..Information to Pharmacists
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Your Monthly E-Magazine
APRIL, 2004


BRETT CLARK

Internet Pharmacy Perspective

Knowledge Architecture

In just over three years, ePharmacy has evolved from an idea with one employee to become one of Australia's leading internet pharmacies employing over seventy staff with multiple revenue steams.
However, it has become rapidly apparent to the ePharmacy management that the competitive advantage created by being a "first market mover" could easily be eroded, and that the environment that fosters innovation is paramount to future growth strategies.
It is with this realisation that ePharmacy has recently attempted to develop a knowledge management system (KMS) to facilitate continual e-commerce innovation internally, support the deployment of a new franchise concept, as well as transfer knowledge from experienced staff and management to those new to the organization.
It is the knowledge created by ePharmacy that sustains their competitive advantage (Anell & Wilson, 2002), cultivates returns from the market, which in turn fosters continued growth. (Nonaka & Konno 1998)

The combination of people, content and technology create the knowledge architecture required for effective knowledge sharing. (Awad et al 2003:97)
ePharmacy has identified knowledge centres and assigned them team names to recognise team success versus individual success.
In spite of ePharmacy identifying that expertise lies more within the teams rather than the individual, no assignment of a knowledge developer within the team has lead to a lack of "ownership" existing in regards to knowledge management which is fundamental to effective knowledge capture, transfer and implementation. ( Awad et al 2003)
Although Nonaka's spiral of knowledge sees knowledge creation as a transcendent process that begins with the individual sharing knowledge through socialisation, and ending with internalisation of new knowledge into the organisations tacit knowledge ( Nonaka et al 1998), Awad et al (2003) state that it is the knowledge developer who facilitates the process by exploring the relationship between team actions and outcomes, and the transfer of knowledge from teams to the organisation will not occur without them.

In contrast, while the people and content components of the knowledge architecture are still evolving, the technical core of ePharmacy is such to enable efficient and effective knowledge transfer.
The user interface is designed on common pharmacy software systems allowing easy use, authorised access is controlled by username and password secured by a virtual private network (VPN), and filtering applications operate through reports to resolve CRM and e-fulfilment issues.
In addition, the system utilises email and the internet for transport with high-grade security in both hardware and software protecting the network, central and decentralised repositories.
(Awad et al 2003:102)
Furthermore, an extranet was created last year to enable supplier content management to improve profitability and shift medico-legal responsibility, enabling a channel for enhanced knowledge transfer in the future between ePharmacy and its suppliers.

The technical core enables Explicit-tacit knowledge transfer via a localised client-server network operating on a file-sharing server.
Staff will access email templates (knowledge reuse) and order fulfilment documents by accessing this information via a "pull strategy" and updating the information accordingly.
It is therefore imperative to try to codify carefully the knowledge and store it in the database where it can be easily accessed, used and re-used by the employee for the next similar cases (Hansen, Nohria, Tierney, 1999:107) as staff-members can begin to internalise the knowledge from the documents and use it to broaden, extend, and reframe their own tacit knowledge.
The fact that ePharmacy has a multi-site fulfilment strategy and an existing intranet means that the current process could be greatly enhanced by having the knowledge stored on the central repository instead of the current local servers enabling access to an improved pull system, as well as allowing the implementation of a push system to facilitate knowledge transfer after a filtering process takes place to target specific knowledge required (Tiwana 2000)
In addition as ePharmacy's business is underpinned by the effective use of technology and the internet as well as the internet acting as a standard world wide( Awad et al, 2003), future development of a KMS system via the use of intra and extranet portals is a logical extension of the teams processes and could serve to accommodate effective and efficient knowledge exchange and support using externalisation, combination, and internalisation. (Awad et al, 2003:269; Tiwana 2000)