Key considerations for Veeva vault implementation

One of our clients, a major biopharmaceutical company, struggled to distribute content across more than fifty countries and thousands of people around the globe. They were using 18 disparate content management systems – each with its own processes. As they looked to digitize the back office to create efficiency and standardization globally, they selected a new, consolidated platform in Veeva Vault as they were already leveraging Veeva CRM. Veeva Vault is a cloud-based content management system which acts as a central hub for creation, review, approval, storage, and distribution of medical (e.g., scientific publications, medical communication) and commercial (e.g., drug brochures, product package insert) content.

Having recently led the implementation of Veeva Vault, we identified three key considerations for any pharmaceutical company considering implementing Veeva Vault to ensure a return on your investment:

Implement Veeva Vault with a change management perspective

Smart Project Management and Change Management: Implementing Veeva is as much of a leadership challenge as it is a technical one. Imagine moving nearly one thousand end users spread across hundreds of departments with their own distinct workflows to a consistent Veeva platform. Imagine having to engage and shepherd end users who are new to Veeva through requirements gathering, software configuration demos, and testing. In order to create buy in and commitment across users, change management is critical. Successful project teams should:

• Appoint a change agent in each department who will be responsible for facilitating end user involvement and cascading program level communication down to end users

• Facilitate frequent touchpoints through requirements gathering, build, and test phases

• Develop training materials and conduct end user training sessions for all departments

Accessing Veeva reports through a governance model

Veeva Report Governance Model: Veeva users across the globe will need to access and run reports in order to view metrics - compliance, efficiency, operational, and regulatory. By default, Veeva report permissions are set such that all users have the ability to create, edit, or delete reports. As a consequence, users may create more and more duplicative, unnecessary, or invalid reports or even delete a critical report. For example, a user in Germany may create a report that shows all approved medical documents but may not be aware of an already existing report originating in France. Therefore, putting in place a Veeva report governance model would:

• Centralize control of the report creation process to prevent duplicative, unnecessary, or invalid reports

• Ensure a common set of standardized reports would be reused across countries

• Ensure consistency in KPIs that are reported up to leadership

Cost reduction of license management

License Management: Among futures users of Veeva, the frequency at which they log into the system and the type of license required may vary. A user with a "super user" role may create and upload medical documents multiple times a week while a user with a "read only" role may log into the system once or twice a year to view documents. Purchasing and activating licenses for all Veeva users would be unnecessarily costly. Taking proactive steps to rationalize licenses will significantly reduce expenses for the company. One license rationalization approach is to:

• Suspend licenses without activity in the past 60 days while maintaining user account information

• Allow an internal support team to assist with reactivating licenses for anyone who wants their license reactivated

Maximizing back office efficiency

Life science companies brave enough to take the leap towards a standardized, global content management platform may do so to varying degrees. Some companies may choose to start small by rolling out Veeva Vault to only a few departments across a few countries but later expand on their Veeva platform investment. Others, such as this biopharmaceutical company, took a bigger leap to accelerate the delivery of content to the market, enabling individuals across continents to easily access and reuse content all from one enterprise content management system. Nonetheless, a decision to take this leap will drive efficiency and information transparency for stakeholders across the company.