result in fines, penalties or claims for substantial damages against our customers that may harm our business or reputation. If such failure were allegedly caused by our solutions or services, our customers may make a claim for damages against us, regardless of our responsibility for the failure. We may be subject to lawsuits that, even if unsuccessful, could divert our resources and our management’s attention and adversely affect our business, and our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover such claims against us.

Increasingly complex data protection and privacy regulations are burdensome, may reduce demand for our solutions, and non-compliance may impose significant liabilities.

Our customers use our solutions to collect, use, process, and store personal data or identifying information regarding their employees and the medical professionals with whom our customers have contact, and, potentially, personal data (including potentially sensitive data such as health information) regarding patients maintained by our customers pursuant to clinical, operational, or compliance processes. In this capacity, we act as a data processor. We also collect and sell a database, via our Veeva OpenData and Veeva Oncology Link solutions, for which we are a data controller. In many countries, national and local governmental bodies have adopted, are considering adopting, or may adopt laws and regulations regarding the collection, use, processing, storage, and disclosure of personal information obtained from individuals, making compliance a complex task.

For example, in the United States, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services promulgated patient privacy rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), that protect medical records and other personal health information by limiting their use and disclosure, giving individuals the right to access, amend, and seek accounting of their own health information and limiting most use and disclosures of health information to the minimum amount reasonably necessary to accomplish the intended purposes. Certain of our customers may be either business associates or covered entities under HIPAA.

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We are a data controller and data processor under European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect on May 25, 2018 and replaced EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. Compliance with GDPR has and will continue to require valuable management and employee time and resources, and failure to comply with GDPR could include severe penalties and could reduce demand for our solutions.

In addition, we have self-certified under the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shields, and we routinely utilize the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, often also referred to as Model Clauses, to ensure that our European customers have adequate assurance of our technical and organization controls on privacy. However, the Privacy Shield programs and the Model Clauses are currently under review by the European Court of Justice. There is also a trend toward countries enacting data localization requirements which are not particularly compatible with the cloud computing model. For example, Russia's localization law (Federal Law No. 242-FZ) requires that the source of data for Russian nationals collected on Russian territory must be stored in Russia. We are also monitoring the impact of China’s cyber security law and its related implementation rules, which are not yet finalized. Depending on the final enacted implementation rules, localization of certain types of data and restrictions on cross-border transfers may apply.

Customers expect that our solutions can be used in compliance with such laws and regulations. The functional and operational requirements and costs of compliance with such laws and regulations may adversely impact our business, and failure to enable our solutions to comply with such laws and regulations could lead to significant fines and penalties imposed by regulators, as well as claims by our customers or third parties. Additionally, all of these domestic and international legislative and regulatory initiatives could adversely affect our customers’ ability or desire to collect, use, process and store personal or health-related information using our solutions or to license data products from us, which could reduce demand for our solutions.

We may acquire other companies or technologies, which could divert our management’s attention, result in additional dilution to our stockholders and otherwise disrupt our operations and adversely affect our operating results.

We have in the past acquired and may in the future seek to acquire or invest in businesses, solutions or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our solutions, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities. The pursuit of potential acquisitions may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating, and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated.

We have limited experience in acquiring other businesses. We may not be able to successfully integrate the acquired personnel, operations and technologies, or effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition. We also may not achieve the anticipated benefits from the acquired business due to a number of factors, including:

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In addition, a significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets, which we must assess for impairment at least annually. In the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take charges to our operating results based on this impairment assessment process, which could adversely affect our results of operations. Acquisitions may also result in purchase accounting adjustments, write-offs or restructuring charges, which may negatively affect our results.

Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, which could adversely affect our operating results. In addition, if an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our operating results, business and financial position may suffer.

Our sales cycles can be long and unpredictable, and our sales efforts require considerable investment of time and expense. If our sales cycle lengthens or we invest substantial resources pursuing unsuccessful sales opportunities, our operating results and growth would be harmed.

Our sales process entails planning discussions with prospective customers, analyzing their existing solutions and identifying how these potential customers can use and benefit from our solutions. The sales cycle for a new customer, from the time of prospect qualification to the completion of the first sale, may span over 12 months or longer. In particular, we have limited history selling our newer solutions, such as Veeva Vault CDMS, Veeva Nitro, and Veeva Vault Training. As a result, our sales cycle for these applications may be lengthy and difficult to predict. In addition, we have only recently begun selling certain of our Veeva Vault applications to companies outside the life sciences industry. We spend substantial time, effort and money in our sales efforts without any assurance that our efforts will result in the sale of our solutions. In addition, our sales cycle can vary substantially from customer to customer because of various factors, including the discretionary nature of potential customers’ purchasing and budget decisions, the announcement or planned introduction of new solutions by us or our competitors and the purchasing approval processes of potential customers. If our sales cycle lengthens or we invest substantial resources pursuing unsuccessful sales opportunities, our operating results and growth would be harmed.

Catastrophic events could disrupt our business and adversely affect our operating results.

Our corporate headquarters are located in Pleasanton, California and our third-party hosted computing infrastructure is located in the United States, the European Union, Japan, and South Korea. The west coast of the United States and Japan and South Korea each contain active earthquake zones. Additionally, we rely on our network and third-party infrastructure and enterprise applications, internal technology systems, and our website for our development, marketing, operational support, hosted services, and sales activities. In the event of a major earthquake, hurricane, or catastrophic event such as fire, power loss, telecommunications failure, cyber-attack, war, or terrorist attack, we may be unable to continue our operations and may experience system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in our solution development, lengthy interruptions in our services, breaches of data security, and loss of critical data, all of which could have an adverse effect on our future operating results.

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Within Veeva Commercial Cloud, our core Veeva CRM application has achieved substantial penetration within the sales teams of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. If our efforts to sustain or further increase the use and adoption of our core CRM application does not succeed, the growth rate of our Veeva Commercial Cloud revenues may be negatively impacted.

In our fiscal year ended January 31, 2019, we derived approximately 57% of our subscription services revenues and 53% of our total revenues from our Veeva Commercial Cloud solutions. A significant percentage of the subscription services revenues for our Veeva Commercial Cloud solutions is derived from subscriptions to our core CRM application. We have, however, realized substantial sales penetration of the available market for our core Veeva CRM application among pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. If we are not able to sell additional user subscriptions to our core CRM application or if we fail to renew existing subscriptions to our core CRM application, the growth rate of our Veeva Commercial Cloud revenues may be negatively impacted.

Because key and substantial portions of our multichannel CRM applications are built on salesforce.com’s Salesforce1 Platform, we are dependent upon our agreement with salesforce.com to provide these solutions to our customers, and we are bound by the restrictions of this agreement which limits the companies to which we may sell our Veeva CRM solution.

Our Veeva CRM application and certain portions of the multichannel CRM applications that complement our Veeva CRM application are developed on or utilize the Salesforce1 Platform of salesforce.com, and we rely on our agreement with salesforce.com to continue to use the Salesforce1 Platform as combined with the proprietary aspects of our multichannel CRM applications.

