Getting the Most out of Veeva CRM: Best Practices for Release Governance

This video provides an in-depth exploration of best practices for Veeva CRM release governance, focusing on how Teva Pharmaceuticals successfully leveraged structured release management to maximize platform adoption and fundamentally improve the relationship between their IT department and commercial business units. The core objective articulated by the IT leadership is achieving high adoption and utilization rates in the field by delivering a tool that is both easy to use and fully exploits the native capabilities of the Veeva platform, thereby minimizing the need for complex, costly customizations.

A critical component of Teva’s strategy involves a rigorous, proactive approach to evaluating new features included in every Veeva CRM release. Rather than waiting for the business to request specific functionality, the IT team, in collaboration with their managed services group and the Veeva Customer Success Manager (CSM), prototypes and implements optional features in a controlled environment. This allows them to assess the potential value of these new capabilities and present them to the business stakeholders, ensuring that the organization capitalizes on continuous platform improvements without incurring significant development overhead.

The most profound outcome of their refined release management process has been the introduction of transparency, which has transformed the dynamic between IT and the commercial business. By openly communicating how resources are utilized and integrating the business into the governance structure, IT has moved from being a service provider to a strategic partner. This partnership is formalized through a joint steering committee. This committee is responsible for assessing all new projects, functionalities, and enhancements that impact the Veeva ecosystem. This shared decision-making process ensures that all proposed changes are vetted to confirm they will provide tangible benefits to the field force while minimizing disruption to existing commercial operations. By laying this groundwork and ensuring the business is part of the decision-making process, Teva has significantly improved the overall quality and effectiveness of their Veeva CRM investment.

Key Takeaways: • Adoption and Utilization are the Primary Success Metrics: The ultimate measure of success for Veeva CRM implementation is not technical stability, but rather achieving high adoption and utilization rates among the field force, which directly correlates to commercial effectiveness. • Prioritize Native Functionality: To maximize ROI and simplify future upgrades, organizations should focus on exploiting all available capabilities within the core Veeva platform, actively avoiding unnecessary customization that can complicate maintenance and release cycles. • Proactive Feature Evaluation is Essential: Organizations should establish a formal, structured process to evaluate every new feature released by Veeva (typically three times per year) to ensure they are capitalizing on platform evolution and continuous improvements. • Leverage External Expertise for Prototyping: Best practice involves utilizing the Veeva Customer Success Manager (CSM) and managed services partners to efficiently implement and prototype optional features in a sandbox environment, streamlining the internal assessment process. • Mandatory Business Value Assessment: Before any new feature or enhancement is deployed, IT must collaborate with the business to clearly define the value proposition and ensure the change will genuinely benefit the field force and align with commercial objectives. • Change Management Underpins Success: Robust change management practices are critical for successfully introducing new features and enhancements, ensuring that the field force is prepared, trained, and able to integrate the changes smoothly, thereby sustaining high utilization rates. • Transparency Fosters Partnership: Introducing transparency into the release management process—specifically detailing resource allocation and project timelines—is key to building trust and transforming the relationship between IT and the commercial business into a strategic partnership. • Implement a Joint Steering Committee: A governance best practice is the formation of a joint steering committee composed of both IT and business leaders to collectively assess and approve all new projects, enhancements, and functionalities impacting the Veeva platform. • Shared Decision-Making Minimizes Resistance: Integrating business stakeholders into the decision-making process for Veeva enhancements ensures shared ownership, minimizes resistance to change, and guarantees that technological updates are driven by genuine commercial needs. • Focus on Minimal Field Disruption: All proposed functionalities and enhancements must be rigorously vetted by the steering committee to ensure the impact on the day-to-day workflow of the field force is minimal, thereby maintaining productivity and avoiding user frustration.

Tools/Resources Mentioned:

• Veeva CRM
• Managed Services Group
• Customer Success Manager (CSM)

Key Concepts:

• Release Governance: The structured process and policies used to manage the introduction of new features, updates, and changes to the Veeva CRM platform, ensuring stability and alignment with business goals.
• Change Management Practices: Methodologies used to prepare, support, and equip individuals to successfully adopt change, crucial for maintaining high utilization rates following a Veeva release.
• IT-Business Partnership: A collaborative model where the IT department acts as a strategic partner to the commercial business, sharing decision-making authority and ensuring technology investments directly support commercial outcomes.

Examples/Case Studies:

• Teva Pharmaceuticals: The video uses Teva Pharmaceuticals as a case study, demonstrating how their implementation of structured release management and governance processes successfully improved IT-business relationships and maximized Veeva CRM adoption.