So, You Have Veeva! Four Tips to Maximize Your Value

The use of Veeva systems, a suite of clinical trial solutions, continues to grow. Veeva’s products offer robust functionality, a clean user interface, and excellent reporting capabilities, making their products an industry favorite for small and large life science companies.

However, companies must be prepared for all the changes that come with implementing a new Veeva system that occurs during the planning phase, launch, user adoption, and beyond. Here are our four tips to maximize your Veeva system usage and prevent unnecessary complications along the way.

Tip 1: Define the Various Business Processes

Once Veeva is purchased, it’s important to recognize the various business processes that will need to be defined and finalized during the planning phase. During this phase, it’s critical to consider if the business is ready and prepared for change. Even before a company kicks off its Veeva implementation, the company must begin to plan.

The first step is to define the decision-makers and key stakeholders responsible for crafting the new business processes. An impact assessment should be conducted to gauge the impact the new system will have on existing standard operating procedures (SOPs), policies, and more. In addition, discuss new processes needed to support the administration of the system, and identify if there are existing processes that must be adapted to system functionality (i.e., trial master file inspection readiness reviews).

Secondly, identify the end user community that will define the communication needs throughout the implementation. Strong communication throughout and post-implementation helps users adopt the system and manage change.

Finally, companies must think about the management of the system post-implementation. Planning prior to starting the implementation can help ensure the implementation goes smoothly and cuts down on timeline delays.

Consider asking the following questions:

• Who will be supporting the system from a business perspective (i.e., capturing new requirements and defining the product’s growth)?
• Who will be supporting the system from an information technology perspective (i.e., ensuring the system is maintained and validated correctly throughout Veeva’s yearly version releases)?
• Will there be a need to hire additional employees to manage the system?

Many times, companies will find they must also migrate data from an external source (i.e., from a Clinical Research Organization) into their new Veeva product. During the planning phase, time must be taken to define the scope of the migration and consider how much data must be moved, if the data is clean, and how much data needs to be mapped to a new location. An inventory of the data must be defined. Finally, the business will need to define a migration strategy and ask if there are any critical milestones that will impact moving data such as an inspection or database lock.

Tip #2: Optimize Compliant Implementation Activities

Validation of a GxP – a set of regulations and quality guidelines formulated to ensure the safety of life science products – software solution is a must in the life sciences industry, but how far must an organization go with a solution like Veeva? Well, that depends. Consider if you are implementing the solution completely out of the box or if you are adding customization. The amount of customization will impact the validation approach.

Veeva offers a robust validation package, but every organization must follow its SOP governing software validation for GxP systems. Many companies in the life science industry can leverage a Veeva product with few to few additional updates, while others may want to bring the entire validation effort in-house or through a hybrid model. The choice depends on a company’s requirements for validation, though there should always be some additional due diligence to provide objective evidence that the solution matches its intended purpose.

Tip #3: Prioritize Effective Change Management

One of the most common reasons software implementation does not achieve its desired outcome is poor change management, including lack of stakeholder buy-in, inadequate resources, unrealistic expectations, misaligned processes, and resistance to change. This outcome leaves the newly implemented platform unadopted by its user community.

All these challenges can be mitigated through a solid change management program. Change management must be approached through a structured, dynamic, and multi-format process that leverages a set of standardized, industry-accepted tools to prepare, equip, and support individuals through their adoption journey. Companies must navigate the stages of defining success, assessing individual and organizational change readiness, analyzing risk, and mapping impact to design a change management and communication plan that will support sustained adoption.

Veeva provides an industry-leading platform for life sciences, but to realize the full value of such an investment, companies will need the support of experts who have experience in facilitating systems, processes, and structural implementations.

Tip #4: Maximize Veeva Post-Implementation

Optimizing a Veeva solution after implementation will help ensure its continued effectiveness, compliance, and efficiency. Often, Veeva is implemented quickly to support a specific time-sensitive need, and unintentionally, additional capabilities are typically overlooked. When a primary use case is addressed and the user community has gained experience with the solution, that is the time to consider additional capabilities and use cases that will benefit an organization.

However, just because the solution can do something doesn’t mean it’s right for any organization. This is why it’s important to gather feedback from users. Considering asking the following:

• What is currently a manually intensive process despite the new solution?
• Are there additional workflows to be configured to support those needs or is this a call to revise governing processes?

Review if there are additional modules or add-ons worth investigating. Because Veeva sits on a single platform, subsequent Veeva modules may not require the recreation of core data since it already exists in another module, enabling faster setup times or more seamless access to various data. Because there are numerous options, it’s best to consult with experts, whether internal or external, to ensure the right additions are selected at the most optimal times.

To maximize your Veeva adoption, implementation, and next stage of success, contact Halloran. We’re ready when you are.