Industry Update: Zinc to Vault PromoMats

This video provides an in-depth industry update on the migration from Zinc to Veeva Vault PromoMats, presented by Stacy Hardie, Associate Director, Content Partners at Veeva Europe. The primary purpose of the presentation is to inform Veeva's mutual customers and agency partners about the progress, benefits, and support mechanisms related to this significant platform transition within the life sciences industry. The speaker outlines the strategic context of Veeva's product suite, the enhanced capabilities of Vault PromoMats, and the critical role of agencies in ensuring a smooth and successful migration for pharmaceutical companies.

The presentation begins by establishing the background of Veeva's acquisition of Zinc in 2015 and the subsequent plan to transition existing Zinc MAPS customers to Vault PromoMats. Hardie notes that by 2018, 50% of Zinc customers had either migrated or committed to the transition, with the Zinc product slated for discontinuation at the end of 2020. This timeline underscores the urgency for agencies and pharma companies, particularly in key markets like the UK, to understand the new product and prepare for the change. The discussion then broadens to position Vault PromoMats within Veeva's extensive cloud-based ecosystem, which spans the entire life sciences value chain from R&D through medical affairs to commercial operations. Vault PromoMats and Vault MedComms are highlighted as the key applications impacting medical communications, designed to streamline content creation, review, and distribution while ensuring compliance.

A significant portion of the update focuses on the advanced features and strategic advantages of Vault PromoMats over its predecessor, Zinc. Hardie explains how PromoMats completes the "digital supply chain" by integrating medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) approval processes with automated content distribution and withdrawal, thereby providing complete visibility and control over commercial and medical materials. Key enhancements include a deeper audit trail, configurable verdicts for reviews (eliminating "forgotten stamps"), a multi-purpose annotation tool with automatic text/image detection and revision text capabilities, and anchoring for references to facilitate easier and more accurate content reuse. The speaker emphasizes the importance of source content support in PromoMats, enabling customers to drive content efficiencies, promote reuse across geographies, and gain insights into content leverage. The video concludes by detailing Veeva's comprehensive support for agencies, including a dedicated certification program, a 24/7 Global Service Center, and various community resources, underscoring the collaborative effort required for a successful industry-wide transformation.

Key Takeaways:

• Mandatory Migration Timeline: The Zinc product was scheduled for discontinuation at the end of 2020, necessitating all existing Zinc MAPS customers to migrate to Veeva Vault PromoMats. Agencies and pharmaceutical companies needed to be aware of this deadline and plan accordingly.
• Veeva's Integrated Life Sciences Ecosystem: Veeva offers a comprehensive suite of cloud-based products that span the entire life sciences company, from R&D to medical and commercial operations. Vault PromoMats and Vault MedComms are integral parts of this ecosystem, specifically targeting content management and medical communications.
• Vault PromoMats as a Holistic Solution: Vault PromoMats is presented as a life sciences-specific application that combines content creation, review, and distribution capabilities with integrated digital asset management (DAM). It ensures compliance, manages referencing and claims, and serves as a global repository for storing and sharing approved digital assets.
• Completing the Digital Supply Chain: Unlike disconnected legacy systems where review and distribution occurred in separate platforms, Vault PromoMats completes the digital supply chain. It integrates MLR approval processes with automated content distribution and withdrawal, providing end-to-end visibility and control over commercial and medical materials.
• Enhanced Compliance and Auditability: Vault PromoMats offers a deeper and clearer audit trail compared to Zinc. It features configurable verdicts for review tasks, ensuring compliance by requiring explicit actions to complete reviews and preventing "forgotten stamps" or missed approvals.
• Streamlined Review and Annotation Tools: The platform includes a multi-purpose annotation tool that automatically detects text versus images and offers a revision text tool to copy selected text directly into comment boxes. This significantly simplifies the review process for agencies and internal teams.
• Improved Referencing and Content Reuse: PromoMats supports anchoring for references, allowing specific sections within a reference document to be linked, which enhances accuracy and ease of content reuse. The ability to upload source content directly to PromoMats is a key differentiator, driving content efficiencies and promoting sharing across geographies while maintaining data chain of custody.
• Critical Role of Agencies in Digital Transformation: Agencies are identified as crucial partners in the migration process, responsible for uploading content, completing referencing, and incorporating reviewer feedback. Their proficiency with Vault PromoMats is essential for the success of their clients' digital transformation initiatives.
• Veeva's Agency Certification Program: To support agencies, Veeva launched a certification program comprising over 50 interactive training modules, an exam simulation, and a certification database. This program aims to ensure agencies possess the necessary knowledge and competencies with the product.
• Comprehensive Support Resources: Veeva provides extensive support, including a 24/7 Global Service Center for technical assistance, LinkedIn community groups (Promotional Compliance Group, DAM Life Sciences Community), a dedicated Zinc Migrations Tab on Vault Online Help, and the Vault PromoMats Innovation Hub with webinars on best practices and new features.

Tools/Resources Mentioned:

• Veeva Vault PromoMats: The primary content management and promotional materials approval platform.
• Veeva Vault MedComms: A related Veeva product for medical communications content.
• Zinc MAPS: The legacy content management software being migrated away from.
• Veeva's LMS System: The learning management system used for the agency certification program's training modules.
• Veeva Global Service Center: Provides 24/7 technical support for Veeva products.
• LinkedIn Groups:
  • Promotional Compliance Group
  • DAM Life Sciences Community
• Vault Online Help: Specifically, the "Zinc Migrations Tab" for transition guides, terminology glossaries, and how-to videos.
• Vault PromoMats Innovation Hub: A resource on Veeva.com offering webinars on best practices, product features, and capabilities.
• Veeva.com/agencies: A web page dedicated to agency support, including details on the multi-channel partner program and the Vault PromoMats certification program.

Key Concepts:

• Digital Supply Chain: The integrated process of content creation, review, approval, distribution, and withdrawal within a single, connected system, ensuring complete visibility and control.
• Digital Asset Management (DAM): Capabilities within Vault PromoMats for storing, tagging, and sharing approved digital assets globally across an organization.
• Medical Legal Regulatory (MLR) Approval: The critical process of reviewing and approving marketing, educational, and communication materials to ensure compliance with industry regulations.
• Content Reuse: The strategy of leveraging existing approved content across different geographies, channels, or campaigns to improve efficiency and consistency, facilitated by features like source content support and anchoring for references.
• Configurable Verdicts: A feature in Vault PromoMats that requires explicit actions or choices during a review task, ensuring that reviewers provide clear outcomes and preventing accidental or incomplete approvals.
• Anchoring for Referencing: The ability to link specific sections within a reference document to claims in promotional materials, enhancing accuracy and ease of verification.