Data-Driven Pharmaceutical Giant Transforms Veeva QMS Data for Power BI Analytics with Snowflake
Customer's Challenge
One of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world was looking to streamline its data architecture for improved reporting, analytics, and data governance. While Veeva Quality Management System (QMS) efficiently managed quality workflows like events, training, and document control, its limited reporting options hindered users from generating flexible, cross-functional reports and maintaining consistent governance over reporting outputs.
phData's Solution
Within a year, phData designed a strategic reporting solution and implemented a modern data architecture to enhance the organization’s core quality reporting framework.
phData proposed a Snowflake-based data platform as a centralized warehouse and single source of truth. Using Informatica, dbt, and Airflow, data from Veeva QMS was ingested and transformed into a standardized reporting layer in Snowflake. This setup enabled analysis through Power BI, ensuring consistent business logic, automated data refreshes, and easier management of data governance for cross-functional reporting.
Results
The decision-making capabilities around core quality workflows improved significantly. The Snowflake-based solution, integrated with dbt and Airflow, ensured scalable processes that met the growing data and reporting needs.
The client was able to enhance compliance tracking, reduce audit times, and boost the overall effectiveness of their quality management system. Additionally, business users gained the ability to explore data independently, eliminating reliance on the IT team.
The Full Story
Facing inefficiencies and inflexibility in their reporting processes, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies struggled with slow report generation and heavy reliance on IT teams. The lack of a centralized data warehouse hindered data consistency, security, and traceability, while their current infrastructure couldn’t scale to meet the growing data volume demands.
Determined to be more data-forward, the client sought advanced analytics to track quality metrics, manage compliance, and drive continuous improvement. With a vision for streamlined, agile reporting, they turned to phData for assistance—having trusted them for previous successful collaborations.
phData began by helping the client estimate and visualize the effort required to achieve their vision. The proposed solution centered around Snowflake’s robust data governance and security features, which were enhanced through dbt for business logic consistency.
Why phData?
phData’s trusted approach, boosted by being a five-time Snowflake Partner of the Year, stood out to the client. Throughout the entire process, phData consistently ensures that each task is handled with precision and care, delivering maximum impact.
Turning Data Into Actionable Insights
The first step was securely ingesting Veeva QMS raw data into Snowflake using Informatica, ensuring data integrity.
Next, phData utilized dbt to create a standardized, analytics-ready data foundation. Raw data in Snowflake was meticulously cleaned, transformed, and modeled into high-performance reporting views for Power BI integration. This setup fostered modular development, version control, and transparent application of business rules, simplifying maintenance and future enhancements.
Leveraging Snowflake’s data governance capabilities, phData implemented role-based access control and row-level security during the dbt modeling process. Regular data refreshes were automated using Astronomer Airflow, establishing a reliable notification system for any failures, enabling timely interventions by managed services.
The final integration with Power BI equipped business users with dynamic, interactive reports and dashboards. Users could now drill down into specific data points and observe trends effortlessly, empowering them to make informed, timely decisions. The client’s journey towards advanced, agile analytics marked a significant leap in their data-forward transformation, setting a precedent for efficiency and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry.
Meet the Team
Balbir Singh Matharu
Principal Solution Architect
20+ Years of IT Experience
Key Skills
Cloud Data Operations, Snowflake, dbt, Airflow
Responsibilities
Acted as the primary service owner for the client, ensuring deliverables met service standards through close collaboration with business partners, project manager, and developers, while proactively managing risks and stakeholder expectations to deliver scalable, high-quality solutions.
Gopinath Kalaimani
Project Manager
12+ Years of Program Management
Key Skills
Leadership, Risk Management, Communication
Responsibilities
Planned the project scope, timeline, and resources, maintained regular communication with stakeholders to manage risks, issues, and changes, and led the project team to deliver project goals successfully.
Koustav Choudhuri
Solution Architect
17+ Years of IT Experience
Key Skills
Designing and Building Data Architecture, Snowflake, dbt, Airflow
Responsibilities
Designed and defined the solution based on project requirements, collaborated with stakeholders to align technical solutions with business goals, and worked closely with the developer to review the code deployments.
Ayush Tandon
Senior Data Engineer
8+ Years of IT Experience
Key Skills
Data Modeling, Data Governance, Expertise on Snowflake, dbt, Airflow
Responsibilities
Worked with the Solution Architect to design and develop a scalable data pipeline, ensuring adherence to high data quality standards, governance, and best practices while delivering production-ready solutions. Owned the end-to-end data pipeline, ensuring stakeholder expectations were met through regular meetings and effective communication.
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