Our agreement with salesforce.com expires on September 1, 2025. However, salesforce.com has the right to terminate the agreement in certain circumstances, including in the event of a material breach of the agreement by us, or that salesforce.com is subjected to third-party intellectual property infringement claims based on our solutions (except to the extent based on the Salesforce1 Platform) or our trademarks and we do not remedy such infringement in accordance with the agreement. Also, if we are acquired by specified companies, salesforce.com may terminate the agreement upon notice of not less than 12 months. If salesforce.com terminates our agreement under these circumstances, our customers will be unable to access Veeva CRM and certain other of our multichannel CRM applications. A termination of the agreement would cause us to incur significant time and expense to acquire rights to, or develop, a replacement CRM platform, and we may not be successful in these efforts. Even if we were to successfully acquire or develop a replacement CRM platform, some customers may decide not to adopt the replacement platform and may decide to use a different CRM solution. If we were unsuccessful in acquiring or developing a replacement CRM platform or acquired or developed a replacement CRM platform that our customers do not adopt, our business, operating results and brand may be adversely affected.

Also, if either party elects not to renew the agreement at the end of its September 1, 2025 term or if the agreement is terminated by us as a result of salesforce.com’s breach, the agreement provides for a five-year wind-down period in which we would be able to continue providing the Salesforce1 Platform as combined with the proprietary aspects of our solutions to our existing customers but would be limited with respect to the number of additional subscriptions we could sell to our existing customers. After the wind-down period, we would no longer be able to use the Salesforce1 Platform.

Our agreement with salesforce.com provides that we can use the Salesforce1 Platform as combined with our proprietary Veeva CRM application to sell sales automation solutions only to drug makers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries for human and animal treatments, which does not include the medical devices industry or products for non-drug departments of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Sales of the Salesforce1 Platform in combination with our Veeva CRM application to additional industries would require the review and approval of salesforce.com. Our inability to freely sell our Veeva CRM application outside of drug makers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may adversely impact our growth.

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While our agreement with salesforce.com, subject to certain exceptions, including pre-existing arrangements, provides that salesforce.com will not position, develop, promote, invest in or acquire applications directly competitive to the Veeva CRM application for sales automation that directly target drug makers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, or the pharma/biotech industry, our remedy for a breach of this commitment by salesforce.com would be to terminate the agreement, or continue the agreement but be released from our minimum order commitments from the date of salesforce.com’s breach forward. While our agreement with salesforce.com also restricts salesforce.com from competing with us with respect to sales opportunities for sales automation solutions for the pharma/biotech industry unless such competition has been pre-approved by salesforce.com’s senior management based on certain criteria specified in the agreement, and imposes certain limits on salesforce.com from entering into new arrangements after March 3, 2014 that are similar to ours with other parties with respect to sales automation applications for the pharma/biotech industry, it does not restrict a salesforce.com customer’s ability (or the ability of salesforce.com on behalf of a specific salesforce.com customer) to customize or configure the Salesforce1 Platform, and our remedy for a breach of these restrictions by salesforce.com would be to terminate the agreement, or continue the agreement but be released from our minimum order commitments from the date of salesforce.com’s breach forward. Some current or potential customers of ours may choose to build custom solutions using the Salesforce1 Platform rather than buying our solutions.

Our agreement with salesforce.com imposes significant financial commitments on us which we may not be able to meet and which could negatively impact our financial results and liquidity in the future.

Our Veeva CRM application, and certain portions of the multichannel CRM applications that complement our Veeva CRM application, are developed on and/or utilize the Salesforce1 Platform of salesforce.com. Under our agreement, salesforce.com provides the hosting infrastructure and data center for portions of our multichannel CRM applications, as well as the system administration, configuration, reporting and other platform level functionality. In exchange, we pay salesforce.com a fee. Our agreement with salesforce.com requires that we meet minimum order commitments of $500 million over the term of the agreement, which ends on September 1, 2025, including “true-up” payments if the orders we place with salesforce.com have not equaled or exceeded the following aggregate amounts within the timeframes indicated: (i) $250 million from March 1, 2014 to September 1, 2020 and (ii) the full amount of $500 million by September 1, 2025. See note 13 to the notes to our consolidated financial statements for more information about our on-going minimum fee obligation to salesforce.com. We have met our first minimum order commitment of $250 million and have a remaining purchase commitment of $216.4 million, as of January 31, 2019, that must be made by September 1, 2025. If we are not able to meet the remaining minimum order commitment, the required true-up payments will negatively impact our margins, cash flows, cash balance and financial condition, and our stock price may decline.

We employ third-party licensed software and software components for use in or with our solutions, and the inability to maintain these licenses or the presence of errors in the software we license could limit the functionality of our products and result in increased costs or reduced service levels, which would adversely affect our business.

In addition to our employment of the Salesforce1 Platform through our agreement with salesforce.com, our solutions incorporate or utilize certain third-party software and software components obtained under licenses from other companies. We anticipate that we will continue to rely on such third-party software and development tools from third parties in the future. Although we believe that there are commercially reasonable alternatives to the third-party software we currently license, this may not always be the case, or it may be difficult or costly to replace. Our use of additional or alternative third-party software would require us to enter into license agreements with third parties. In addition, if the third-party software we utilize has errors or otherwise malfunctions, the functionality of our solutions may be negatively impacted and our business may suffer.  

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Because we recognize subscription services revenues ratably over the term of the order for our subscription services, a significant downturn in our business may not be reflected immediately in our operating results, which increases the difficulty of evaluating our future financial performance.

We generally recognize subscription services revenues ratably over the term of an order under our subscription agreements. As a result, a substantial majority of our quarterly subscription services revenues are generated from subscription agreements entered into during prior periods. Consequently, a decline in new subscriptions in any quarter may not affect our results of operations in that quarter but could reduce our revenues in future quarters. Additionally, the timing of renewals or non-renewals of a subscription agreement during any quarter may only affect our financial performance in future quarters. For example, the non-renewal of a subscription agreement late in a quarter will have minimal impact on revenues for that quarter but will reduce our revenues in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant declines in sales and customer acceptance of our solutions may not be reflected in our short-term results of operations, which would make these reported results less indicative of our future financial results. By contrast, a non-renewal occurring early in a quarter may have a significant negative impact on revenues for that quarter and we may not be able to offset a decline in revenues due to non-renewal with revenues from new subscription agreements entered into in the same quarter. In addition, we may be unable to adjust our costs in response to reduced revenues.

Additionally, with respect to certain of our multi-year orders in which fees increase from year to year, Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (Topic 606) may require that the total contracted revenue for the entire multi-year term of the order be recognized ratably in the same amount in each year. As a result, in the initial year of such orders, we will recognize more revenue than the fees we invoice for the same period, and in the last year of such orders, we will recognize less revenue than the fees we invoice for the same period. This treatment may make our reported results less indicative of the actual health of our business at the time revenue is reported and may expose us to impaired accounts receivables or impaired unbilled accounts receivable if, for example, a customer terminated an otherwise non-cancelable multi-year contract for cause.

