Knowledge Management Software

No matter what industry you're in, it is absolutely necessary to leverage institutional knowledge resources to ensure that your business is successful. Every business decision a company makes is based on previously recorded information, making it crucial for companies to simplify the process of collecting, organizing, and accessing company knowledge.

Knowledge management tools help companies provide their employees access to any and all company information so that they can comply with regulations, make better informed business decisions, and expedite the customer support process. These tools allow businesses to collect, organize, and share company information in a centralized location.

This guide will cover what knowledge management software is, the different types of knowledge management software, who uses knowledge management software, and more.

What is knowledge management software?

Knowledge management software helps users optimize intellectual capital and intangible assets by capturing, preserving, and organizing institutional knowledge in a measurable format. Knowledge management solutions allow successful strategies to be transferred and replicated throughout an organization. Implementation can be inwardly focused on faster learning, new knowledge creation, and innovation or directed outward, providing a self-guided service path for customers. Knowledge management software is related to business intelligence software and document management software.

What are the different types of knowledge management software?

To select the right knowledge management tool for your business, you first need to understand the various types of solutions on the market:

• Internal knowledge bases: Internal knowledge bases are often private and can only be accessed by authorized employees. These knowledge bases contain organizational knowledge regarding company policies, processes, and procedures to help management train new employees and help teams make informed business decisions.

• External knowledge bases: External knowledge bases are searchable directories that contain content about a company's products and how they are used. This type of knowledge management software may also include content for troubleshooting technical issues, answering common inquiries, and other information useful to customers.

• Inventory management systems: Inventory management systems are a type of knowledge management software solution that keeps track of inventory to ensure that all stakeholders understand product availability and pricing. These types of knowledge management solutions affect product sales, customer service efforts, and marketing efforts.

• Content and document management systems: Content and document management systems contain multi-use documents that can be shared with large groups of users. These systems also keep record of each version of a document to ensure that the lifecycle of a document remains intact. This proves helpful for internal departments that may need to reference older versions of policies and other business content.

Who uses knowledge management software?

Knowledge management software has two primary users: internal users and external customers. Internal teams use knowledge management software to train new employees and to record, organize, and share information gained throughout the lifecycle of projects. On the other hand, external customers may use knowledge management software such as online knowledge bases, typically provided by businesses on their company website, to access answers to frequently asked questions, user manuals, tutorials, and other customer support materials. External customers can use these knowledge bases to expedite the customer support process, resulting in a more enjoyable, less time-consuming customer support experience.

What are common features of knowledge management software?

Here are some of the most common features of knowledge management:

• Full text search: Use search filters, auto-suggestions, natural language search, and search indexing options to look through entire documents.

• Knowledge base management: Create, store, and share information, data, and support articles in a centralized database.

• Access controls/permissions: Regulate who can view and use the system by setting permissions and issuing passwords.

• Cataloging/categorization: Create and manage a digital catalog of products/services with their details, specification, and price. Ensure that all product information is clear and relevant for both employees and customers.

• Collaboration tools: Provide a channel for team members to share media files, communicate, and work together.

• Content management: Create, publish, update, monitor, and ensure brand consistency for all written materials that are distributed to stakeholders.

• Discussions/forums: Create online forums/groups where users can ask questions, share ideas, best practices, etc.

• Self-service portal: Allow customers to access modules such as FAQs, product updates, guides, and community forums. Help customers avoid unnecessary calls to customer support for basic product details.

• Text editing: Access a text editor and use it to edit textual content where necessary. Change the font and formatting of textual content to keep an organizationʻs knowledge base on-brand.

How do small and midsize businesses use knowledge management software?

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) use knowledge management software to collect, organize, and share company information so that they can enable their employees to make informed business decisions and expedite the customer support process.

As SMBs scale up the number of projects they take on, it's important that they maintain project transparency, which includes promoting knowledge sharing among employees. With knowledge management software, SMBs are able to seamlessly share information with employees through a centralized knowledge base, simplifying project communication and collaboration efforts.

These types of businesses are also concerned with the continuous improvement of customer service efforts to maintain a positive reputation among their customer base. Online external knowledge bases prove helpful when attempting to decrease customer support center call times and ultimately improve the overall customer experience. Customers can easily access online company knowledge bases to troubleshoot lower level technical issues, allowing customer support technicians to focus on more complex troubleshooting efforts.

What are some important knowledge management software integrations?

Here are some of the software solutions that you should consider integrating with your knowledge management solution of choice:

• Customer service software: Provide your customer service agents access to the knowledge they need to stay updated on the latest product offerings. Integrating customer service software into an organizationʻs knowledge management system ensures that agents and users can get fast and accurate answers, improving the overall customer support experience.

• Employee management software: Employee management software offers employees centralized, remote access to all vital documents. This integration also helps with onboarding, allowing new employees to find answers related to the organization culture and policies as necessary.

What are some of the trends in knowledge management software you should be aware of?

Before purchasing a solution for your business, be aware of these emerging trends in knowledge management software:

• Increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) to fill knowledge gaps: In the future, knowledge management solutions will make greater use of AI-based search engines to intelligently search through and analyze large volumes of company information for knowledge gaps. If AI algorithms canʻt find relevant pieces of information based on search terms, they will alert knowledge management software administrators, giving them the opportunity to fill these potential knowledge gaps within company knowledge bases. This approach enables businesses to continuously address knowledge gaps, ensuring that all corporate information evolves as business scales up.

• Increased use of cloud-based solutions: When choosing a knowledge management solution, businesses have two options: on-premise or cloud-based. Cloud-based solutions save companies the headache of purchasing in-house hardware to host their knowledge management solution. Cloud-based knowledge management solutions are much more budget friendly and are typically based on a subscription model where companies only pay for the services they desire. In the future, companies will turn away from on-premise knowledge management solutions and switch to cloud-based systems that allow users to access knowledge bases instantly, no matter their location.