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Knowledge Discovery at CardinalHealth Medical Products and Services:

Institutionalizing an Enterprise-Wide Data Warehouse Capability

Traci Carte

Al Schwarzkopf

Terrie Shaft

Bob Zmud

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Knowledge Discovery

What enables an organization to obtain business value from a data warehouse? 

What makes an effective knowledge discovery team?

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Organization

Problem Solving Team

Layers of Knowledge Discovery

IndividualIndividual

Individual

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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.

Who Is Involved in Knowledge Discovery?

Team {formal or spontaneous}

Roles {internal and boundary spanning}

Capabilities {information and knowledge}

Solution {delivery and dissemination}

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Pre-History

Up to mid-1980s 1985-1995 1995-1998 1999-? future

Stand-Alone Data Marts

Enterprise Data Warehouse

Single-Source Reporting

Institutionalized into Daily Work Processes

Ubiquitous Data Warehousing

HORIZON Project

End User Computing

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Resource Model

Problem Requirements

• Business Knowledge• Data Knowledge

Knowledge Discovery Requirements

• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Organizational Antecedents•Information Culture•Data Infrastructure•Knowledge Infrastructure

Team Structure•Members’ Knowledge•Members’ Social Networks•Members’ Roles

Organization Capacities• Absorptive Capacity• Transformative Capacity• Combinative Capacity

Problem Resolution (Success)

Team Capabilities• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Dotted lines represent the formation of an ad hoc team

SolutionSolution

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Resource Model

Problem Requirements

• Business Knowledge• Data Knowledge

Knowledge Discovery Requirements

• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Organizational Antecedents•Information Culture•Data Infrastructure•Knowledge Infrastructure

Team Structure•Members’ Knowledge•Members’ Social Networks•Members’ Roles

Organization Capacities• Absorptive Capacity• Transformative Capacity• Combinative Capacity

Problem Resolution (Success)

Team Capabilities• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Dotted lines represent the formation of an ad hoc team

SolutionSolution

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ess 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

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Resource Model

Problem Requirements

• Business Knowledge• Data Knowledge

Knowledge Discovery Requirements

• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Organizational Antecedents•Information Culture•Data Infrastructure•Knowledge Infrastructure

Team Structure•Members’ Knowledge•Members’ Social Networks•Members’ Roles

Organization Capacities• Absorptive Capacity• Transformative Capacity• Combinative Capacity

Problem Resolution (Success)

Team Capabilities• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Dotted lines represent the formation of an ad hoc team

SolutionSolution

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Knowledge Discovery Capacity

Trigger Choice

Data Source Archive

TransformativeCapacity

CombinativeCapacity

AbsorptiveCapacity

Knowledge Source

Internal External

Inbound Reactivation Acquisition

Operations Synthesis Transformation Assimilation

Outbound Exploitation and Application

Marketing & Service

Distribution and Support

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Resource Model

Problem Requirements

• Business Knowledge• Data Knowledge

Knowledge Discovery Requirements

• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Organizational Antecedents•Information Culture•Data Infrastructure•Knowledge Infrastructure

Team Structure•Members’ Knowledge•Members’ Social Networks•Members’ Roles

Organization Capacities• Absorptive Capacity• Transformative Capacity• Combinative Capacity

Problem Resolution (Success)

Team Capabilities• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Dotted lines represent the formation of an ad hoc team

SolutionSolution

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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

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Resource Model

Problem Requirements

• Business Knowledge• Data Knowledge

Knowledge Discovery Requirements

• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Organizational Antecedents•Information Culture•Data Infrastructure•Knowledge Infrastructure

Team Structure•Members’ Knowledge•Members’ Social Networks•Members’ Roles

Organization Capacities• Absorptive Capacity• Transformative Capacity• Combinative Capacity

Problem Resolution (Success)

Team Capabilities• Absorptive Capability• Transformative Capability• Combinative Capability

Dotted lines represent the formation of an ad hoc team

SolutionSolution

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Supplier Diversity ReportIdentified small business suppliers for Cardinal

Trigger Erroneous report submitted to government.

Data Source DW Archive

TransformativeCapacity

CombinativeCapacity

AbsorptiveCapacity

Knowledge Source

Internal External

Inbound Reactivation Acquisition

Operations Synthesis Transformation Assimilation

Outbound Exploitation and Application

Marketing & Service

Distribution and Support

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Standard HR ReportsRoll out of standard HR reports to all divisions.

Trigger Part of the SAP rollout

Data Source DW Archive

TransformativeCapacity

CombinativeCapacity

AbsorptiveCapacity

Knowledge Source

Internal External

Inbound Reactivation Acquisition

Operations Synthesis Transformation Assimilation

Outbound Exploitation and Application

Marketing & Service

Distribution and Support

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EntelligenceWeb 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

TransformativeCapacity

CombinativeCapacity

AbsorptiveCapacity

Knowledge Source

Internal External

Inbound Reactivation Acquisition

Operations Synthesis Transformation Assimilation

Outbound Exploitation and Application

Marketing & Service

Distribution and Support

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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

TransformativeCapacity

CombinativeCapacity

AbsorptiveCapacity

Knowledge Source

Internal External

Inbound Reactivation Acquisition

Operations Synthesis Transformation Assimilation

Outbound Exploitation and Application

Marketing & Service

Distribution and Support

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Care Continuum Core ListIdentify 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

TransformativeCapacity

CombinativeCapacity

AbsorptiveCapacity

Knowledge Source

Internal External

Inbound Reactivation Acquisition

Operations Synthesis Transformation Assimilation

Outbound Exploitation and Application

Marketing & Service

Distribution and Support

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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

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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