Knowledge Management: How a KMS Can Improve Business Processes

One of the key problems plaguing businesses is information keeping and sharing. As a company accumulates knowledge, it tends to be scattered among different teams. This can hinder effective collaboration, data sharing, and productivity.

A knowledge management system aims to solve this common problem by making sure valuable knowledge can be accessed and put to effective use for the benefit of the company.

In this article, we explain what knowledge management is, and how it can help improve business processes and the business’s bottom line.

What Is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management involves organizing and centralizing pieces of valuable company information in a systematic manner.

A knowledge management system (KMS) is a tool or database that helps organizations manage and organize their knowledge. The information in a KMS can be anything from company policies to training programs to FAQs to employee manuals. An excellent example of a KMS is a corporate wiki.

Knowledge Management: A Key Strategy in Business?

All KMS software share common features, such as a searchable database, a system for categorizing and tagging information, and tools for collaboration.

While a KMS can be a great way to improve operational, marketing, and e-marketing processes, it can also be a burden if it is not used or managed correctly. That is why having a data governance framework is crucial to ensure data consistency and quality are in check to improve decision-making. The system must provide solutions to the ever-growing need for big data.

How a KMS Can Help Your Business

Here are several ways that a KMS solution improves business processes:

It Creates a More Efficient Workplace

Employees spend an average of 1.8 hours per day, or 9.3 hours per week, searching for the correct information. This delay in receiving information wastes time and costs money. However, making the knowledge more easily accessible to employees helps boost efficiency in the workplace. A KMS can also reduce the duplication of work since employees can share knowledge and collaborate more easily.

For example, instead of asking colleagues for information or calling for a huddle, a worker can simply search the database for the data they need, and continue about their work.

When efficiency is achieved in the workplace, it leads to increased productivity, improved customer service, and increased profits.

It Provides Better Insights for Business Decision Making

A knowledge management system improves the flow of information in a business. An excellent flow of well-organized and comprehensive information provides better decision-making insights.

With the information in a central location, it becomes easier to track trends and patterns. This can help organizations to make more informed decisions.

Many KMS solutions provide an analytics and reporting function. This allows executives and business development to see what type of knowledge is in demand, which one needs to be updated, and so on.

A customer-facing KMS can be even more invaluable. The company can see the most popular searches so they can focus more on that product.

It Provides a Fast Response to Queries

A knowledge management system can ensure that customers get answers to their queries accurately and promptly. This can help reduce the need for customer support staff as customers can self-serve using the KMS.

Let us say a customer wants to understand more about a product they’re interested in but wants to avoid reaching out to customer service representatives. A customer service portal or FAQ page can help them look up the information they need to make an informed purchase decision.

It Helps Teams Come up With Effective Marketing Strategies

Marketing teams require knowledge regarding customer data, market research, competitor analysis, and more. With such information in a central repository, it becomes easier for marketing teams to access and use it to make better decisions.

In addition, creating a knowledge management system with data about your company’s teams and information flow from clients will aid in the management of the marketing team. The company will gain valuable insight into monthly achievements and team performance.

It Enhances Communication and Sales Collaboration

Studies show that over 50% of workers in the U.S. claim that teamwork is essential to the success of their jobs. When all of your company’s knowledge is in one central location, it’s easy for employees to find and use it. In addition, it helps improve communication between employees, making it easier to share knowledge and solve problems.

Good collaboration can also reduce silos and lead to a better work environment, boosting productivity. A KMS can help marketing and sales collaboration by providing a central repository for information that both departments can access. Instead of calling for a resource person, a sales rep with a promo or marketing question can simply look it up in the KMS, while a marketing associate with a product question can search the specs on the database.

It Improves Employee Retention and Happiness

You have probably heard the saying, “A happy employee is a productive employee.” Investing in your employee is crucial if you want to increase their productivity.

Having a KMS in place can increase employee engagement, retention, and happiness by making it easier for them to find the information they need. When employees have quick and easy access to the information they need, they are less likely to become frustrated or disillusioned with their job.

It Streamlines the Onboarding Process

Onboarding is considered difficult not only by the new employee but also by the HR team. This could be due to manual onboarding workflows, a lack of company culture, or poor communication.

New employees can quickly get overwhelmed with all the new information they need to learn, especially when it’s in different places. A KMS can help you organize this information, making it easier for employees to find what they need. Everything from ethical guidelines to dress codes and device policies can be looked up on the knowledge base.

It Improves Customer Service

A KMS can help the customer service team by providing them with quick and easy access to the knowledge they need to resolve customer issues. As a result, the system can reduce the time a representative spends on each call. Furthermore, with optional integration of a contact management system it can additionally streamline the process and improve customer satisfaction rates.

Besides helping customer representatives, a KMS system can also create a knowledge base for your customers. This knowledge base can provide customers with self-service options for resolving their issues. For example, they can find answers to their questions without reaching for help or use it to submit new issues or requests.

Take Away

The knowledge management system is designed to help organizations manage and streamline their business processes. It can help you save time and money by streamlining your operations and improving efficiency.

In addition, it improves communication and collaboration between employees, streamlines the employee onboarding process, and improves customer service.

As a result, you can stimulate innovation and evolve your company, enabling you to achieve your organization’s goal. If you have a small business, these tools can help grow your company.