BASF-logo-white

Industry: Chemical Industry, Crop Science

Cloud-based Platform, Regulatory, Registrations, Professional Services, Document Control, Integration, GLP Compliance

BASF has chosen Veeva as a key technology partner for digitizing data, documents supporting Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) and other controlled processes across some of their Regulatory and Quality functions. The Agricultural Solutions operating division and BASF’s toxicology department rely on Veeva to simplify and automate their most demanding compliance processes. Care Chemicals has recently started a pilot utilizing a Veeva Quality Cloud solution.

For BASF Agricultural Solutions (AP), Veeva has become the global single source of truth for R&D, regulatory affairs, regulatory document management and submissions as well as for ensuring their GLP quality assurance program.

Over 1,650 users benefit from automated, user-friendly processes on a standardized cloud-based platform.

More than 1.5 million documents have been migrated into one global single source of truth that is integrated with BASF’s IT landscape. They could consolidate 15 legacy systems.

Processes that are GLP relevant have been inspected by the monitoring authorities. BASF’s Veeva solution complies with GLP standards.

Sunny Field vertical

“For us, it was very important to break down information silos as well as standardize and simplify processes. We wanted everything to be accessible in all regions in real time. We have achieved all that. Veeva has been a great partner.”

- Armin Sauer
Team Leader Regulatory IT Services
BASF

The Goal

Product and process compliance are essential for BASF AP. Their global team of R&D and regulatory experts manages complex, data and document intensive processes. In 2017, they reached a limit with their legacy environment: “We had a large number of legacy systems, globally distributed. We needed to store documents multiple times in different systems and could not ensure data was immediately available in all regions globally,“ remembers Armin Sauer, Team Leader Regulatory IT Services. The performance issues were a burden for the team.

BASF AP sought a flexible, future-proof, GLP-compliant solution to break down information silos, continuously improve processes, increase collaboration, enable data-based decisions and streamline compliance.

The Strategy

BASF AP has chosen Veeva as their strategic technology partner for digitizing data, documents as well as GLP and other controlled processes across some of their Regulatory and Quality functions. More than 1,650 R&D and regulatory experts can now access information in real time with highest performance. They rely on Veeva to simplify and automate their most demanding compliance and other processes, mainly in two areas:

  • Creation and management of registration dossiers in crop protection and seeds – This includes creating and compiling dossiers as well as publishing them in accordance with the authorities’ requirements.
  • GLP quality assurance – This involves everything from GLP document management and archiving, inspections of any kind and data management, to training documentation and handling of standard operating procedures (SOPs).

The need to comply with GLP is essential for BASF. Dr. Frank Schieweck, Head Global GLP Management at BASF explains: “Only studies conducted under GLP will be accepted by the registration authorities to get approval for a new crop protection product. They must meet certain quality criteria.” The decision to leverage a cloud-based solution like Veeva Vault wasn’t made easily. Rainer Becht-Mattern, Product Family Manager Europe - Agricultural Solutions, states: “In 2017, it was a brave decision to use a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) offer, especially as we needed to ensure GLP compliance. Back in the days, inspectors were used to see servers onsite and we had our own on-premise data center for GLP studies. Going to the cloud was a courageous step.”

Courageous, yet necessary. The biggest advantages for the BASF team are the system’s availability, performance and continuous development alongside all benefits that come with a single source of truth. However, leveraging a cloud solution to manage controlled processes also required a change in mindset from the GLP monitoring authority. Government inspectors had to find new ways to inspect BASF’s solution, both on-site and remotely. To achieve this the inspectors worked closely with BASF, Veeva and data center operator Amazon Web Services (AWS) to validate the solution’s GLP compliance. As a result, BASF’s Veeva solution complies with GLP requirements - in terms of archiving as well as regarding inspectability, which is given throughout the process from user to server level. This was a huge milestone for the solution team.

By end of 2022, BASF AP has consolidated 15 legacy systems with their Veeva solution. It enables the IT team to support new business processes and ideas from their business teams. “Veeva was different from the start. Their industry and technical expertise impressed us. The Veeva platform does not only enable managing data and documents, but also lets us cover regulatory and quality processes in one fully integrated solution at a level that I haven’t seen elsewhere. The performance and user-friendliness as well as the continuous development were additional benefits,” states Rainer Becht-Mattern.

Field in Bloom

“The Veeva platform does not only enable managing data and documents, but also lets us cover regulatory and quality processes in one fully integrated solution at a level that I haven’t seen elsewhere.”

Rainer Becht-Mattern
Product Family Manager Europe - Agricultural Solutions, BASF

Results and Future Outlook

“For us, it was very important to break down information silos as well as standardize and simplify processes. We wanted everything to be accessible in all regions in real time. We have achieved all that. Veeva has been a great partner,” says Armin Sauer.

By now, BASF’s IT strategy has changed to a cloud first approach. Rainer Becht-Mattern explains: “We have the trust and confidence now that we can handle confidential data in the cloud just as securely or maybe even better than with on-premise solutions. With AWS and Veeva as strategic partners, we have also grown strongly in recent months and years.”

The initial plan was to harmonize 7 legacy IT systems by implementing the Veeva platform. However, by the time the solution went live, 11 systems had been replaced. Today the total number is 15, and BASF won’t stop there. They are evaluating Veeva for additional business units and business functions like production and operations. 

“For our Veeva platform in AP, we are looking into connecting other cloud services to our solution - for example, a translation service that automatically translates our documents into all the languages we need”, states Rainer Becht-Mattern. The team is always looking into new ways to increase efficiency even further.

  • Automation – Some previously manual processes can now run up to 70% automated
  • Consolidation – BASF consolidated 15 different systems into one single source of truth
  • Compliance & User-friendliness– Making highly complex processes simpler and easier for users to manage
  • GLP Certification – BASF’s Veeva solution complies with GLP standards

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHTS

Learn more about how we’re helping customers bring trusted products to market faster in, and across, key consumer products industries.

Nestle - Spotlight image
nestle logo@2x white
Syngenta spotlight
Syngenta logo-rev
reckitt
Reckitt logo-rev-2