Knowledge Discovery at CardinalHealth
Medical Products and Services:
Institutionalizing an Enterprise-Wide
Data Warehouse Capability
Traci Carte
Al Schwarzkopf
Terrie Shaft
Bob Zmud
Knowledge Discovery
What enables an organization to obtain
business value from a data
warehouse?
What makes an effective knowledge
discovery team?
Layers of Knowledge Discovery
Organization
Individual
Problem Solving Team
Individual
Individual
Who Is Involved in Knowledge Discovery?
A problem solving team that possesses or is
able to gain access to required capabilities
and carries out the roles that are necessary
for problem solution.

Team {formal or spontaneous}

Roles {internal and boundary spanning}

Capabilities {information and knowledge}

Solution {delivery and dissemination}
The Cardinal Healthcare Journey
HORIZON Project
Enterprise Data
Warehouse
Pre-History
Ubiquitous Data
Warehousing
Single-Source
Reporting
End User Computing
Stand-Alone
Data Marts
Up to mid-1980s
1985-1995
Institutionalized into
Daily Work Processes
1995-1998
1999-?
future
Knowledge Discovery
Resource Model
Organizational Antecedents
•Information Culture
•Data Infrastructure
•Knowledge Infrastructure
Knowledge Discovery
Requirements
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Dotted lines represent the
formation of an ad hoc team
Problem
Requirements
• Business Knowledge
Organization Capacities
• Absorptive Capacity
• Transformative Capacity
• Combinative Capacity
Team Structure
•Members’ Knowledge
•Members’ Social Networks
•Members’ Roles
Team Capabilities
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Solution
• Data Knowledge
Problem Resolution
(Success)
Knowledge Discovery
Resource Model
Organizational Antecedents
•Information Culture
•Data Infrastructure
•Knowledge Infrastructure
Knowledge Discovery
Requirements
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Dotted lines represent the
formation of an ad hoc team
Problem
Requirements
• Business Knowledge
Organization Capacities
• Absorptive Capacity
• Transformative Capacity
• Combinative Capacity
Team Structure
•Members’ Knowledge
•Members’ Social Networks
•Members’ Roles
Team Capabilities
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Solution
• Data Knowledge
Problem Resolution
(Success)
Organizational Antecedents