Changes in accounting principles may cause previously unanticipated fluctuations in our financial results, and the implementation of such changes may impact our ability to meet our financial reporting obligations.

We prepare our financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP which are subject to interpretation or changes by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and other various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. New accounting pronouncements and changes in accounting principles have occurred in the past and are expected to occur in the future which may have a significant effect on our financial results. For example, Topic 606 superseded most revenue recognition guidance, including industry-specific guidance. We were required to implement this new revenue standard in our fiscal year beginning February 1, 2018. The adoption of Topic 606 includes a requirement to capitalize the costs to obtain a customer contract (e.g., sales commissions) and amortize these costs over the estimated life of the underlying contract, which we have not previously done. Additionally, we expect the timing of revenue recognition for certain of our revenue arrangements to be impacted by the changes imposed by Topic 606. For instance, with respect to certain of our multi-year orders in which fees increase from year to year, Topic 606 may require that the total contracted revenue for the entire multi-year term of the order be recognized ratably in the same amount in each year. As a result, in the initial year of such orders, we will recognize more revenue than the fees we invoice for the same period, and in the last year of such orders, we will recognize less revenue than the fees we invoice for the same period. Please see note 1 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements for more information. Any difficulties in implementation of changes in accounting principles, including the ability to modify our accounting systems, could cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations, which could result in regulatory discipline and harm investors’ confidence in us.

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Deferred revenue and change in deferred revenue may not be an accurate indicator of our future financial results.

Our subscription orders are generally billed beginning at the subscription commencement date in annual or quarterly increments. Many of our customers, including many of our large customers, are billed on a quarterly basis and therefore a substantial portion of the value of contracts billed on a quarterly basis will not be reflected in our deferred revenue at the end of any given quarter. Also, because the terms of orders for additional end users or solutions are typically coterminus with the anniversary date of the initial order for a related solution, the terms of such orders for additional end users or solutions can be for relatively short periods of time, often less than one year and payment terms may also be quarterly. Therefore, the annualized value of such orders that we enter into with our customers will not be completely reflected in deferred revenue at any single point in time. We have also agreed from time to time and may agree in the future to allow customers to change the renewal dates of their orders to, for example, align more closely with a customer’s annual budget process or to align with the renewal dates of other orders placed by other entities within the same corporate control group, or to change payment terms from annual to quarterly, or vice versa. Such changes typically result in an order of less than one year as necessary to align all orders to the desired renewal date and, thus, may result in a lesser increase to deferred revenue than if the renewal date adjustment had not occurred. Additionally, if a coterminus order of less than one year renews in the same fiscal year in which it was originally signed and has annual billing terms, the order will generate more deferred revenue in that fiscal year than the annual contract value of that order. Accordingly, we do not believe that changes on a quarterly basis in deferred revenue, unbilled accounts receivable, or calculated billings, a metric commonly cited by financial analysts, are accurate indicators of future revenues for any given period of time. Please note that since the adoption of Topic 606, we define the term calculated billings for any period to mean revenue for the period plus the change in deferred revenue from the immediately preceding period minus the change in unbilled accounts receivable from the immediately preceding period. However, many companies that provide cloud-based software report changes in deferred revenue or calculated billings as key operating or financial metrics, and it is possible that analysts or investors may view these metrics as important. Thus, any changes in our deferred revenue balances or deferred revenue trends, or in the future, our unbilled accounts receivable balances or trends, could adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

Sales to customers outside the United States or with international operations expose us to risks inherent in international sales.

In our fiscal year ended January 31, 2019, sales to customers outside North America, which is primarily measured by the estimated location of the end users or usage for subscription services revenues and the estimated location of the resources performing the services for professional services, accounted for approximately 44% of our total revenues. A key element of our growth strategy is to further expand our international operations and worldwide customer base. Operating in international markets requires significant resources and management attention and subjects us to regulatory, economic and political risks that are different from those in the United States. We have limited operating experience in some international markets, and we cannot assure you that our expansion efforts into other international markets will be successful. Our experience in the United States and other international markets in which we already have a presence may not be relevant to our ability to expand in other emerging markets. Our international expansion efforts may not be successful in creating further demand for our solutions outside of the United States or in effectively selling our solutions in the international markets we enter. In addition, we face risks in doing business internationally that could adversely affect our business, including:

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Some of our business partners also have international operations and are subject to the risks described above. Even if we are able to successfully manage the risks of international operations, our business may be adversely affected if our business partners are not able to successfully manage these risks, which could adversely affect our business.

We are subject to governmental export and import controls that could impair our ability to compete in international markets in which our products may not be sold or subject us to liability if we violate the controls.

Our products are subject to U.S. export controls, including the U.S. economic sanctions laws and regulations that prohibit the shipment of certain products and services without the required export authorizations or export to countries, governments, and persons targeted by U.S. sanctions. Under current U.S. export restrictions, our products may not be sold in certain jurisdictions in which certain of our non-U.S. based customers have operations. As a result, such customers may choose to use solutions other than ours. While we take precautions to prevent our products and services from being exported in violation of these laws, we cannot guarantee that the precautions we take will prevent violations of export control and sanctions laws. Violations of U.S. sanctions or export control laws can result in fines or penalties. In the event of criminal knowing and willful violations of these laws, fines and possible incarceration for responsible employees and managers could be imposed.

If we lose the services of our founder and Chief Executive Officer or other members of our senior management team, we may not be able to execute our business strategy.

Our success depends in a large part upon the continued service of our senior management team. In particular, our founder and Chief Executive Officer, Peter P. Gassner, is critical to our vision, strategic direction, culture, products and technology. We do not maintain key-man insurance for Mr. Gassner or any other member of our senior management team. We do not have employment agreements with members of our senior management team or other key personnel that require them to continue to work for us for any specified period and, therefore, they could terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of our founder and Chief Executive Officer or one or more other members of our senior management team could have an adverse effect on our business.

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Our business could be adversely affected if our customers are not satisfied with the professional services provided by us or our partners, or with our technical support services.

Our business depends on our ability to satisfy our customers, both with respect to our solutions and the professional services that are performed in connection with the implementation of our solutions. Professional services may be performed by us, by a third party, or by a combination of the two. If a customer is not satisfied with the quality of work performed by us or a third party or with the solutions delivered or professional services performed, then we could incur additional costs to address the situation, we may be required to issue credits or refunds for pre-paid amounts related to unused services, the profitability of that work might be impaired and the customer’s dissatisfaction with our services could damage our ability to expand the number of solutions subscribed to by that customer. Moreover, negative publicity related to our customer relationships, regardless of its accuracy, may further damage our business by affecting our ability to compete for new business with current and prospective customers.

