Knowledge Management

What is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge Management, as we all know, is not a technology or a set of methodologies, it’s truly a practice or discipline that involves people, processes and technology. If implemented correctly with cultural buy-in from users and management, plus clearly defined goals, a KM initiative can improve the productivity and efficiency of an entire organization.
Knowledge Management for Service and Support
A successful knowledge management initiative within a help desk can reduce training time and speed new employee ramp up. Customers and end-users also benefit when they have direct access to a knowledge base to solve their own issues without ever contacting a helpdesk.
Ten Principles for Knowledge Management Success
1. Knowledge Management is a discipline. - Knowledge management is a discipline. Creating content is not a one-time project. Also, over time the content must be updated
and supplemented as new products or services are supported.
2. One champion is not enough - To be successful, your project must have several champions within the organization. These are individuals that believe in the project,
enthusiastically advocate it and have the clout to “make things happen.”
3. Cultural change isn’t automatic - Include some people from the various groups that would directly or indirectly use the system. Sometimes there is a fear that knowledge management will be used to
replace people. If staff thinks that is what we are trying to do, then we really need to address that head-on.
4. Create a change management plan - If employees are not already sharing information, you will need a change management plan because we are asking people to do their jobs differently. As part of the overall change management plan you need to update job descriptions, feedback sessions and performance reviews to reflect the new workflow. Neglecting to make these changes may foster acceptance issues with your team members.
5. Stay strategic - Knowledge management is a strategic endeavor, not just a project. With KM you are never really done; you initiate it and you build it and then its online and you maintain it.
6. Pick a topic, go in-depth, keep it current - Pick one area that needs improvement or has limited resources, and then build a robust knowledge base for that subject matter.
7. Don’t get hung up on the limitations - Certain types of knowledge are very well suited to quickly harvesting into a knowledge base. KM initiative could be somewhat limited because of the nature of complex knowledge, and thankfully we will always need human expertise
8. Set expectations or risk extinction - A big pitfall is the failure of knowledge management proponents in helping executive management set appropriate expectations. In addition to setting management expectations w.r.t. KM we have to set customer and end-user expectations.
9. Integrate KM into existing systems - When selecting a KM system, consider systems that have open architectures and proven integrations into existing help desk tools to ensure a successful implementation. Integrate reporting capabilities where possible to best understand how the combined systems are affecting the effectiveness of your support operations.
10. Educate your self-service users – Finally you need to educate your self-service users on how to find and access support information online to ensure a satisfying experience. There are many ways to “push” your selfservice out to your end-user audience. Encourage users to visit your online support site by making it easy to find and access the knowledge base.

Sudhanshu Goyal