It’s All about Choice … Veeva CRM and CLM for Windows 8

Even before Microsoft officially released Windows 8, Veeva received interest from customers who wanted Veeva CRM and CLM on the touch-based Windows 8 ‘Modern UI’ platform. By far, the most common reason is the desire for a single-device solution. For IT organizations already familiar with Microsoft infrastructure products, this means supporting a single operating system and fewer devices, as well as easier deployments. Organizations could benefit from reduced hardware and software expenses, and field users could enjoy the added convenience of not carrying separate laptop and tablet devices along with everything else in their bag.

With customer success at the heart of everything we do at Veeva, you can imagine that the decision to build Veeva CRM and CLM on Windows 8 was an easy one. With Microsoft Windows 8, customers get both the familiar Windows desktop and the touch-friendly Modern UI in a single tablet. Users can work with their legacy Windows applications, like Microsoft Office, and simply swipe over to the Modern UI to access touch-based Veeva CRM and CLM.

Delivering a CRM and CLM solution on Windows 8, though, was not a trivial undertaking. Veeva CRM is much larger and more feature-rich today than it was when we built the first version of our iRep application for the iPad three years ago. The success of iRep meant that expectations for our next mobile offering were already set high. Fortunately, Windows 8 provides a compelling platform for our integrated CRM and CLM solution.

With a new development framework, devices, and a user experience, our challenge was to build the application from the ground up to take advantage of the modern technology. We partnered with Microsoft and Intel, while leveraging our own years of experience with iRep, to ultimately deliver what we feel is an innovative enterprise solution.

In designing for Windows 8, we embraced Microsoft’s Modern UI interface and sought to build a native, touch-optimized app that pushes beyond the common expectations of what a mobile user experience can offer. We made sure to incorporate all the features that customers love about iRep, including the quick and intuitive navigation to different components within the application, and a CLM module that is seamlessly integrated with CRM. We also made it easy for customers to reuse the configuration already set up through CRM online to minimize ramp-up time and effort.

We are proud to deliver all the core features of both CRM and CLM in the initial release. These include account management, call planning, reporting, and sampling as well as support for a variety of rich media content, automatic call reporting, and clickstream tracking. Launching our new solution is exciting and early feedback has been phenomenal. Hearing comments like “this is so nice and clean, very intuitive” and “looks really easy to use” is encouraging as we plan more features for upcoming releases. This is the culmination of a large, collaborative effort with our partners, Microsoft and Intel, and the beginning of a new robust mobile CRM and CLM choice for our customers.

Lizette Byer is senior product manager, Veeva CRM at Veeva.