Once our solutions are deployed, our customers depend on our support organization to resolve technical issues relating to our solutions. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for technical support services. Increased customer demand for our services, without corresponding revenues, could increase costs and adversely affect our operating results. In addition, our sales process is highly dependent on the reputation of our solutions and business and on positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain high-quality technical support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could adversely affect our reputation, our ability to sell our solutions to existing and prospective customers and our business and operating results.

Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand.

Our success and ability to compete depend in part upon our intellectual property. As of January 31, 2019, we had filed applications for a number of patents, and we have 17 issued U.S., three Japanese, and two Chinese patents. We also rely on copyright, trade secret and trademark laws, trade secret protection and confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, customers, partners and others to protect our intellectual property rights. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may be inadequate.

In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Negative publicity related to a decision by us to initiate such enforcement actions against a customer or former customer, regardless of its accuracy, may adversely impact our other customer relationships or prospective customer relationships, harm our brand and business and could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline. Our failure to secure, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could adversely affect our brand and our business.

Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we should have collected or in the future should collect sales and use, value added or similar transactional taxes, and we could be subject to liability with respect to past or future sales, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

We do not collect sales and use, value added and similar transactional taxes in all jurisdictions in which we have sales and no physical presence, based on our belief that such taxes are not applicable or that we are not required to collect such taxes with respect to the jurisdiction. Sales and use, value added and similar tax laws and rates vary greatly by jurisdiction. Certain jurisdictions in which we do not collect and remit such taxes may assert that such taxes are applicable, which could result in tax assessments, penalties and interest, and we may be required to collect such taxes in the future. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. may increase that risk by increasing states’ ability to assert taxing jurisdiction on out-of-state retailers. Such tax assessments, penalties and interest or future requirements may adversely affect our results of operations. We believe that our financial statements reflect adequate reserves to cover such a contingency, but there can be no assurances in that regard.

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Unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate and additional tax liabilities, including as a result of our international operations or implementation of new tax rules, could harm our future results.

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions (including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom) and our domestic and international tax liabilities are subject to the allocation of expenses in differing jurisdictions and complex transfer pricing regulations administered by taxing authorities in various jurisdictions. Tax rates in the jurisdictions in which we operate may change as a result of factors outside of our control or relevant taxing authorities may disagree with our determinations as to the income and expenses attributable to specific jurisdictions. In addition, changes in tax and trade laws, treaties or regulations, or their interpretation or enforcement, have become more unpredictable and may become more stringent, which could materially adversely affect our tax position. Forecasting our estimated annual effective tax rate is complex and subject to uncertainty, and there may be material differences between our forecasted and actual tax rates. Our effective tax rate could be adversely affected by changes in the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates, certain non-deductible expenses, the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, adjustments to income taxes upon finalization of tax returns, changes in allowable tax attributes, decision to repatriate non-U.S. earnings for which we have not previously provided for U.S. taxes, and changes in federal, state or international tax laws and accounting principles. Increases in our effective tax rate would reduce our profitability.

Our tax provision could also be impacted by changes in accounting principles and changes in U.S. federal and state or international tax laws applicable to multinational corporations. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (Tax Act) significantly changes how the U.S. Department of Treasury imposes income taxes on U.S. corporations. We made significant judgments and assumptions in the interpretation of this new law and in our calculations reflected in our financial statements. The U.S. Department of Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and other standard-setting bodies may issue guidance on how the provisions of the Tax Act will be applied or otherwise administered, and additional accounting guidance or interpretations may be issued in the future that is different from our current interpretation. As a further example, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. increasing states’ ability to assert taxing jurisdiction on out-of-state retailers could result in certain additional jurisdictions asserting that sales and use and other taxes are applicable, which could result in tax assessments, penalties, and interest, and we may be required to collect such taxes in the future.

In addition, other countries are considering fundamental tax law changes. Any changes in taxing jurisdictions' administrative interpretations, decisions, policies and positions could also impact our tax liabilities. The overall tax environment has made it increasingly challenging for multinational corporations to operate with certainty about taxation in many jurisdictions. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which represents a coalition of member countries, is supporting changes to numerous long-standing tax rules, including changes to the practice of shifting profits among affiliated entities located in different tax jurisdictions. The increasingly complex global tax environment could have a material adverse effect on our effective tax rate, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Finally, we have been and may be in the future subject to income tax audits throughout the world. We believe our income, employment and transactional tax liabilities are reasonably estimated and accounted for in accordance with applicable laws and principles, but an adverse resolution of one or more uncertain tax positions in any period could have a material impact on the results of operations for that period.

Our solutions utilize open source software, and any failure to comply with the terms of one or more of these open source licenses could adversely affect our business.

Our solutions include software covered by open source licenses. The terms of various open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to market our solutions. By the terms of certain open source licenses, we could be required to release the source code of our proprietary software, and to make our proprietary software available under open source licenses, if

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we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner. In the event that portions of our proprietary software are determined to be subject to an open source license, we could be required to publicly release the affected portions of our source code, re-engineer all or a portion of our solutions, or otherwise be limited in the licensing of our solutions, each of which could reduce or eliminate the value of our solutions and services. In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. Many of the risks associated with usage of open source software cannot be eliminated and could adversely affect our business.

Our estimate of the market size for our solutions we have provided publicly may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market size is accurate, we cannot assure you our business will serve a significant portion of the market.

Our estimate of the market size for our solutions that we have provided publicly, sometimes referred to as total addressable market (TAM), is subject to significant uncertainty and is based on assumptions and estimates, including our internal analysis and industry experience, which may not prove to be accurate. These estimates are, in part, based upon the size of the general application areas in which our solutions are targeted. Our ability to serve a significant portion of this estimated market is subject to many factors, including our success in implementing our business strategy, which is subject to many risks and uncertainties. For example, in order to address the entire TAM we have identified, we must continue to enhance and add functionality to our existing solutions and introduce new solutions. Accordingly, even if our estimate of the market size is accurate, we cannot assure you that our business will serve a significant portion of this estimated market for our solutions.

Currency exchange fluctuations may negatively impact our financial results.

Some of our international agreements provide for payment denominated in local currencies, and the majority of our local costs are denominated in local currencies. As we continue to expand our operations in countries outside the United States, an increasing proportion of our revenues and expenditures in the future may be denominated in foreign currencies. Fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar versus foreign currencies may impact our operating results when translated into U.S. dollars. Thus, our results of operations and cash flows are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates, particularly changes in the Euro, British Pound Sterling, Japanese Yen, and Chinese Yuan, and may be adversely affected in the future due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. Changes in exchange rates may negatively affect our revenues and other operating results as expressed in U.S. dollars in the future. Further, we have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in our net income as a result of transaction gains or losses related to revaluing certain current asset and current liability balances that are denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of the entities in which they are recorded.

We initiated a program during our fiscal year ended January 31, 2018 to engage in the hedging of our foreign currency transactions and may, in the future, hedge selected significant transactions or net monetary exposure positions denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. The use of such hedging activities may not offset any or more than a portion of the adverse financial effects of unfavorable movements in foreign exchange rates over the limited time the hedges are in place. Moreover, the use of hedging instruments may introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments.

