In some previous posts we discussed our addition of the Veeva Source and Target to our OpenMigrate platform. As we were becoming familiar with the Veeva API for the purposes of migration, we started to think what else could be integrated with a Veeva implementation. It is rare that an ECM system is completely standing alone with no outside integrations and we wanted to explore how those could work with Veeva.
This post will cover some examples of potential integrations, as well as a demo of Veeva Vault being accessed via external applications.
We reflected on our ECM experience and client work to consider just a few examples of integrations that may make sense for an application outside of Veeva Vault.
Custom Reports / E-Mail Notifications
Veeva does have some robust reporting and e-mail functionality, but we have seen requests from clients that are either very specific, require complex aggregation, mathematical functions, or require inputs from third party tools such as date ranges or addressees. If a reporting tool (such as Cognos or BusinessObjects) is desired, a custom job could be written to export data from Veeva to a database on a regular interval. Writing a custom job or reporting tool enables the client to generate reports with exactly the data visualization and formatting that provides the most value to the business.
Document Synchronization
We hit on this a bit in previous migration related posts, but it is a common business requirement that documents be synchronized or moved once reaching a particular state or meeting some business requirement. Having the tools to interface with both systems as well as being able to configure or program the logic for which documents to push is the key for success. One example might be synchronization with a Records Management Tool. In this instance, once a record in Veeva reaches a desired state, metadata and potentially content could be published to the Records Management System which would then be responsible for applying the Records Management retention policy and eventual destruction of the record.
Scanning / Fax Integration
We have worked with several clients who have a requirement to Scan or Fax document into the system. Specialized software can be leveraged for acquiring the document, performing cleaning tasks such as reducing noise, auto rotation, and OCR but then park the document in a temporary location where a job can pick up the content and deliver it to the correct location in the Veeva repository.
Document Deep Linking
Deep linking is the action of creating a web URL to a specific document within a repository that when clicked displays the content directly without the need to navigate or search. We have seen clients use this for several types of applications outside the primary repository such as Training Systems, SOP access for external vendors, and even links sent via Email. While Veeva does support deep links, when it displays the document, all the actions and options are available to the user. Displaying only the content (and perhaps limited metadata) reduces complexity and streamlines the interface for the end user.
As part of our R&D for diving deep into Veeva we wanted to experiment with one of these scenarios and decided to dig deeper into the last scenario described above, Document Deep Linking. Using only 3 Veeva API calls (Login, Retrieve Document, and Retrieve Metatdata) we created a simple document viewer that can be called with a Veeva Document ID as a parameter. The below demo demonstrates this simple application.
Please share with us any other integration ideas that you have had or if you have any idea for how you may want to interact with Veeva Vault from external applications.