With the rapidly changing landscape of how offices and organizations approach work, knowledge management (KM) is more crucial than ever. Due to the overflow of information within organizations, the ways in which this information is stored and archived change according to the need, time, and purpose. 

As with everything else, the field of KM in technology has its seasons of trends. However, some trends are here to stay. Why should some trends outstay others, you may ask?

Well, simply because they improve the user experience for the better.

With the changing composition of the workforce, traditional methods of disseminating information are replaced with more agile methods. Let us look at the top five knowledge management trends in 2022.

1. AI is here to stay 

Anyone who is active on the web has watched the trajectory of growth in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Within just a few years, AI has grown tremendously and is predicted to take over many sectors in the future.

Intrinsically, AI and KM deal with knowledge, information and learning. Recent developments in the field of AI can be implemented in the way knowledge management systems work. AI is mostly used in KM to store and retrieve explicit data. AI can dig deep into various channels of content, decipher relevant topics and present useful information when required.  

For example, companies have now started applying deep machine learning in AI-powered chatbots to relay the desired information when and where needed. This knowledge management trend is here to stay with many companies integrating chatbots in their websites for easy communication and problem solving.

2. Easy-to-use collaboration tools 

In 2022, especially with the growth of hybrid work culture, the rise of easy-to-use collaboration tools has grown exponentially. The key idea is to provide a seamless communication flow among employees.

Using the best enterprise knowledge management platform will allow for this collaboration through the integration of multiple apps. According to a research paper by Peter Clark and Maggie Cooper, the rise in collaboration is proportional to the increased possibility of communication through IT.  

Some spaces that now demand collaboration are task management, information sharing, co-editing, and case studies to name a few. This is why tools that encourage collaboration for ideating, working, communicating, and editing will inevitably be a popular knowledge management trend. 

3. Mobile-friendly user experience

According to Google, more than 50 percent of search queries now happen through mobile phones. Mobile users are only going to increase, and so will the search volume through phones. Hence, it is key to optimize your website for mobile. This brings us to a crucial part of knowledge management - mobile apps, as one of the biggest knowledge management trends to stay for good. 

For instance, the increasing use of mobiles has initiated M-learning or Mobile Learning opportunities. In order to make the learning process better for the user, knowledge management processes integrate M-learning apps increasing choice and convenience. 

Even with websites, optimizing your website in order to make it mobile-friendly is crucial nowadays. Google prefers sites that have a good user experience both on desktops and mobile devices.

4. Round-the-clock support 

For any kind of business, the common denominator is customer satisfaction and revenue generation. This makes it obvious that for a business to succeed, providing a seamless customer experience is not negotiable. In fact, customer support is one of the pillars of a business that can determine how successful your business eventually becomes.

Other than collaboration and knowledge-sharing, top-notch knowledge management can improve customer support, and therefore, customer experience tremendously. 

Businesses today can leverage this tool for internal and external business purposes. This would include providing insider business information to support agents that would help them solve customer problems faster and improve their KPIs like average handle time & first call resolution. Hence, there is quicker dissemination of information to customers to educate and inform them about the company’s offers, services, and so on.

5. More media-focused content 

Traditional forms of knowledge base management systems like Confluence knowledge base, Sharepoint knowledge base, etc are composed of really lengthy guides and manuals that make the employees dread reading them.

Humans, in general, focus on getting a job done in the easiest way possible. Whether an employee or a customer, no one would like to overcomplicate or have tedious systems.

Well, worry not! Today’s knowledge management systems are not only new and improved but they are genuinely geared towards improving both the agent’s and the customer’s experience. Another knowledge management trend is the use of media such as images, visuals, and videos to make the interaction more engaging and enriching. 

For the visual-inclined human mind, adding visuals to a text makes it easier for the person to grasp the concept and implement it. So goodbye to the long and boring formats, hello to cool and engaging relevant media. 