If we are unable to implement and maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.

As a public company, we are required to maintain internal controls over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal controls. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley Act) requires that we evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal controls

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over financial reporting and provide a management report on internal controls over financial reporting. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act also requires that our management report on internal controls over financial reporting be attested to by our independent registered public accounting firm.

Many of the internal controls we have implemented pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are process controls with respect to which a material weakness may be found whether or not any error has been identified in our reported financial statements. This may be confusing to investors and result in damage to our reputation, which may harm our business. Additionally, the proper design and assessment of internal controls over financial reporting are subject to varying interpretations, and, as a result, application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies and as common practices evolve. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding the proper design and assessment of internal controls over financial reporting and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to internal controls.

We must continue to monitor and assess our internal control over financial reporting. If in the future we have any material weaknesses, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated. Additionally, if in the future we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner, are unable to assert that our internal controls over financial reporting are effective, identify material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.

If we fail to develop widespread brand awareness cost-effectively, our business may suffer.

We believe that developing and maintaining widespread awareness of our brand in a cost-effective manner is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our solutions, attracting new customers, and generating and maintaining profitability. Currently, our brand may be less recognized by the key decision makers at the potential customers for our newer solutions, including Veeva Vault CDMS, Veeva Nitro, and Veeva Vault Training, and our solutions for companies in industries other than life sciences. Brand promotion activities may not generate customer awareness or increase revenues, and even if they do, any increase in revenues may not offset the expenses we incur in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand, or incur substantial expenses attempting to promote and maintain our brand, we may fail to attract or retain customers necessary to realize a sufficient return on our brand-building efforts or to achieve the widespread brand awareness that is critical for broad customer adoption of our solutions.

If the demand for cloud-based solutions declines, particularly in the life sciences industry, our revenues could decrease and our business could be adversely affected.

The continued expansion of cloud-based solutions, particularly in the life sciences industry, depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance and perceived value associated with cloud-based solutions, as well as the ability of providers of cloud-based solutions to address and maintain security, privacy and unique regulatory requirements or concerns. If we or other cloud-based solution providers experience security incidents, loss of customer data, disruptions in delivery or other problems, the market for cloud-based solutions in the life sciences industry, including our solutions, may be adversely affected. If cloud-based solutions do not continue to achieve more widespread adoption in the life sciences industry, or there is a reduction in demand for cloud-based solutions, our revenues could decrease and our business could be adversely affected.

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Risks Related to Our Class A Common Stock

Our Class A common stock price has been and will likely continue to be volatile.

The trading price of our Class A common stock has been and will likely continue to be volatile for the foreseeable future. In addition, the trading prices of the securities of technology companies have been highly volatile. Accordingly, the market price of our Class A common stock is likely to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control. In addition to those risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, other factors could impact the value of our common stock, including:

In addition, if the market for technology stocks or the stock market in general experiences uneven investor confidence, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, operating results or financial condition. The market price of our Class A common stock might also decline in reaction to events that affect other companies within, or outside, our industry even if these events do not directly affect us. Some companies that have experienced volatility in the trading price of their stock have been the subject of securities class action litigation. If we are the subject of such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

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The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with certain individuals and their affiliates, which will limit or preclude the ability of our investors to influence corporate matters and could depress the market value of our Class A common stock.

Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share, and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. As of January 31, 2019, stockholders who hold shares of Class B common stock, including our executive officers and directors and their affiliates, together hold approximately 61.6% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. Because of the ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B common stock and Class A common stock, the holders of our Class B common stock collectively control a substantial majority of the combined voting power of our common stock and, assuming no material sales of such shares, will be able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval until October 15, 2023, including the election of directors, amendments of our organizational documents and any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets or other major corporate transaction. This concentrated control will limit or preclude our investors’ ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future. In addition, this may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our capital stock or may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

Future transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers effected for estate planning purposes. The conversion of Class B common stock to Class A common stock will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If, for example, our executive officers (including our Chief Executive Officer), employees, directors and their affiliates retain a significant portion of their holdings of Class B common stock for an extended period of time, they could, in the future, continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock.

In addition, S&P Dow Jones and FTSE Russell have recently announced changes to their eligibility criteria for inclusion of shares of public companies with multiple classes of stock on certain indices, including the S&P 500. While this has not affected the inclusion of Veeva’s Class A common stock in these indices to date, eligibility criteria of these indices and others may change in the future. In addition, several shareholder advisory firms have announced their opposition to the use of multiple class structures. As a result, the dual class structure of our common stock may prevent the inclusion of our Class A common stock in such indices and may cause shareholder advisory firms to publish negative commentary about our corporate governance practices or otherwise seek to cause us to change our capital structure. Any such exclusion from indices could result in a less active trading market for our Class A common stock. Any actions or publications by shareholder advisory firms critical of our corporate governance practices or capital structure could also adversely affect the value of our Class A common stock.

We have broad discretion in the use of our cash balances and may not use them effectively.

We have broad discretion in the use of our cash balances and may not use them effectively. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could adversely affect our business and financial condition. Pending their use, we may invest our cash balances in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value. Our investments may not yield a favorable return to our investors and may negatively impact the price of our Class A common stock.

We do not intend to pay dividends on our capital stock for the foreseeable future, so any returns will be limited to changes in the value of our Class A common stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. In addition, our ability to pay cash dividends on our capital stock may be prohibited or limited by the terms of any future debt financing arrangement. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to the increase, if any, of the price of our Class A common stock.

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Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock, including pursuant to our equity incentive plans, could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause the stock price of our Class A common stock to decline.

In the future, we may sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. We expect to issue securities to employees and directors pursuant to our equity incentive plans. If we sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in subsequent transactions, or common stock is issued pursuant to equity incentive plans, our investors may be materially diluted. New investors in such subsequent transactions could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock, including our Class A common.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that they might occur, could cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline or make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that sales, or the perception that our shares may be available for sale, will have on the prevailing market price of our Class A common stock.

In addition, as of January 31, 2019, we had options outstanding that, if exercised, would result in the issuance of additional shares of Class A or Class B common stock. Our Class B common stock converts into Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis. As of January 31, 2019, we had restricted stock units outstanding which may vest in the future and result in the issuance of additional shares of Class A common stock. Our unexercised stock options and unvested restricted stock units, as of January 31, 2019, are described in note 11 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements. All of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the exercise of options (or upon conversion of shares of Class B common stock issued upon the exercise of options) or upon the vesting of restricted stock units have been registered for public resale under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. Accordingly, these shares will be able to be freely sold in the public market upon issuance as permitted by any applicable vesting requirements.

Provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws and Delaware law might discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the market price of our Class A common stock.

Our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could depress the market price of our Class A common stock by acting to discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous. These provisions among other things:

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In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company. Section 203 imposes certain restrictions on merger, business combinations and other transactions between us and holders of 15% or more of our common stock.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders' ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder's ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees and may discourage these types of lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.

