knowledge management case study

Knowledge management (KM) is the process of identifying, organizing, storing and disseminating information within an organization.

When knowledge is not easily accessible within an organization, it can be incredibly costly to a business as valuable time is spent seeking out relevant information versus completing outcome-focused tasks.

A knowledge management system (KMS) harnesses the collective knowledge of the organization, leading to better operational efficiencies. These systems are supported by the use of a knowledge base. They are usually critical to successful knowledge management, providing a centralized place to store information and access it readily.

Companies with a knowledge management strategy achieve business outcomes more quickly as increased organizational learning and collaboration among team members facilitates faster decision-making across the business. It also streamlines more organizational processes, such as training and on-boarding, leading to reports of higher employee satisfaction and retention.

Use this model selection framework to choose the most appropriate model while balancing your performance requirements with cost, risks and deployment needs.

Register for the ebook on generative AI

The definition of knowledge management also includes three types of knowledge—tacit, implicit, and explicit knowledge. These types of knowledge are largely distinguished by the codification of the information.

• Tacit knowledge:  This type of knowledge is typically acquired through experience, and it is intuitively understood. As a result, it is challenging to articulate and codify, making it difficult to transfer this information to other individuals. Examples of tacit knowledge can include language, facial recognition, or leadership skills.
• Implicit knowledge:  While some literature equivocates implicit knowledge to tacit knowledge, some academics break out this type separately, expressing that the definition of tactic knowledge is more nuanced. While tacit knowledge is difficult to codify, implicit knowledge does not necessarily have this problem. Instead, implicit information has yet to be documented. It tends to exist within processes, and it can be referred to as “know-how” knowledge.
• Explicit knowledge:  Explicit knowledge is captured within various document types such as manuals, reports, and guides, allowing organizations to easily share knowledge across teams. This type of knowledge is perhaps the most well-known and examples of it include knowledge assets such as databases, white papers, and case studies. This form of knowledge is important to retain intellectual capital within an organization as well as facilitate successful knowledge transfer to new employees.

While some  academics  (link resides outside ibm.com) summarize the knowledge management process as involving knowledge acquisition, creation, refinement, storage, transfer, sharing and utilization. This process can be synthesized this a little further. Effective knowledge management system typically goes through three main steps:

• Knowledge Creation:  During this step, organizations identify and document any existing or new knowledge that they want to circulate across the company.
• Knowledge Storage:  During this stage, an information technology system is typically used to host organizational knowledge for distribution. Information may need to be formatted in a particular way to meet the requirements of that repository.
• Knowledge Sharing:  In this final stage, processes to share knowledge are communicated broadly across the organization. The rate in which information spreads will vary depending on organizational culture. Companies that encourage and reward this behavior will certainly have a competitive advantage over other ones in their industry. 

There are a number tools that organizations utilize to reap the benefits of knowledge management. Examples of knowledge management systems can include:

• Document management systems  act as a centralized storage system for digital documents, such as PDFs, images, and word processing files. These systems enhance employee workflows by enabling easy retrieval of documents, such as lessons learned.
• Content management systems (CMS) are applications which manage web content where end users can edit and publish content. These are commonly confused with document management systems, but CMSs can support other media types, such as audio and video.   
• Intranets  are private networks that exist solely within an organization, which enable the sharing of enablement, tools, and processes within internal stakeholders. While they can be time-consuming and costly to maintain, they provide a number of groupware services, such as internal directories and search, which facilitate collaboration.
• Wikis  can be a popular knowledge management tool given its ease of use. They make it easy to upload and edit information, but this ease can lead to concerns about misinformation as workers may update them with incorrect or outdated information.
• Data warehouses  aggregate data from different sources into a single, central, consistent data store to support data analysis, data mining, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. Data is extracted from these repositories so that companies can derive insights, empowering employees to make data-driven decisions.

While knowledge management solutions can be helpful in facilitating knowledge transfer across teams and individuals, they also depend on user adoption to generate positive outcomes. As a result, organizations should not minimize the value of human elements that enable success around knowledge management.

• Organizational Culture:  Management practices will affect the type of organization that executives lead. Managers can build learning organizations by rewarding and encouraging knowledge sharing behaviors across their teams. This type of leadership sets the groundwork for teams to trust each other and communicate more openly to achieve business outcomes.
• Communities of practice:  Centers of excellence in specific disciplines provide employees with a forum to ask questions, facilitating learning and knowledge transfer. In this way, organizations increase the number of subject matter experts in a given area of the company, reducing dependencies on specific individuals to execute certain tasks.

