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Reinventing the Veeva CRM Desktop Experience

Imagine what a pharma rep will look like in 10 years. Will they still be out driving all the time? Maybe they’ll just be using their phones. Or perhaps they’ll be engaging with doctors in virtual reality.

While we can’t say for sure what the future will hold, we can try to make educated guesses. In a recent forum, 84% of life sciences CIOs polled agreed that field activity would continue to shift towards digital over the next two years.1 These numbers match a growing trend among customers who are already operating a hybrid or fully remote commercial model, with more people working remotely than ever before.

New ways of working require innovation. That’s why Veeva is making heavy investments into optimizing the Veeva CRM desktop experience for this digital-first approach.

Here’s a sneak peek into the future of our desktop experience so that you can easily transition and get the most value out of Veeva CRM.

1. What are you trying to achieve with the desktop experience?
Our goal is to improve the workflow productivity of Veeva CRM. Many Veeva CRM users are working at a digital pace from a desktop computer, which means they’re no longer in that single-track environment of getting into a car, driving to the doctor, and having a quick conversation. Instead, they’re typing up call reports, checking their email, and reviewing a new piece of content all at the same time. We want to put what they need right at their fingertips to get more done in this information-rich environment without getting lost or distracted in the software.

2. How does the desktop experience help commercial teams?
Our desktop experience helps customers in three ways: speed, role-specific design, and a simplified approach to digital engagement.

When it comes to speed, we are streamlining navigation so users can get where they need to go faster. We’re also making performance enhancements, so pages load more quickly.

We’re tailoring the user interfaces by building business apps designed for each commercial persona, such as the sales rep, field medical, key account management, the pharmacy rep, the event coordinator, and so on.

For digital engagement, the desktop experience will have more room for insights and reporting right in the user workflow to guide reps to smarter decisions. We’re also adding features that make virtual meetings more accessible and easy to use.

It’s all designed to give your teams the flexibility they need to do their best work.

3. How do I get this desktop experience?
We’ve built the Veeva CRM desktop experience on the Salesforce Lightning user interface, so you’ll need to enable your Veeva CRM users for Salesforce Lightning. Beginning June 2021, all new innovations for the Veeva CRM desktop experience will only be accessible through the Lightning user interface.

4. What is Lightning?
Lightning is Salesforce’s latest online user experience. It’s a lot faster than the old Salesforce Classic user interface, allows for greater customization, and is more data-focused. Building on Lightning also helps us ship new features to customers faster.

5. Will Lightning features like the App Builder be usable in the new Veeva CRM desktop experience?
Yes, you’ll be able to use all Lightning features in the new Veeva CRM desktop experience. You can use the App Builder to drag-and-drop to customize screens in Veeva, and you can even insert Lightning components into existing Veeva CRM pages.

6. Will Veeva continue to support Salesforce Classic?
Veeva will support Salesforce Classic until the end of 2023, and we will assist customers as they move to the new Veeva CRM desktop experience, built on Lightning.

7. How long will the Lightning transition take?
Everyone’s Veeva CRM org is different, and it’s hard to give a one-size-fits-all answer. Contact your Veeva account executive for the Lightning transition plan that’s the best fit for your organization.

The trend towards digital engagement brings more unknowns to the table. Now there are so many more places where field teams can be productive, and each new locale comes with its unique ways of working. This makes it hard to predict how commercial teams will evolve over the next few years.

If we can’t predict what things will look like, the next best thing is to be prepared. That’s why we’re moving towards a more efficient and user-friendly experience across all devices for Veeva CRM. We know that the digital space is still a new frontier for the life sciences industry, so we’re building out Veeva CRM to give you the same amount of productivity, no matter where your strategy may take you.

Want to learn more about the Veeva CRM desktop experience? Check out the replay of my session at Veeva Commercial & Medical Summit Connect.

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1. Veeva CIO Forum, April 2021.

Interested in learning more about how Veeva can help?