 

ITEM 1B.    UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

 

 

ITEM 2.    PROPERTIES

We own our Pleasanton, California corporate headquarters, which currently accommodates our principal executive, development, engineering, marketing, business development, employee success, finance, legal, information technology and administrative activities. We expect that our corporate headquarters will support the overall growth of our business for the near term.

We also lease offices in San Francisco and San Carlos, California; Princeton, New Jersey; New York, New York; Dublin, Ohio; Fort Washington and Radnor, Pennsylvania; Australia; Brazil; Canada; China; France; Germany; Hungary; India Japan; Korea; Mexico; Singapore; Spain; Ukraine and the United Kingdom. We expect to expand our facilities capacity in certain field locations during our fiscal year ending January 31, 2020. We may further expand our facilities capacity after January 31, 2020 as our employee base grows. We believe that we will be able to obtain additional space on commercially reasonable terms.

 

 

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ITEM 3.    LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

From time to time, we may be involved in legal proceedings and subject to claims incident to the ordinary course of business. For information regarding certain current legal proceedings, see note 13 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements, which is incorporated herein by reference.

California Non-Compete Matter.

On July 17, 2017, we filed a complaint in the Superior Court of the State of California in the County of Alameda against Medidata, IQVIA, and Sparta Systems, Inc. (Veeva Systems Inc. v. Medidata Solutions, Inc., Quintiles IMS Incorporated, IMS Software Services, LTD., and Sparta Systems, Inc., Case No. RG17868081). Our Complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief concerning the use of non-compete, confidentiality, and non-disparagement agreements by these companies. On July 2, 2018, the court, in response to motions by all the defendants, sustained the defendants’ “motions to dismiss” (called “demurrers” in California State Court) while giving Veeva the opportunity to plead additional factual allegations. On July 20, 2018, we filed a Second Amended Complaint asserting the same claims and additional factual allegations as to Medidata and Sparta. We have also appealed the Court’s ruling as to IQVIA. Medidata and Sparta have “demurred” to Veeva’s Second Amended Complaint and have also filed anti-SLAPP motions under California law alleging their conduct is protected by the First Amendment. Veeva has opposed the motions. The hearing on the demurrers and anti-SLAPP motions is currently scheduled for June 5, 2019. Discovery is currently stayed.  

Although the results of legal proceedings and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we believe we are not currently a party to any other legal proceedings, the outcome of which, if determined adversely to us, would individually or taken together have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, cash flows, or financial position. Regardless of the outcome, such proceedings can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of resources and other factors, and there can be no assurances that favorable outcomes will be obtained.

 

ITEM 4.    MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

 

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PART II.

 

 

ITEM 5.    MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Market Price of Class A Common Stock

Our Class A common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “VEEV.”

Stockholders

As of January 31, 2019, we had 11 holders of record of our Class A common stock and 54 holders of record of our Class B common stock. The actual number of holders of Class A common stock is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees. This number of holders of record also does not include stockholders whose shares may be held in trust by other entities.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

None.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

None.

Stock Performance Graph

This performance graph shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), or incorporated by reference into any of our other filings under the Exchange Act or the Securities Act except to the extent we specifically incorporate it by reference into such filing.

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This chart compares the cumulative total return on our common stock with that of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 1500 Application Software Index. The chart assumes $100 was invested at the close of market on January 31, 2014 in the Class A common stock of Veeva Systems Inc., the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 1500 Application Software Index, and assumes the reinvestment of any dividends. The stock price performance on the following graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.

 

 

 

 

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ITEM 6.    SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto and with Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, which are included elsewhere in this Form 10‑K. The consolidated statement of income data for our fiscal years ended January 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of January 31, 2019 and 2018 are derived from, and are qualified by reference to, the audited consolidated financial statements and are included in this Form 10-K. The consolidated statement of income data for fiscal years ended January 31, 2016 and 2015 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of January 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 are derived from audited consolidated financial statements which, are not included in this Form 10‑K. The consolidated balance sheet data as of January 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016 and consolidated statement of income for the fiscal years ended January 31, 2018 and 2017 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements adjusted for the adoption of Topic 606. The consolidated balance sheet data as of January 31, 2015 and consolidated statement of income for the fiscal years ended January 31, 2016 and 2015 are derived from our audited financial statements, which have not been adjusted for Topic 606. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our future results. The selected consolidated financial data in this section are not intended to replace our consolidated financial statements and the related notes, and are qualified in their entirety by the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Form 10-K.

 

 

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ITEM 7.    MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with our “Selected Consolidated Financial Data” and our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K. In addition to historical consolidated financial information, the following discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors. We discuss factors that we believe could cause or contribute to these differences below and elsewhere in this Form 10-K, including those set forth under “Risk Factors” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

Overview

Veeva is the leading provider of industry cloud solutions for the global life sciences industry. We were founded in 2007 on the premise that industry-specific cloud solutions could best address the operating challenges and regulatory requirements of life sciences companies. Our solutions are designed to meet the unique needs of our customers and their most strategic business functions—from research and development (R&D) to commercialization. Our solutions are designed to help life sciences companies develop and bring products to market faster and more efficiently, market and sell more effectively, and maintain compliance with government regulations.

In our fiscal year ended January 31, 2019, we derived approximately 57% and 43% of our subscription services revenues and 53% and 47% of our total revenues from our Veeva Commercial Cloud solutions and Veeva Vault solutions, respectively. The contribution of subscription services revenues and total revenues associated with our Veeva Vault solutions are expected to continue to increase as a percentage of subscription services revenues and total revenues going forward. We are also offering certain of our solutions outside the life sciences industry in North America and Europe.

For our fiscal years ended January 31, 2019, 2018, and 2017, our total revenues were $862.2 million, $690.6 million and $550.5 million, respectively, representing year-over-year growth in total revenues of 25% in fiscal year ended January 31, 2019 and 25% in fiscal year ended January 31, 2018. For our fiscal years ended January 31, 2019, 2018, and 2017, our subscription services revenues were $694.5 million, $559.4 million, and $440.8 million, respectively, representing year-over-year growth in subscription services revenues of 24% in fiscal year ended January 31, 2019 and 27% in fiscal year ended January 31, 2018. We expect the growth rate of our total revenues and subscription services revenues to decline in the future. We generated net income of $229.8 million, $151.2 million, and $77.6 million for our fiscal years ended January 31, 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively.