Conclusion 

With the emergence of new technologies and changing work cultures, it has now become essential for businesses to adopt efficient knowledge management systems. Besides having access to information, it is crucial to be able to access this information when needed. 

The above-mentioned knowledge management trends focus on enhancing both the business and its employees, and their customers.

Using a knowledge management system is one of the best ways to ensure that employees are not only productive but more importantly, satisfied in their job roles. 

Furthermore, efficient and readily available customer service ensures a good customer experience. And happy customers mean increasing sales and more revenue.

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Knowledge management is an important process and corporations can take advantage of to maximize their potential. Many organizations have a well of knowledge at their disposal, but they can't readily tap into it because it's not well managed and distributed. Insights become difficult to track or gain because trends from past employees, processes, and departments are not properly stored for future use.

Having the right management structure in place will ensure that knowledge becomes easily accessible throughout the organization.

This article discusses what knowledge management entails, the importance, benefits, and more.

What is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management (KM) refers to the process of collecting, retaining, managing, and sharing knowledge and information within an organization. It typically involves a multidisciplinary approach to achieve company objectives by utilizing the available information within an organization.

More often than not, the knowledge and experience of employees (past and present) can help to tackle future projects. But when such information isn't kept and managed efficiently, the necessary insight will not be available to solve the problem at hand. Then, the organization will have to work on the solution from scratch instead of simply using a copy/paste approach. In short, KM can make an organization faster and more efficient in problem-solving and decision-making.

KM aims to make information and institutional knowledge readily available to staff or whoever needs it.

KM is broken down into three stages:

• Knowledge acquisition (or creation)
• Knowledge Storing
• Knowledge Sharing

By gathering and storing employees' knowledge, organizations retain what has made them successful in earlier times. In addition, sharing this information can help other staff boost performance, thereby improving the entire organization.

The importance of Knowledge Management

The importance of KM to organizations is that it makes them more efficient and aids decision-making.

Decision-making becomes faster since insights from past successes and staff knowledge are available.

Note that the use of KM is not exclusive to executives. Employees looking for information on how to execute a task will have access to the entire institutional knowledge. The result is that the overall expertise of every staff within the organization is at the disposal of each employee. The workforce becomes smarter.

In addition, innovation can grow within the organization since old practices can be identified and built upon.

In essence, KM is a way to share expertise within an organization.

Benefits of Knowledge Management

Some of the common benefits of KM include:

●      Sharing of expertise

●      Quicker problem solving

●      Quicker decision making

●      Reduced time to find information

●      Employee growth and development are fostered

●      The staff becomes more competent faster

●      Improved business processes

●      More innovation

●      Overall time savings

●      Overall organizational agility

Worthy of note is that how well the knowledge is managed plays a role in how much benefit is realized. Therefore, it becomes critical to design and implement an efficient infrastructure to make information readily accessible to every staff within the organization.

Thanks to cloud-based services, anyone can access information from their devices, right from their workstation, without moving an inch. You'd most likely need a managed IT services team to set up and maintain your network infrastructure, manage cloud configurations, and move data to the cloud. Managed service provider definition comprises many tech-related services, so you would have to make a clear agreement based on your unique needs.

Types of Organizational Knowledge

Three types of knowledge flow within an organization:

1.    Explicit knowledge

This is any information that can be easily put in systematic or mathematical form, written, taught, and shared. For example, how to set up billing/invoice, FAQs, instructions, etc. It's a formalized documentation of knowledge that can be used to make decisions, execute a job, or educate an audience.

2.    Implicit Knowledge

Implicit knowledge is gained by applying (or implying) explicit knowledge to a given situation. For instance, you can review FAQs and mathematical formulas to gain insight into the best approach to solve a new challenge. Other examples of implicit knowledge include an employee's ability to prioritize tasks and beat deadlines.

Most times, implicit knowledge has to do with the experience of implicit knowledge.

