Ever since humans invented written language, we have been recording and accumulating information in various kinds of knowledge bases. While books, scrolls, clay tablets were used in the ancient eras, in a digital world, knowledge management software helps store and manage valuable information and findings. Efficient knowledge management strategy has been made possible with the help of some of the best business knowledge software solutions combined with a structured customer experience plan.
Knowledge Management Software is essentially a tool and database of controlled knowledge that allows you to collect, store and share various kinds of information relevant to your business under one unified platform. It is often used by employees to get accurate information on any business-related query they may have.
But a good knowledge management solution goes a step further and lets you manage not just internal access to your knowledge base but also facilitate external access as well. An adaptable knowledge management system that provides both internal and external support is the best internal knowledge management software you can ever ask for.
Read on to know more about the various types of knowledge management solutions, the benefits of choosing an adaptable knowledge base and how it helps you maximise your business potential.
How Knowledge Sharing Solutions Can Help
The main goal of a knowledge solution is to provide easy and quick access to accurate and up to date information on any queries you might have. When used internally, they are often called wiki or intranet as they allow easy information dissemination that allows for better productivity and optimization of business workflows.
There are many solutions on the market today that do this, and while they may suffice in the short term, they aren’t always the best solution for the long term. Implementing a new knowledge solution is typically a large undertaking and requires a large investment of time and resources.
Strategic businesses ensure that they are future proofing their investment in knowledge by choosing the best internal knowledge base solution that also has full scope to provide answers from the same single source of truth to an external audience. It’s important to understand the differences in internal and external knowledge solutions. Typically, a knowledge management solution that works for both internal and external audiences is characterized by a few key features:
- The ability to serve the exact same piece of knowledge in different levels of detail depending on the viewer to ensure no duplicate or outdated information
- In depth for internal eyes, simplified for external readers
- Advanced permissions to have complete control over who has access to read and write knowledge
- The ability to integrate with all other organizational tools
- Collaboration tools (MS Teams, Slack etc),CRM, Ticketing etc
- Workflow feature to foster collaboration across multiple teams or departments
- Multiple ways to group or categorize knowledge effectively
- Different knowledge types for end use
- Many knowledge bases only have basic article formats. A knowledge management solution has multiple knowledge formats to ensure easy answer dissemination depending on the complexity of the information
The difference between an internal and External knowledge base software
An internal knowledge base is a simple native software solution that exists alongside your ITSM tool landscape. It allows for storing and sharing knowledge articles within your organisation and can be used by your employees for a quick reference whenever they need information on a particular topic.
Most often, an internal knowledge base is offered as part of the overall software package that your company uses for its IT management. Thus it carries minimal cost or license requirements. It is also easy to use and integrates well with your existing business processes.
But even the best internal knowledge base solution cannot match up to the immense potential that a fully-fledged knowledge management solution can give. A knowledge management solution, also commonly called an external knowledge base, is more powerful and embeds more capabilities than what an internal knowledge base can offer.
Not only does it future-proof your organization’s knowledge and CX strategy, it provides more advanced features and allows for even customers external to your organization to be able to access your knowledge base.
Customers can self-serve on the website and know that the information is the same that they would get if they were to call or online-chat with an agent. Partners and other business stakeholders can access the same answers as internal staff…and a knowledge MANAGEMENT solution allows internal staff to MANAGE who can see what! This means the one single source of truth can display the same information in varying detail depending on the viewer.
Here are some advantages that an external knowledge base can give you:
- It allows for easy addition of advanced and out of the box features that can improve the overall usability and performance of your knowledge base solution
- Provides better motivation for users to make use of the knowledge base when a previous internal knowledge base implementation was found to be ineffective. It adds a new external interface that can drive up usability and help with successful implementation
- Aids in better portability as an external knowledge base can be easily transferred when you update or switch your ITSM tools.
- Increases user satisfaction levels. It helps you reach out to your customer base better. Studies have shown that 67% of customers prefer to use their provider’s website to solve their issues instead of having to call up customer support. There is also an increasing amount of evidence that shows that customers prefer using self-service portals and online resource centers…all of which are standard in a knowledge management solution.
- Knowledge management solutions are available 24/7
- It helps improve your site’s organic traffic
- Allows for better productivity by lowering the workload on your customer support technicians.
- Reduces the training time it takes for service technicians and improves staff engagement. Implementation of the livepro knowledge management system brought in a marked improvement in staff experience, engagement and easy access to accurate information. RAA’s front line staff were also able to notice a 22% drop in help desk calls and 40% increase in speed to competency in their new employees.
- Knowledge management solutions are cost effective as they help close queries faster and allow for better automation. By adopting the livepro knowledge management system, the Hornsby Shire Council were able to reduce their Average Handle Time to under 3 minutes.
Conclusion
There are simply too many benefits that obviously indicate a comprehensive knowledge management system that provides both internal and external access to be the best choice. It does not just augment your customer service but goes far beyond in making your customer support more efficient and cost effective. There are several factors that you may have to consider when choosing the best internal knowledge base solution for your business.
Do make sure that you are indeed selecting the right choice that will give you the maximum benefits which as you can see would be to choose a proper knowledge management system that gives both internal and external access to information. If you would like to Try livepro for Free, visit our website today.