As of January 31, 2019, 2018, and 2017, we served 719, 625, and 517 customers, respectively. As of January 31, 2019 and 2018, we had 335 and 313 Veeva Commercial Cloud customers, respectively, and 572 and 449 Veeva Vault customers, respectively. The combined customer counts for Veeva Commercial Cloud and Veeva Vault exceed the total customer count in each year because some customers subscribe to products in both areas. Veeva Commercial Cloud customers are those customers that have at least one of the following products: Veeva CRM, Veeva CLM, Veeva CRM Approved Email, Veeva CRM Engage, Veeva Align, Veeva CRM Events Management, Veeva OpenData, Veeva Oncology Link, Veeva Network Customer Master or Veeva Network Product Master. Veeva Vault customers are those customers that have at least one Vault product. Many of our Veeva Vault applications are used by smaller, earlier stage pre-commercial companies, some of which may not reach the commercialization stage. Thus, the potential number of Veeva Vault customers is significantly higher than the potential number of Veeva Commercial Cloud customers.  

For a further description of our business and products, see “Business” above.

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New Revenue Recognition Standard Under Topic 606

All results, including results from fiscal periods ended January 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016 presented in this Form 10-K, related to revenues, cost of revenues, and operating expenses, and our disclosure of expectations for future periods reflect our adoption of Topic 606. Refer to note 1 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Form 10-K for details regarding our adoption of Topic 606.

Key Factors Affecting Our Performance

Investment in Growth. We have invested and intend to continue to invest aggressively in expanding the breadth and depth of our product portfolio. We expect to continue to invest in research and development to expand existing solutions and build new solutions; in sales and marketing to promote our solutions to new and existing customers and in existing and expanded geographies and industries; in professional services to ensure the success of our customers’ implementations of our solutions; and in other operational and administrative functions to support our expected growth. We expect that our headcount will increase as a result of these investments. We also expect our total operating expenses will continue to increase over time, which could have a negative impact on our operating margin.  

Adoption of Our Solutions by Existing and New Customers. Most of our customers initially deploy our solutions to a limited number of end users within a division or geography and may only initially deploy a limited set of our available solutions. Our future growth is dependent upon our existing customers’ continued success and their renewals of subscriptions to our solutions, expanded deployment of our solutions within their organizations, and their purchase of subscriptions to additional solutions. Our growth is also dependent on the adoption of our solutions by new customers.

Subscription Services Revenue Retention Rate. A key factor to our success is the renewal and expansion of our existing subscription agreements with our customers. We calculate our annual subscription services revenue retention rate for a particular fiscal year by dividing (i) annualized subscription revenue as of the last day of that fiscal year from those customers that were also customers as of the last day of the prior fiscal year by (ii) the annualized subscription revenue from all customers as of the last day of the prior fiscal year. Annualized subscription revenue is calculated by multiplying the daily subscription revenue recognized on the last day of the fiscal year by 365. This calculation includes the impact on our revenues from customer non-renewals, deployments of additional users or decreases in users, deployments of additional solutions or discontinued use of solutions by our customers, and price changes for our solutions. Historically, the impact of price changes on our subscription services revenue retention rate has been minimal. For our fiscal years ended January 31, 2019, 2018, and 2017, our subscription services revenue retention rate was 122%, 121%, and 127%, respectively.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenues

We derive our revenues primarily from subscription services fees and professional services fees. Subscription services revenues consist of fees from customers accessing our cloud-based software solutions and subscription or license fees for our data solutions. Professional services and other revenues consist primarily of fees from implementation services, configuration, data services, training and managed services related to our solutions. For our fiscal year ended January 31, 2019, subscription services revenues constituted 81% of total revenues and professional services and other revenues constituted 19% of total revenues.

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We enter into master subscription agreements with our customers and count each distinct master subscription agreement that has not been terminated or expired and that has orders for which we have recognized revenue in the quarter as a distinct customer for purposes of determining our total number of current customers as of the end of that quarter. We generally enter into a single master subscription agreement with each customer, although in some instances, affiliated legal entities within the same corporate family may enter into separate master subscription agreements. Conversely, affiliated legal entities that maintain distinct master service agreements may choose to consolidate their orders under a single master service agreement, and, in that circumstance, our customer count would decrease. Divisions, subsidiaries and operating units of our customers often place distinct orders for our subscription services under the same master subscription agreement, and we do not count such distinct orders as new customers for purposes of determining our total customer count. With respect to data services customers that have not purchased one of our software solutions, we count as a distinct customer each party that has a master subscription agreement and a known and recurring payment obligation. For purposes of determining our total customer count, we count each entity that uses a legacy Zinc Ahead product as a distinct customer if such entity is not otherwise a customer of ours.

The majority of our new subscription orders typically have a one-year term and automatically renew unless notice of cancellation is provided in advance. If a customer adds end users or solutions to an existing order, such additional orders will generally be coterminus with the anniversary date of the initial order, and as a result, orders for additional end users or solutions will commonly have an initial term of less than one year. Subscription orders are generally billed at the beginning of the subscription commencement date in annual or quarterly increments. Because the term of orders for additional end users or solutions is commonly less than one year and payment terms may also be quarterly, the annualized value of such orders may not be completely reflected in deferred revenue at any single point in time. We have also agreed from time to time, and may agree in the future, to allow customers to change the renewal dates of their orders to, for example, align more closely with a customer’s annual budget process or to align with the renewal dates of other orders placed by other entities within the same corporate control group, or to change payment terms from annual to quarterly, or vice versa. Such changes typically result in an order of less than one year as necessary to align all orders to the desired renewal date and, thus, may result in a lesser increase to deferred revenue than if the adjustment had not occurred. Additionally, if a coterminus order of less than one year renews in the same fiscal year in which it was originally signed and has annual billing terms, the order will generate more deferred revenue in that fiscal year than the annual contract value of that order. Accordingly, we do not believe that changes on a quarterly basis in deferred revenue, unbilled accounts receivable, or calculated billings, a metric commonly cited by financial analysts, are accurate indicators of future revenues for any given period of time. Please note that since the adoption of Topic 606, we define the term calculated billings for any period to mean revenue for the period plus the change in deferred revenue from the immediately preceding period minus the change in unbilled accounts receivable from the immediately preceding period.

With respect to solutions other than Veeva CRM and particularly with respect to our Veeva Vault applications, we have entered into a number of orders with terms of up to seven years. The fees associated with such orders are typically not based on the number of end users and typically escalate over the term of such orders at a pre-agreed rate to account for, among other factors, implementation and adoption timing and planned increased usage by the customer. Similar to our orders with a one-year term, our multi-year orders are also billed in annual or quarterly increments, which means the annualized value of such orders may not be completely reflected in deferred revenue at any single point in time. Also, pursuant to Topic 606, timing differences between billings and revenue recognition with respect to our multi-year orders with escalating fees will result in fluctuations in deferred revenue and unbilled accounts receivable balances that did not occur prior to our adoption of Topic 606. For instance, when the amounts we are entitled to invoice in any period pursuant to multi-year orders with escalating fees are less than the revenue we are required to recognize pursuant to Topic 606, we will accrue an unbilled accounts receivable balance related to such orders. In the same scenario, the net deferred revenue we would record in connection with such orders will be less than it would have been prior to the adoption of Topic 606 because we will be recognizing more revenue earlier in the term of such multi-year orders.

