BADM 750 Case 6 - Cardinal Health Jayme Salo
Cardinal Health's implementation of SAP R/3 and a data warehouse in their medical products and services business, in combination with the willing and successful adoption by their employees, provided the foundation to create a powerful and functional advanced BI that the company leveraged to create competitive advantage in their industry and set the precedent for others looking to institute similar BPR projects. There were many examples of what Cardinal Health did right in order to achieve such a successful implementation and adoption of a drastically different business culture. First and foremost, Cardinal Health recognized early on that the requirement for senior executives and line managers …show more content…
Combined, these two aspects have greatly contributed to realizing the benefits desired when deploying an advanced business intelligence project. Cardinal Health's commitment to these initiatives are perhaps the most combative tools to pre-empting resistance caused by changes to employee working practices and current behaviors. These changes are known to be some of the most difficult obstacles to overcome when implementing data warehousing initiatives. This is supported in the concluded findings from "An Analysis of the Anticipated Cultural Impacts of the Implementation of Data Warehouses," in which they found that the realized benefits to customer service, flexibility, and empowerment, are all directly correlated to how well an organization can manage and address these two change issues (Doherty, Doig, 2003). Cardinal Health's enterprise wide support and commitment to their strong social network, strengthened by low employee turnover, helped address the challenges faced by changing work practices. This is because their dense network of professionals possess the abilities to quickly collaborate and address any data warehousing situation encountered as employees move throughout the organization. Moreover, the organization's support infrastructure creates an environmental safety net for all employees involved in data warehousing situations. This alleviates resistance to requiring behavioral change within the organization because employees can feel confident that although the change will be hard, they have the tools (network of colleagues), and safety net (enterprise support infrastructure), to assist them in making a sound transition. Which, in the long run, this transition generates greater value for the company, and aides in solving more
Cardinal Health's implementation of SAP R/3 and a data warehouse in their medical products and services business, in combination with the willing and successful adoption by their employees, provided the foundation to create a powerful and functional advanced BI that the company leveraged to create competitive advantage in their industry and set the precedent for others looking to institute similar BPR projects. There were many examples of what Cardinal Health did right in order to achieve such a successful implementation and adoption of a drastically different business culture. First and foremost, Cardinal Health recognized early on that the requirement for senior executives and line managers …show more content…
Combined, these two aspects have greatly contributed to realizing the benefits desired when deploying an advanced business intelligence project. Cardinal Health's commitment to these initiatives are perhaps the most combative tools to pre-empting resistance caused by changes to employee working practices and current behaviors. These changes are known to be some of the most difficult obstacles to overcome when implementing data warehousing initiatives. This is supported in the concluded findings from "An Analysis of the Anticipated Cultural Impacts of the Implementation of Data Warehouses," in which they found that the realized benefits to customer service, flexibility, and empowerment, are all directly correlated to how well an organization can manage and address these two change issues (Doherty, Doig, 2003). Cardinal Health's enterprise wide support and commitment to their strong social network, strengthened by low employee turnover, helped address the challenges faced by changing work practices. This is because their dense network of professionals possess the abilities to quickly collaborate and address any data warehousing situation encountered as employees move throughout the organization. Moreover, the organization's support infrastructure creates an environmental safety net for all employees involved in data warehousing situations. This alleviates resistance to requiring behavioral change within the organization because employees can feel confident that although the change will be hard, they have the tools (network of colleagues), and safety net (enterprise support infrastructure), to assist them in making a sound transition. Which, in the long run, this transition generates greater value for the company, and aides in solving more