3.    Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge is intangible and difficult to explain or codify -- it is experience built over time. It usually involves things that we can understand without being said. While tacit knowledge may be challenging to capture and implement, having appropriate structures in place can facilitate sharing experiences between old/retired staff and younger/newer ones.

The Bottom Line

Employees will retire, and some will move on to other ventures. It wouldn't be best to allow their experience and expertise to go out the door with them. With KM, you can share all relevant information organization-wide. So whether staff gets promoted, retired, or transferred, their knowledge can help new replacements easily fill those roles.

At the end of the day, your organization becomes smarter, agile, and more efficient.

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Over the years, businesses of all sizes realize the value of knowledge and information. Not surprisingly, a knowledge management system is a norm for large companies and small enterprises. A KMS is a tool that helps an organization capture, organize, and analyze pertinent information. It facilitates improved collaboration, better decision-making, and time management among employees. Moreover, it empowers the team to deliver a more efficient customer experience. Typically, a KMS includes company documents, product development data, product feature breakdowns, presentation decks, case studies, and best practices. Building it seems like a humongous task, but you can build it within a budget. Let us explain how.

Define the KMS goals

Implementing a knowledge management system gets easy if you identify your unique needs and goals in the first place. Customer-facing companies require it to help support teams to solve problems, up-sell products, and enhance customer experiences. Likewise, remote teams can leverage a KMS to enable efficient and user-friendly workflows. Your employees feel empowered with information, making them better and more productive in their roles.

Choose an apt knowledge management platform

Choosing the relevant knowledge management platform is another critical factor when it comes to implementing a KMS on a budget. Evaluate the user base and pick a platform they can use comfortably. After all, the last thing you want to do is spend a fortune to train employees for accessing information from the system. Providing them with a platform with intuitive features for search, editing, and content creation helps with easy buy-in and long-term savings.

Outsource development

Outsourcing development services to create and implement your knowledge management system is the best way to stick to your budget. You can check reputed Staff Augmentation Companies with relevant expertise and experience to hire resources for the project. The model is far cheaper than onboarding an in-house team, as you may not even require them after the deployment stage. You need not retain outsourced employees for the long run but can bring them back for upgrades or maintenance in the system.

Facilitate integration

Ease of integration is another factor that makes a KMS budget-friendly. You will not want a system that requires a change in the other elements of your business ecosystem. Look for one that can capture knowledge and expertise and create a robust repository for future use. Additionally, it should integrate seamlessly with the tools and apps your teams already use. Seamless integration ensures productivity and quality outcomes without spending a fortune.

Continue to improve and update

Continuous improvement makes your KMS relevant and valuable, so do not take a set-and-forget approach after it is up and running. Your needs evolve down the line as your processes change, product lines grow, teams add up in size, and economic and other external factors alter. The information increases, and you need a bigger and better KMS to handle and manage it. Stay regular with updates in the system to ensure relevance and value.

A KMS is the most valuable investment for a business as it empowers your team, so you should not skimp on it. But you can actually spend less to get more out of the system with these simple measures.

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What are Knowledge Management solutions?

Peter Drucker, famous for declaring, "Information only becomes knowledge in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it," coined the term "knowledge management" in the 1950s. 

Knowledge management has since become a specialized emphasis area for larger companies.

There have been numerous discussions about how knowledge management solutions can be implemented since the subject was created in 1991. 

One of the most popular is using a knowledge management software solution to support customer service and technical support operations such as contact/call centers, shared service centers, web self-service functions, and help desks, including ITSM (IT Service Management) operations approaches in businesses. 

Evolution of Knowledge Management solutions

Many attempts at internal systems have been made, ranging from internal "shared drives" to massive databases with intricate hyperlinks and meta-data. 

The accumulation of big data has made it increasingly difficult to find the exact information needed without a lengthy search or an intimate understanding of where the data is stored. 

In addition to offering an internal content management function and reports to assess knowledge base usage and knowledge gaps, the best software for Knowledge Management simply indexes a wide range of information resources before filtering and prioritizing relevant knowledge.

