In the previous article, we looked at how information management can support decision-making in the enterprise. Implementing a business infrastructure through which to manage and monitor processes helps transform data into useful information for various departments, both to understand and improve the use of resources and to guide decisions.
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Knowledge base definition and costs involved in not managing information correctly
An information management system includes people, functions, applications, technology infrastructure, and procedures. Therefore, it is based not only on appropriate technology but also on a corporate culture that promotes knowledge sharing.
What is a knowledge base? Also called Knowledgebase, it is the company's intellectual asset and is made up of documented information, but also, above all, of the experience of the personnel.
This is the most valuable resource for an organisation because, without proper management of this information, there are several risks: first, the failure to capitalize on the experience, often caused by a lack of sharing of best practices.
This leads to repeated errors in the performance of work activities and, consequently, decreased productivity.
Moreover, there are very high costs to finding information, especially in terms of:
-time wasted looking for it,
-time to build it where it is not there,
-time to use it to create revenue.
Building a Knowledge Base to facilitate knowledge management
To exploit and make use of all the company's knowledge capital, it is necessary to organize it, building a Knowledge Base.
Thanks to Knowledge Management tools it is possible to implement technological systems, more and more often based on Artificial Intelligence, that allows the knowledge base management, or to collect, catalogue, and keep always updated large numbers of documentation and databases.
The main characteristic of this base of knowledge is that it must contain answers to questions or solutions to problems and enables rapid search, retrieval and reuse of corporate information, because it is built to help customers and employees, without having to reach out to support.
It can also contain frequently asked questions (FAQ), user forums, articles, white papers, how-to articles, video tutorials, case studies, dictionaries, or glossaries.
That information can be very technical, such as in the IT knowledge, produced by the Informatic department. But also Customer Service and other business divisions, such as Sales, Marketing and HR, have a service knowledge, that collects all the useful content to run processes and procedures.
Having a centralized source of information makes it possible to speed up work and constantly monitor changes and updates to documentation.
In addition, it will be easier to analyze and share data and KPIs on business performance and resource utilization.
Implementing knowledge base management systems to support the organisation
To reach the benefits mentioned above, the first necessary step is to identify how many and which people need to access the knowledge - inside and outside the organisation. And then analyse how to access it: can they use that content at any time they need it to do their job?
This leads us to understand the goal of Knowledge Management: in order to collect and map knowledge, it is necessary to introduce a KM technology, i.e. software that allows access and management of the company Knowledge Base.
Often this phase is the most critical, since it involves, on the one hand, the choice of a program that should be easy to use and with an intuitive and user-friendly interface, and on the other, its integration into the work routine (i.e. the actual use that people in the company make of it).
Barriers to the development of Knowledge Management systems
Technological barriers
On a more strictly technology-related level, there are several issues that could arise:
- first of all, the choice of software that is complicated to use and not very adaptable to the needs of the various departments;
- the difficulty of finding data as they are located in different repositories, archives and servers;
- the use of systems that approach documents based on a specific language, such as codes, keywords, or tags: these types of software imply the need to know these terms to search for information.
To solve these problems, Pigro has developed the Knowledge Insights feature, which measures the quality of your knowledgebase and suggests how to improve its effectiveness. You will be able to solve any issues related to the findability of content, the status of updates, access and sharing permissions, conflicting information, etc.
Cultural barriers
In terms of the use of Knowledge Management, one of the biggest obstacles may be represented by the corporate culture:
- there is often a lack of appreciation of Knowledge Sharing practices, so each employee avoids sharing best practices learned through experience, as they consider them a personal strength and a treasure to be jealously guarded;
- secondly, if a culture of innovation is not widespread in the company, people will be reluctant to change and adopt new technological tools, even though they could facilitate their work.
To avoid these situations, change must come from the top, and encompass the entire corporate culture: fostering knowledge-sharing practices among colleagues and departments with rewards and incentives for those who circulate information, stimulating the production of new ideas and, consequently, innovation.
Learn more: How to choose the right Knowledge Management System to manage information.
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