Q&A: Allergan on Welcoming the Sunrise User Interface for Veeva CRM

The new Sunrise user interface for Veeva CRM is a seamless and automatic upgrade designed to make field teams more productive.

We spoke to two commercial IT leaders from Allergan, which currently has more than 7,000 Veeva CRM users around the globe. See what William Corso, associate VP, commercial IT, and Sertac Zirhli, associate director, global CRM center of excellence, shared about their expectations and experience with Sunrise.

What was the initial reaction within Allergan upon learning about Sunrise?

William Corso: There was initially some anxiety, especially from our international teams, when they heard about the new user interface coming in 18R2. However Veeva did a good job of communicating early and often about the update. Once our teams had a chance to see it, they quickly realized that it wouldn’t disrupt the field.

Sertac Zirhli: Once we saw the demonstrations from Veeva, we realized it was going to be a modern and intuitive update. It looks like many other apps in the iOS world. We were also happy to know that Sunrise would require virtually no configuration on our end.

How else did you prepare your teams?

Sertac: “What will happen on day one?” was a common question. We provided field teams screenshot comparisons so they could see that Sunrise would, in many ways, make their current life simpler.

William: One thing I also wanted them to know was that Sunrise would lay the groundwork for the next generation of Veeva CRM in terms of functionality and how we want to use it. For example, the ability to do background synchronizations.

What has been the reaction thus far from field teams?

William: To date everything has been well received. Early on we created a short video preview for field teams that focused on the new interface as well as some of the high level benefits such as the ability to work more efficiently. Everyone got it right away.

What impact do you expect Sunrise to have on your usage of Veeva CRM?

William: I think it will help drive deeper adoption. Sunrise puts more dashboards upfront and displays information much more visually. It could help us identify areas where we aren’t using Veeva CRM’s capabilities to the fullest.

Beyond that, I appreciate the ergonomics of it. I think sales reps that have been using Veeva CRM for five to six years with the previous interface will find it to be more efficient.

Can you talk about your overall digital and/or mobile strategy?

William: Our goal is to make the life of our reps as simple and efficient as possible. So whether that ultimately means they are doing everything during an HCP visit through Veeva CRM on their phones, or interacting virtually using the Veeva Engage solutions, those are all things that we want to explore.

We want to offer as many opportunities as possible for our managers and field reps to be in contact with their customers, whether that’s through mobile, digital, or some combination of those technologies.

Any closing thoughts?

William: It’s not uncommon for this type of user interface implementation to change along the way from design to production. Once we received access to the sandbox version of Sunrise, we knew that wouldn’t be the case. What Veeva told us was coming, was in fact what was delivered.

Check out our Sunrise Day in the Life video for a glimpse of Sunrise in action:

For more information, visit the Veeva Sunrise page.