Step 01 · Set the room
Who's at the table, what we're solving for.
A 90-minute working session with Cencora leadership to surface business goals across the value chain and translate them into a defensible data strategy.
Participants
0Step 02 · Capture
The Cencora business value canvas.
Nine areas tuned to a global pharmaceutical distributor. Drop in concrete, measurable goals.
Add a goal
Step 03 · Calibrate
Score impact, score feasibility, watch the matrix move.
Impact vs feasibility. Each goal gets a score; the matrix sorts the portfolio.
Step 04 · Translate
From business goals to data capabilities.
For each top-scoring goal, tag the data capabilities required to deliver it. Extend the library with capabilities specific to your platform — they cascade into heatmaps, pillars, the transform map, and manage intel.
Capability library
Capability heatmap
Frequency across all captured goals.
Step 05 · Synthesise
The data strategy brief.
Hand this to the CDO, the architecture council, and the steerco.
Recommended strategy pillars
Beyond the first 90 days
Quarter 2 · Scale
Compound the win
Roll the Databricks lakehouse pattern across remaining segments, productise manufacturer + provider data services, federate stewardship into the domains.
H2 · Embed AI
Operating leverage
Demand forecasting, shortage prediction and DSCSA exception handling running on the governed semantic layer; agents producing reviewable PRs against the platform.
Year 2+ · Differentiate
Industry-leading
Real-time cold-chain digital twin, generative interfaces for provider self-service, cross-segment customer 360 monetised back to manufacturers.
Step 06 · Transform
From business outcomes to a data transformation plan.
Cencora already runs a Databricks lakehouse. Assess in two weeks, then 30 / 60 / 90 day gates that harden Unity Catalog, lift MDM & lineage, build the semantic + knowledge layer, and ship governed data products.
Engineering harness
Select the delivery harness.
Five workstreams, one timeline
How outcomes translate into deliverables
Day 14 · Assessed
Honest baseline
Lakehouse estate inventoried, Unity Catalog coverage gap mapped, top 3 quick-win goals scoped, harness wired into the platform repo with guardrails and a readiness scorecard per goal.
Day 30 · Cutover started
First workload modernized
Priority domain refactored to Unity Catalog with DLT + expectations, first legacy reporting workload migrated to Gold, MDM scoped for Product, lineage tags enforced on PHI / controlled-substance columns.
Day 60 · MDM & semantic live
Trustworthy by default
Golden Product record in production, data contracts on the 5 most-consumed Silver tables, metric layer wired into BI + Genie, drift evals running in CI on every semantic change.
Day 90 · Productised
Data products shipped
3 governed data products GA with SLAs and contracts, Customer 360 v1 live, knowledge layer answering business questions with cited lineage, agentic harness producing reviewable PRs at platform pace.
Step 06 · Operate
Goals & KPIs management.
Track goals with owners, due dates, and health signals. Register KPIs to measure delivery.
Goals intelligence
What the goal portfolio is telling you
KPI intelligence
Variance against target, surfaced
Goal tracker
| Goal | Owner | Due | Status | Health |
|---|
KPI registry
| KPI | Linked goal | LOB / Segment | Owner | Target | Actual | Status |
|---|
Add KPI