#1 - Central repository (Knowledge base systems)

Many information sources are accessible from a single location.

The system indexes all required content from all relevant sources without requiring any information to be moved to a single location and uses a natural language search function to allow users to quickly and easily retrieve the information.

This enables quick and easy solution deployment without the need to reformat or repurpose vast amounts of legacy data.

#2 - Guiding customers to answers (Content relationship Management systems) 

Users frequently know how to articulate their problem but are unsure how the answer will be phrased or communicated. 

Staff, partners, and customers can describe the issue, pain, or query in their own words and enter the term immediately into a search using the best software for knowledge management. 

The ai knowledge base solution will find and display solutions known to handle similar issues in order of importance.

#3 - NLP (AI – powered solutions)

Users can utilize natural language search instead of typing in keywords to ask inquiries. 

Documents are frequently prepared in informal language that differs from the language used to ask questions. 

Natural language search functionality is currently a significant element of the best software for knowledge management.

It allows the system to grasp the context of the query rather than just the keywords required for a successful search result.

This is especially significant in industries that employ industry jargon, such as finance, where a direct debit is commonly referred to as DD. 

Natural language capabilities can permit the use of the organization's common words.

#4 - Self-learning (Decision support systems) 

A self-learning capacity in a knowledge management solution captures the continually changing flow of information. 

This keeps the index up to date with the actual phrase used in inquiries. 

New content can be added to the content repositories that are already in use after the initial implementation.

Self-learning also includes users determining the quality of the solutions offered, so the most useful options are presented first.

#5 - Single source of truth (Document management systems) 

A knowledge management solution can also help with a push strategy, which allows specific content to be 'pushed' to a specified user group. 

This guarantees that new information reaches the right individuals at the right time.

The system keeps track of who read the material and when.

This allows administrative users to see who needs to be updated on new information.

The system may also manage user profiles across an organization, allowing each user profile to have specific access to pertinent information. 

This allows knowledge to be transmitted both within and outside of the company while maintaining control.

#6 - Identifying and closing knowledge gaps (Learning Management Systems)

A new age knowledge management solution can also identify knowledge gaps and refer unanswered concerns and queries to content specialists unlike old DMS like Sharepoint, who can react to the inquiry by updating the system with new information. 

This eliminates the need to elevate the same investigation to relevant experts numerous times. 

Tracking and responding to knowledge gaps also removes the guesswork involved in determining where knowledge gaps may exist before developing new solutions. 

#7 - Social communication systems

Knowledge is created and shared whenever your teams interact with one another.

It's critical, then, to analyze how your organization's communication and collaboration technologies relate to your knowledge management goals.

You want to know, in particular, that:

· In the first place, your teams can easily share knowledge and information.

· This information can be shared in a variety of ways.

· At all times, engagements are recorded, and knowledge is saved.

#8 – Decision support systems 

Decision support systems are technologies that assist people in making informed business decisions by analyzing large amounts of data. 

While DSSs can be used to collect and handle any form of data, the most frequent data types involved are:

· Performance in marketing and sales

· Services of assistance

· Internal operations

The idea is to use data to find the paths that will lead to the maximum development for your company, whether that growth is financial, productivity, or something else.

Conclusion

When implemented correctly, a knowledge management system can help your company raise customer happiness, lower customer care expenses, and boost overall customer success ROI.

While the tactical features of knowledge management systems may differ, the goal remains the same: to educate your consumers to effectively use and interact with your products or services.

You may accomplish this by using a combination of knowledge base FAQs, tutorials, academies, how-to articles, and forums.

Any aspect of a knowledge management system should contribute to addressing and educating consumers and gathering information about your products or services.

People say that knowledge is power, but that adage is far more than an easy axiom. It’s also a bedrock truth. Perhaps no one knows that better than business leaders and decision-makers, those who deal every day with the management of knowledge.

