Webinar | dqMan Veeva Vault Edition - Veeva Vault data administration made easy

This webinar introduces dqMan Veeva Vault Edition, a specialized administration tool designed to enhance productivity and efficiency for professionals managing Veeva Vault applications. Presented by Cecilia Gabrila, Head of Product Development at FME, a certified Veeva technology partner, the session highlights how dqMan simplifies complex data and configuration tasks within Veeva Vault. The core problem dqMan aims to solve is the difficulty in leveraging Veeva's powerful VQL (Veeva Query Language) and MDL (Metadata Definition Language) directly, which are essential for robust data administration but lack an easy-to-use interface.

The presentation outlines FME's background as a digital transformation partner in life sciences and other industries, emphasizing their expertise in Enterprise Content Management (ECM). The genesis of dqMan for Veeva Vault stemmed from a real need identified by FME's services team and customers, particularly for validating data migration results into Veeva Vault. This validation often involves intensive checks of records and their metadata to ensure compliance with business requirements. dqMan positions itself as a powerful, customizable tool for Vault administrators, developers, consultants, and supporters, promising improved productivity, reduced administration costs through automation, and enhanced data quality.

A significant portion of the webinar is dedicated to a live demonstration of dqMan's features. These include intuitive navigation for document types and objects, automatic VQL statement generation, and contextual help for query creation. Crucially, dqMan extends native VQL capabilities by supporting SQL-like syntax such as SELECT *, COUNT(*), GROUP BY, HAVING, and aggregate functions, which are not natively available in VQL. The tool also incorporates local caching of query results, which is vital for generating aggregated reports efficiently and reducing the consumption of limited Veeva API requests. The roadmap for future versions includes bulk metadata updates, data comparison across different Vaults or external sources, bulk picklist management, and comprehensive audit trail functionality, further solidifying its utility for complex enterprise environments.

The demonstration further showcases practical actions users can perform, such as viewing and dumping document/object metadata, inline editing and updating metadata, viewing content, renditions, and attachments, and exporting data to CSV or Excel. The MDL script editor, equipped with syntax highlighting and contextual help, allows for the creation and execution of scripts to manage Veeva objects like picklists. The ability to execute MDL scripts asynchronously is highlighted as particularly beneficial for handling high-volume objects, ensuring efficient and scalable operations. Overall, dqMan is presented as an indispensable tool for anyone involved in the detailed administration and management of Veeva Vault data and configurations, especially within regulated industries.

Key Takeaways:

• Simplified Veeva Vault Administration: dqMan provides an intuitive interface to manage Veeva Vault data and configurations, addressing the complexity of directly using VQL and MDL. This significantly boosts productivity for Vault administrators, developers, consultants, and support staff.
• Extended VQL Capabilities: The tool enhances native Veeva Query Language (VQL) by supporting SQL-like syntax such as SELECT *, COUNT(*), GROUP BY, HAVING, and various aggregate functions (Max, Min, Count), enabling more sophisticated data querying and reporting.
• Efficient Data Reporting and API Management: dqMan allows for caching query results locally, which is crucial for generating aggregated reports without repeatedly querying Veeva Vault. This feature helps conserve limited Veeva API requests and improves report generation speed.
• Streamlined Metadata Management: Users can easily navigate document types and objects, automatically generate VQL statements, and edit/update metadata inline within the results grid. This simplifies routine maintenance tasks and ensures data accuracy.
• Comprehensive Data Export and Viewing: The tool supports exporting entire query results to CSV or Excel, viewing document content, renditions, and attachments, and dumping detailed metadata in JSON or table formats, providing robust data access and analysis capabilities.
• Advanced MDL Scripting: dqMan includes an MDL (Metadata Definition Language) script editor with syntax highlighting and contextual help, facilitating the creation and management of Veeva objects like picklists. Script generation from templates further accelerates development.
• Asynchronous Script Execution for Scalability: For managing high-volume objects, dqMan offers asynchronous execution of MDL scripts, which is essential for efficient and scalable operations, preventing timeouts and improving performance.
• Data Migration Validation: The tool is particularly useful for validating data migration results into Veeva Vault, allowing users to check if records and their metadata are correctly set and meet business requirements, which is critical for compliance.
• Duplicate Content Identification: By querying and grouping data based on MD5 checksums, dqMan enables the identification of duplicate documents within the Vault, helping to maintain a clean and efficient repository.
• Future Enhancements for Enterprise Needs: The roadmap includes planned features like bulk metadata updates, data comparison between different Vaults or external sources, bulk creation of picklist values, and comprehensive audit trail functionality, indicating a commitment to addressing advanced enterprise requirements.
• Detailed Object and Document Navigation: Users can easily navigate to object/document metadata, references (e.g., product details, user information), and document versions, providing a holistic view of data relationships within Veeva Vault.

Tools/Resources Mentioned:

• dqMan Veeva Vault Edition: The primary administration tool for Veeva Vault.
• Veeva Vault: The enterprise content management platform for life sciences.
• VQL (Veeva Query Language): Veeva's proprietary query language.
• MDL (Metadata Definition Language): Veeva's language for defining and manipulating metadata.
• SQL (Structured Query Language): Referenced for its similar syntax to VQL and dqMan's extensions.
• Excel/CSV: Formats for exporting data from dqMan.
• API requests: Mentioned as a resource that dqMan helps conserve.

Key Concepts:

• Enterprise Content Management (ECM): A system for managing unstructured information, a core focus for FME and Veeva Vault.
• Digital Transformation: The strategic adoption of digital technology to improve processes and culture, a service area for FME.
• Metadata: Data that provides information about other data, crucial for organization and search within Veeva Vault.
• API (Application Programming Interface): A set of rules that allows different software applications to communicate with each other.
• MD5 Checksum: A cryptographic hash function used to verify data integrity and identify duplicate content.
• Picklist: A predefined list of values for a field in Veeva Vault, used for data standardization.
• Asynchronous Execution: A method of running tasks independently without waiting for each task to complete, useful for high-volume operations.

Examples/Case Studies:

• Validating Migration Results: dqMan is used to intensively check if records and their metadata were correctly set in Veeva Vault after migration, ensuring they meet business requirements.
• Identifying Duplicate Documents: The tool demonstrates how to group documents by their MD5 checksum to identify and count duplicates, enabling repository cleanup.
• Creating Veeva Objects via MDL: The webinar shows how to use the MDL script editor with contextual help to generate and execute commands for creating new picklists and other objects within Veeva Vault.