Implementing a new quality system like Veeva is a major opportunity – but also a complex challenge. A well-structured Phase 0 project lays the foundation for a successful, efficient, and well-aligned implementation.
Find out why this extra step is worth it and how Inconsult can support you from the very beginning.

If any of your past Implementation Projects suffered from unattainable timelines, vague process definitions, or lengthy discussions interrupting config sessions, consider preceding your implementation with an Inconsult Phase 0 project. During Phase 0, we collaborate closely with your team to prepare and empower you for a successful implementation - drawing on our proven expertise from similar projects. The goal is to define the target To-Be processes and have a clear vision of what the new system must accomplish. To be able to achieve this, we evaluate the current business processes, both on global and local site level, identify pain points and opportunities for improvement, and get a clear view on where harmonization is possible and beneficial. These assessments provide the foundation for designing target processes that align with industry best practices and standards, while also incorporating critical business needs, local requirements, and regulatory obligations. 

Starting Phase 1 with a shared understanding of processes and requirements is essential. It helps avoid lengthy discussions in front of the software vendor’s implementation team and ensures that critical aspects are already discussed and tackled. Identifying and addressing existing pain points or areas with inefficiencies, along with gathering critical insights into how processes operate today will help align efforts and drive progress in the right direction for the target processes. 

Veeva‘s implementation workshops are most often very focused and tightly timed sessions where aligning configuration with predefined requirements are the core activities. The productivity of these sessions is at risk without proper preparation. 

Following the established standard process for Inconsult's Phase 0 projects enables your organization to leverage well-designed process improvements and enhance overall efficiency.  

Wherever possible, we guide you toward adopting standard industry best practices, incorporating only essential custom requirements to ensure future-proof, maintainable system processes that continue to perform effectively as the system evolves. 

Process harmonization in anticipation of a quality system change often leads to changes in site-level processes, and these ideally become visible before implementation begins. To ensure user acceptance and drive meaningful improvements, we put an additional strong focus on supporting your organization’s Change Management. It helps impacted users to understand not only what is changing, but also how these changes can benefit their daily work and contribute to more streamlined operations. Inconsult will support you in setting up an effective change management during Phase 0, so you can already rely on a team of knowledgeable change ambassadors - prepared to lead the transition, inspire confidence, and spread enthusiasm throughout the organization. 

In phase 0 you furthermore benefit from familiarization with the future system, guided by our experts. This empowers you to design processes that seamlessly connect your global business needs with Veeva’s standard capabilities.  The result is a smoother transition and more effective utilization of the new system which leads to overall success. 

Inconsult supports customers along their way to preparing a successful implementation project, addressing potential challenges and maximizing the likelihood of delivering the project on time, within budget, and to the highest standards. 

After the Phase 0 project is completed, your key stakeholders have one vision for the target solution. Time-consuming fundamental debates on processes are avoided, as the stakeholders are already aligned and can discuss and decide from a shared perspective. 

The target To-Be processes are clearly defined before implementation starts and the system requirements are already well captured and refined to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). The better your business teams are prepared and aligned around a shared objective, the smoother your Veeva implementation will be – maximizing value from day one. 

A Phase 0 project addresses the entire quality-related scope of your organization, including all sites or departments. It helps to achieve the goal of harmonized processes, where previous localized processes are replaced with a new efficient way of working. If parts of the organization are not yet in a mature state with digitalization and still work with paper processes, this helps to ensure that all areas are up to date with newest technology and best practices when implementation is concluded.  

Identifying key pain points or critical aspects in advance helps maintain the right focus and prioritize requirements. It is furthermore advisable to keep processes harmonized and standardized to discourage users from establishing workarounds and local process adaptations. 

During a Phase 0 project, we collect extensive insights into challenges within and strengths of your processes and evaluate those in context of the upcoming system change. With this knowledge and perspective, you can design your processes to achieve the highest possible efficiency. The stage is set for process redesign, automation, or improvement initiatives. This gives you meaningful insight into how both current and future processes influence KPIs and contribute to achieving your strategic business goals. 

A Phase 0 project consists of the following Steps: 

The key goal of the second project step is to clearly define the target To-Be processes. By mapping existing processes and comparing them to the Veeva’s standard processes, critical gaps, key focus areas and specific requirements become visible. We guide you through prioritization and decision-making for these items, whether they should be included in the target To-Be processes or require harmonization efforts or process adaptations. 

During these activities we pay particular attention to localized process variants that might either be driven by regulatory needs or could simply have historically evolved without a clear rationale. Depending on the specific reasons for process variants, decisions can be taken to either harmonize and reduce local differences, or to keep them for the target To-Be processes as is or with adaptations. 

We will lead several workshops for your organization’s SMEs and important stakeholders during this phase, which are designed to get you thinking about your current processes and the future Veeva processes. We include comprehensive Veeva system demonstrations as needed, taking into account the expertise already present within your team of SMEs. These workshops help your team to build a solid understanding of the target system and point out configuration options and configuration impact. We will start to introduce you to system maintenance and release management from this early point on, so you can already think beyond the implementation project. We recommend including onsite workshops for some of the key decisions and for process design, if possible. Our experience shows that discussions are more efficient in this way, and many misunderstandings can be avoided. 

For your team the strong benefit of these efforts during Phase 0 is the accumulated knowledge about Veeva and the clear definition of the target processes. This way, lengthy process discussions during implementation are avoided, key decisions are already taken, and the team enters the project with a solid grasp on system features, minimizing the need for additional tutorials or explanations. 

The outcome of this step will be a detailed gap analysis report outlining the system fit at each process stage, as well as an at-a-glance decision sheet with recommendations, in which gaps can be filtered by criticality, OOTB match strength, or implementation effort.

Following the business process analysis and gap analysis, user requirements (URs) are created, reviewed, and finalized. These requirements capture key points and decisions from the analyses and the workshop discussions. They document decisions about where to stick to the Veeva standard process and where configuration is required to what extent. Our team will guide you towards specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) URs and we make sure that you focus on the aspects that have proven to be crucial in similar projects. 

The set of clearly defined and engineered URs will form the baseline for discussions with Veeva during implementation and can significantly accelerate the main project if done well. URs will then be prioritized to increase focus on the key elements that will drive the most value moving forward. 

A set of functional requirements (FRs) will be drafted after completion of the URs. They will translate requirements into detailed specifications that already give input for required system configuration. Functional requirement drafts will be updated and completed later throughout the Veeva implementation sprints. 

A User Requirement specification document and a draft of the Functional requirement specification document are delivered as the Phase 0 project is concluded.

Phase 1 Planning and Change Management recommendations

Including a Phase 0 project before your main Veeva implementation sets the foundation for a focused, efficient, and well-aligned transformation. It enables your organization to define clear, harmonized To-Be processes, uncover critical gaps and local nuances, and make key decisions early - well before implementation begins. With strong stakeholder alignment, prioritized and SMART-defined requirements, and a team already familiar with system capabilities, you reduce complexity, avoid delays, and accelerate progress in Phase 1. In addition, targeted change management planning and strategic preparation in areas like integration, migration, training, and validation ensure your team is ready to drive adoption and long-term success. Phase 0 is your opportunity to de-risk the implementation and create clarity, confidence, and momentum from the very beginning. 

Contact us now, our consultants and experts Kirstin Dreyfürst & Fabian Thomas are at your disposal.