The simple reality is that knowledge is the grist that keeps the wheels of your business turning. Lack of knowledge can lead to devastating errors, misjudgments, and mismanagement. Conversely, the theft of sensitive information can destroy your company’s reputation and threaten its very survival.

What this means, ultimately, is that knowledge management is about far more than developing sound operating practices, promoting efficiency and productivity, or galvanizing growth and profitability. Rather, the effective control of information is also an aspect of risk reduction. Indeed, risk mitigation may well be the most important, if frequently overlooked, attribute of knowledge management.

Connecting Knowledge Management and Risk Mitigation

Ours truly is the age of information. The success of any modern enterprise, regardless of the industry, directly and inextricably links to the production and flow of knowledge. Thus, the principal form of currency in modern business isn’t money — it’s information.

Just as you would safeguard your financial assets as a function of your risk management processes, so too must you safeguard the creation and circulation of knowledge within your organization if you intend to effectively mitigate the risks to which your organization is exposed.

The Rise of 5G, the IoT, and Smart Tech

Now more than ever, much of the work people do is performed remotely, via smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices linked to the Internet of Things (IoT). These technologies give workers unprecedented power to create, access, and disseminate knowledge whenever they need it and wherever they may be.

This on-demand access to information not only helps to support efficient workflow, but it reduces the risk of work stoppages, delays, or operational errors. For example, IoT devices can be used by farmers to monitor growing conditions in real-time, shippers to track shipments worldwide, and warehouse and inventory managers to continuously assess and regulate product and supply stocks, transport, and storage. Ultimately, this reduces operational risks relating to common threats such as lower-than-expected crop yields, shipment delays, and inventory mismanagement.

Best of all, the extraordinary speed of information flow promises only to increase as technology advances and the 5G network expands worldwide. Indeed, the proliferation of 5G is expected to bridge the digital divide, connecting once inaccessible spaces to the world wide web while offering unprecedented speed and security.

This means that not only will knowledge flow faster, more freely, and more securely around the world, but also that business leaders worldwide will have more power than ever before to reduce their strategic, financial, regulatory, and operational risks. And such risk avoidance not only benefits the organization, but also employees, consumers, and local, national, and global economies in general.

Curtailing Information Flow

As critical as the dissemination of knowledge may be to productivity, efficiency, and strategy, there are, of course, a myriad of reasons why information access is a threat. Some data simply are not appropriate for public consumption, and the failure to protect such sensitive information can have profound consequences for your company.

Healthcare organizations that fail to secure patients’ medical information, for instance, may face costly lawsuits and severe damage to their reputation. Under extreme conditions, they may even be subject to compulsory shutdown by regulators.

For this reason, it is imperative that business leaders prioritize not only the production of knowledge but also the protection of it. Unfortunately, this is not always an easy proposition. For example, you likely already have a clear and rigorous policy for shredding documents containing sensitive information, such as financial or medical records.

However, information leaks can come from even the most seemingly innocuous sources. For instance, bad actors may be able to use something as simple as a birthday card to begin gathering the personally identifiable information (names, birth dates, relatives’ names, etc.) they need to hack company accounts.

This is why, when it comes to knowledge management, it’s probably not possible to be too proactive. In other words, sweat the small stuff. Install virtual private networks (VPN), firewalls, and other advanced security technologies and ensure they’re always updated. Engage in rigorous and ongoing information security training for all employees and partners and provide timely security alerts. Institute policies for destroying all potentially harmful information, no matter how seemingly innocuous.

This should also include, for example, securing all devices potentially containing work product, and ensuring that devices no longer in use are destroyed rather than simply wiped or scrubbed. Even common office equipment such as printers and scanners can retain sensitive information and, thus, should also be professionally destroyed.

The Takeaway

Knowledge management is about far more than using information to optimize operations and drive profitability. Knowledge management is also likely your best weapon against risk. With the appropriate technology, sound information production and dissemination practices, and rigorous data security, you can safeguard your company against the myriad risks that threaten it.

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