Information Culture

Data-Driven Decision Style

Business-Led IT Innovation

“Pull” Information Culture

Dense Social Networks
Data Infrastructure

Single Data Source

Common Business Language

Data Access Training

Data Access Support structure
Knowledge Infrastructure
 Merging of business, IT and data social networks
 Merging of business process, data and data access
capabilities
Knowledge Discovery
Resource Model
Organizational Antecedents
•Information Culture
•Data Infrastructure
•Knowledge Infrastructure
Knowledge Discovery
Requirements
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Dotted lines represent the
formation of an ad hoc team
Problem
Requirements
• Business Knowledge
Organization Capacities
• Absorptive Capacity
• Transformative Capacity
• Combinative Capacity
Team Structure
•Members’ Knowledge
•Members’ Social Networks
•Members’ Roles
Team Capabilities
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Solution
• Data Knowledge
Problem Resolution
(Success)
Knowledge Discovery Capacity
Trigger
Choice
Data Source
Archive
Transformative
Capacity
Knowledge
Source
Inbound
Operations
Outbound
Marketing &
Service
Combinative
Capacity
Absorptive
Capacity
Internal
External
Reactivation
Acquisition
Synthesis
Transformation
Assimilation
Exploitation and Application
Distribution and Support
Knowledge Discovery
Resource Model
Organizational Antecedents
•Information Culture
•Data Infrastructure
•Knowledge Infrastructure
Knowledge Discovery
Requirements
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Dotted lines represent the
formation of an ad hoc team
Problem
Requirements
• Business Knowledge
Organization Capacities
• Absorptive Capacity
• Transformative Capacity
• Combinative Capacity
Team Structure
•Members’ Knowledge
•Members’ Social Networks
•Members’ Roles
Team Capabilities
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Solution
• Data Knowledge
Problem Resolution
(Success)
Team Roles
Decision Support
Data Warehouse
User
Business Process Specialist
Intermediary
*
Builder
Business Data Specialist
Data Access Specialist
Technical Support
Power User
Toolsmith
Technologist
N/A
Central Connector
N/A
Boundary Spanner
N/A
Information Broker
Knowledge Discovery
Resource Model
Organizational Antecedents
•Information Culture
•Data Infrastructure
•Knowledge Infrastructure
Knowledge Discovery
Requirements
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Dotted lines represent the
formation of an ad hoc team
Problem
Requirements
• Business Knowledge
Organization Capacities
• Absorptive Capacity
• Transformative Capacity
• Combinative Capacity
Team Structure
•Members’ Knowledge
•Members’ Social Networks
•Members’ Roles
Team Capabilities
• Absorptive Capability
• Transformative Capability
• Combinative Capability
Solution
• Data Knowledge
Problem Resolution
(Success)
Supplier Diversity Report
Identified small business suppliers for Cardinal
Trigger
Erroneous report submitted to government.
Data Source
DW Archive
Transformative
Capacity
Knowledge
Source
Inbound
Operations
Outbound
Marketing &
Service
Combinative
Capacity
Absorptive
Capacity
Internal
External
Reactivation
Acquisition
Synthesis
Transformation
Assimilation
Exploitation and Application
Distribution and Support
Standard HR Reports
Roll out of standard HR reports to all divisions.
Trigger
Part of the SAP rollout
Data Source
DW Archive
Transformative
Capacity
Knowledge
Source
Inbound
Operations
Outbound
Marketing &
Service
Combinative
Capacity
Absorptive
Capacity
Internal
External
Reactivation
Acquisition
Synthesis
Transformation
Assimilation
Exploitation and Application
Distribution and Support
Entelligence
Web system to allow customers to track their purchase
history.
Trigger
Major corporate initiative in response to a competitor
introducing a similar product.
Data Source
DW Archive
Transformative
Capacity
Knowledge
Source
Inbound
Operations
Outbound
Marketing &
Service
Combinative
Capacity
Absorptive
Capacity
Internal
External
Reactivation
Acquisition
Synthesis
Transformation
Assimilation
Exploitation and Application
Distribution and Support
Delivery Plant Location
Locate Alternate Warehouse Source for Local Out-Of-Stock
Items
Trigger
Ad hoc initiative triggered when a power user
recognized potential solution
Data Source
DW Archive
Transformative
Capacity
Knowledge
Source
Inbound
Operations
Outbound
Marketing &
Service
Combinative
Capacity
Absorptive
Capacity
Internal
External
Reactivation
Acquisition
Synthesis
Transformation
Assimilation
Exploitation and Application
Distribution and Support
Care Continuum Core List
Identify a list of inventory items to be maintained as readily
available stock.
Trigger
Ad hoc project that arose in staff meeting.
Data Source
DW Archive
Transformative
Capacity
Knowledge
Source
Inbound
Operations
Outbound
Marketing &
Service
Combinative
Capacity
Absorptive
Capacity
Internal
External
Reactivation
Acquisition
Synthesis
Transformation
Assimilation
Exploitation and Application
Distribution and Support
Critical Success Factors

Business Culture
• Business-directed IT innovation
• Data-driven decision-making and problem-resolution
• Knowledge capture and sharing

Data Infrastructure
• Business ownership of data capture, maintenance, analysis
and reporting
• Single data repository
• Common, rich data access structure

Knowledge Infrastructure
• Common business language
• Dense social networks
• Merging of business, IT and data social networks
• Merging of business process, data and data access
capabilities
Critical Importance of
Boundary Spanner and Information Broker

Proactive, rather than reactive, problem
recognition is associated with greater success in
knowledge discovery
• More complete problem definition
• More thorough problem analysis, solution generation and
solution analysis

Leveraging member relationships across the
enterprise and existing structures and processes is
associated with greater problem-solving success
• More complete problem definition
• More thorough solution generation
• More effective knowledge transfer