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Subscription services revenues are recognized ratably over the respective non-cancelable subscription term because of the continuous transfer of control to the customer. Our subscription services agreements are generally non-cancelable during the term, although customers typically have the right to terminate their agreements for cause in the event of material breach. Subscription services revenues are affected primarily by the number of customers, the scope of the subscription purchased by each customer (for example, the number of end users or other subscription usage metric) and the number of solutions subscribed to by each customer.

We utilize our own professional services personnel and, in certain cases, third-party subcontractors to perform our professional services engagements with customers. The majority of our professional services arrangements are billed on a time and materials basis and revenues are measured monthly based on time incurred and contractually agreed upon rates. Certain professional services revenues are billed on a fixed fee basis and revenues are typically recognized over time based on the proportion of total services performed. Data services and training revenues are generally recognized as the services are performed. Professional services revenues are affected primarily by our customers’ demands for implementation services, configuration, data services, training, and managed services in connection with our solutions.

Cost of Revenues

Cost of subscription services revenues for all of our solutions consists of expenses related to our computing infrastructure provided by third parties, including salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services, personnel related costs associated with hosting our subscription services and providing support, including our data stewards, operating lease expenses associated with computer equipment and software and allocated overhead, amortization expense associated with capitalized internal-use software related to our subscription services and amortization expense associated with purchased intangibles related to our subscription services. Cost of subscription services revenues for Veeva CRM and certain of our multichannel customer relationship management applications includes fees paid to salesforce.com for our use of the Salesforce1 Platform and the associated hosting infrastructure and data center operations that are provided by salesforce.com. We intend to continue to invest additional resources in our subscription services to enhance our product offerings and increase our delivery capacity. We may add or expand computing infrastructure capacity in the future, migrate to new computing infrastructure service providers, and make additional investments in the availability and security of our solutions.

Cost of professional services and other revenues consists primarily of employee-related expenses associated with providing these services, including salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation expense, the cost of third-party subcontractors, travel costs and allocated overhead. The cost of providing professional services is significantly higher as a percentage of the related revenues than for our subscription services due to the direct labor costs and costs of third-party subcontractors.

Operating Expenses

We accumulate certain costs such as building depreciation, office rent, utilities and other facilities costs and allocate them across the various departments based on headcount. We refer to these costs as “allocated overhead.”

Research and Development. Research and development expenses consist primarily of employee-related expenses, third-party consulting fees, hosted infrastructure costs, and allocated overhead, offset by any internal-use software development costs capitalized during the same period. We continue to focus our research and development efforts on adding new features and applications and increasing the functionality and enhancing the ease of use of our cloud-based applications.

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Sales and Marketing. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of employee-related expenses, amortization expense associated with capitalized sales commissions, sales commissions that do not qualify for capitalization, marketing program costs, amortization expense associated with purchased intangibles related to our customer contracts, customer relationships and brand development, travel-related expenses and allocated overhead. Sales commissions are costs of obtaining customer contracts and are capitalized and then amortized over a period of benefit that we have determined to be three years. Certain program costs are expensed as incurred.

General and Administrative. General and administrative expenses consist of employee-related expenses for our executive, finance and accounting, legal, employee success, management information systems personnel, and other administrative employees. In addition, general and administrative expenses include fees related to third-party legal counsel, fees related to third-party accounting, tax and audit services, other corporate expenses, and allocated overhead.

Other Income, Net

Other income, net consists primarily of transaction gains or losses on foreign currency, net of hedging costs, interest income and amortization of premiums paid on investments.

Provision for Income Taxes

Provision for income taxes consists of federal and state income taxes in the United States and income taxes in certain foreign jurisdictions. See note 9 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements.

New Accounting Pronouncements Adopted in Fiscal 2019

Refer to note 1 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements for a full description of the recent accounting pronouncements adopted during the fiscal year ended January 31, 2019.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Statement of Stockholders’ Equity

In August 2018, the SEC adopted the final rule under SEC Release No. 33-10532, Disclosure Update and Simplification, amending certain disclosure requirements that have become redundant, duplicative, overlapping, outdated or superseded. In addition, the amendments expanded the disclosure requirements on the analysis of stockholders' equity for interim financial statements. Under the amendments, an analysis of changes in each caption of stockholders' equity presented in the balance sheet must be provided in a note or separate statement. The analysis should present a reconciliation of the beginning balance to the ending balance of each period for which a statement of comprehensive income is required to be filed. The final rule was effective November 5, 2018. As permitted by the SEC, we will present this analysis beginning with our Form 10-Q for the three months ending April 30, 2019.

Cloud Computing Arrangements

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-15, “Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer’s Accounting for Implementation Costs Incurred in a Cloud Computing Arrangement That Is a Service Contract,” which aligns the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred to develop or obtain internal-use software. The standard is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019 and can be applied either prospectively to implementation costs incurred after the date of adoption or retrospectively to all arrangements. Early adoption is permitted. We are evaluating the impact of this new accounting standard on our consolidated financial statements and have not determined whether we will early adopt.

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Fair Value Measurement

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-13, “Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Disclosure Framework - Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement,” which modifies the disclosure requirements on fair value measurements. The ASU removes the requirement to disclose: the amount of and reasons for transfers between Level 1 and Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy; the policy for timing of transfers between levels; and the valuation processes for Level 3 fair value measurements. The standard is effective for interim and annual periods beginning after December 15, 2019, and early adoption is permitted. We are evaluating the impact of this new accounting standard on our consolidated financial statements and have not determined whether we will early adopt.

Intangibles and Goodwill

In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-04, “Intangibles—Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment,” which eliminates Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test. Under ASU 2017-04, an entity should perform its annual, or interim, goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount. An entity should recognize an impairment charge for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value; however, the loss recognized should not exceed the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. Additionally, an entity should consider income tax effects from any tax-deductible goodwill on the carrying amount of the reporting unit when measuring the goodwill impairment loss, if applicable. ASU 2017-04 is effective for annual or interim goodwill impairment tests in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, and early adoption is permitted for impairment tests performed on testing dates after January 1, 2017. ASU 2017-04 is to be applied on a prospective basis. We are currently evaluating the timing of adoption and do not expect the adoption of ASU 2017-04 to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017

On December 22, 2017, the Tax Act was enacted into law and amended certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (IRC). Amendments to the IRC, include, among others, a reduction of the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% effective January 1, 2018, a transition tax on accumulated foreign earnings (transition tax), the shift from a worldwide to a territorial tax regime, and a limitation on the deductibility of executive compensation under IRC Section 162(m). Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 740, “Income Taxes” (Topic 740), requires us to recognize the effect of the Tax Act in the period of enactment, such as remeasuring our U.S. deferred tax assets and liabilities as well as reassessing the net realizability of our deferred tax assets and liabilities. We have completed our calculation of our provision for income tax taking into account the effect of the Tax Act. Future changes in law, interpretations, and facts may impact our provision for income taxes.

 

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Results of Operations

The following tables set forth selected consolidated statements of operations data and such data as a percentage of total revenues for each of the periods indicated: