One of the most underrated and under-utilised aspects of Knowledge Management is its ability to lead to innovative solutions for customers and frontline staff. Below is a real example of award winning innovation from early on in my career at WDS (See my KM origin story)

Use Case

Whilst working for WDS, back in the early noughties, we created mobile phone knowledge for Network Operators (MNOs) and mobile phone manufacturers, as well as being an outsourced call centre for technical data queries.

We created, refined, simple and easy-to-use content for the end user. Still, some of the most time-intensive and complicated problems to solve for call centre agents and customers were setting up the Internet, WAP, MMS and Email on their mobile phones. And although we had the proper knowledge to talk users through the journey, it was still a timely process and involved the customers knowing their technical settings.

A couple of intelligent people at WDS identified this problem. So they looked for a more brilliant, innovative way to deliver customer knowledge to solve these issues. They discovered they could send components of knowledge and settings directly to the mobile phones through SMS and automatically set the customer up in a matter of seconds, instead of the 15-minute calls it would take in the call centre. Due to this innovation WDS actually won "Most Innovative use of technology in a small call centre 2001", what a great night that was. (In 2001!!!! I feel old). 

Anyway, after this innovation, WDS productised this technology and made it available directly to MNOs and Manufacturers for self-service channels. First, customers would get a new device. Then, go to the MNO or Manufacturer web site and send the settings they need directly to their phone. All from the same single source of knowledge where the original knowledge articles were housed.

This technology evolved even further over the coming years by embedding the knowledge directly onto SIM cards and Manufacturer devices. So the moment a user inserted a new sim card or entered their email address, the correct settings and configurations were automatically configured without the customer knowing it. Solving a problem before the customer realised they had one.

This technology saved millions of dollars in the cost to service customers for these particular problems. And customers nowadays take for granted that setting up email and the internet on your phone is easy and automatic.

Summary

A well-rounded Knowledge Strategy should have continuous improvement and innovation embedded as part of the process. It should look at customers' problems and how knowledge can help innovatively find a better solution. Don't just think about knowledge as a static piece of content. Think about how a combination of knowledge and technology can provide real customer benefits.

Knowledge Management, when done right, will help lead to innovation.