Armed with the right tools and strategies, knowledge management practices have seen success in specific applications, such as:

• Onboarding employees:  Knowledge management systems help to address the huge learning curve for new hires. Instead of overwhelming new hires with a ‘data dump’ in their first weeks, continually support them with knowledge tools that will give them useful information at any time.  Learn more
• Day-to-day employee tasks:  Enable every employee to have access to accurate answers and critical information. Access to highly relevant answers at the right time, for the right person, allows workforces to spend less time looking for information and more time on activities that drive business.  Learn more
• Self-serve customer service:  Customers repeatedly say they’d prefer to find an answer themselves, rather than pick up the phone to call support.  When done well, a knowledge management system helps businesses decrease customer support costs and increase customer satisfaction.  Learn more

Companies experience a number of benefits when they embrace knowledge management strategies. Some key advantages include:

• Identification of skill gaps:  When teams create relevant documentation around implicit or tacit knowledge or consolidate explicit knowledge, it can highlight gaps in core competencies across teams. This provides valuable information to management to form new organizational structures or hire additional resources.
• Make better informed decisions:  Knowledge management systems arm individuals and departments with knowledge. By improving accessibility to current and historical enterprise knowledge, your teams can upskill and make more information-driven decisions that support business goals.
• Maintains enterprise knowledge:  If your most knowledgeable employees left tomorrow, what would your business do? Practicing internal knowledge management enables businesses to create an organizational memory. Knowledge held by your long-term employees and other experts, then make it accessible to your wider team.
• Operational efficiencies:  Knowledge management systems create a go-to place that enable knowledge workers to find relevant information more quickly. This, in turn, reduces the amount of time on research, leading to faster decision-making and cost-savings through operational efficiencies.  Increase productivity not only saves time, but also reduces costs.
• Increased collaboration and communication:  Knowledge management systems and organizational cultures work together to build trust among team members. These information systems provide more transparency among workers, creating more understanding and alignment around common goals. Engaged leadership and open communication create an environment for teams to embrace innovation and feedback.
• Data Security:  Knowledge management systems enable organizations to customize permission control, viewership control and the level of document-security to ensure that information is shared only in the correct channels or with selected individuals. Give your employees the autonomy access knowledge safely and with confidence.

Experiment with foundation models and build machine learning models automatically in our next-generation studio for AI builders.

Watson Discovery is an award-winning AI-powered search technology that eliminates data silos and retrieves information buried inside enterprise data.

How to drive your DataOps framework with a single layer of business knowledge that supports self-service, data governance, AI, natural language processing, and accelerated data lake generation.

Train, validate, tune and deploy generative AI, foundation models and machine learning capabilities with IBM watsonx.ai, a next-generation enterprise studio for AI builders. Build AI applications in a fraction of the time with a fraction of the data.

• Browse All Articles
• Newsletter Sign-Up

KnowledgeManagement →

No results found in working knowledge.

• Were any results found in one of the other content buckets on the left?
• Try removing some search filters.
• Use different search filters.

About Stanford GSB

• The Leadership
• Dean’s Updates
• School News & History
• Commencement
• Business, Government & Society
• Centers & Institutes
• Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
• Center for Social Innovation
• Stanford Seed

About the Experience

• Learning at Stanford GSB
• Experiential Learning
• Guest Speakers
• Entrepreneurship
• Social Innovation
• Communication
• Life at Stanford GSB
• Collaborative Environment
• Activities & Organizations
• Student Services
• Housing Options
• International Students

Full-Time Degree Programs

• Why Stanford MBA
• Academic Experience
• Financial Aid
• Why Stanford MSx
• Research Fellows Program
• See All Programs

Non-Degree & Certificate Programs

• Executive Education
• Stanford Executive Program
• Programs for Organizations
• The Difference
• Online Programs
• Stanford LEAD
• Seed Transformation Program
• Aspire Program
• Seed Spark Program
• Faculty Profiles
• Academic Areas
• Awards & Honors
• Conferences

Faculty Research

• Publications
• Working Papers
• Case Studies

Research Hub

• Research Labs & Initiatives
• Business Library
• Data, Analytics & Research Computing
• Behavioral Lab

Research Labs

• Cities, Housing & Society Lab
• Golub Capital Social Impact Lab

Research Initiatives

• Corporate Governance Research Initiative
• Corporations and Society Initiative
• Policy and Innovation Initiative
• Rapid Decarbonization Initiative
• Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative
• Value Chain Innovation Initiative
• Venture Capital Initiative
• Career & Success
• Climate & Sustainability
• Corporate Governance
• Culture & Society
• Finance & Investing
• Government & Politics
• Leadership & Management
• Markets & Trade
• Operations & Logistics
• Opportunity & Access
• Organizational Behavior
• Political Economy
• Social Impact
• Technology & AI
• Opinion & Analysis
• Email Newsletter

Welcome, Alumni

• Communities
• Digital Communities & Tools
• Regional Chapters
• Women’s Programs
• Identity Chapters
• Find Your Reunion
• Career Resources
• Job Search Resources
• Career & Life Transitions
• Programs & Services
• Career Video Library
• Alumni Education
• Research Resources
• Volunteering
• Alumni News
• Class Notes
• Alumni Voices
• Contact Alumni Relations
• Upcoming Events

Admission Events & Information Sessions

• MBA Program
• MSx Program
• PhD Program
• Alumni Events
• All Other Events
• Operations, Information & Technology
• Classical Liberalism
• The Eddie Lunch
• Accounting Summer Camp
• Videos, Code & Data
• California Econometrics Conference
• California Quantitative Marketing PhD Conference
• California School Conference
• China India Insights Conference
• Homo economicus, Evolving
• Political Economics (2023–24)
• Scaling Geologic Storage of CO2 (2023–24)
• A Resilient Pacific: Building Connections, Envisioning Solutions
• Adaptation and Innovation
• Changing Climate
• Civil Society
• Climate Impact Summit
• Climate Science
• Corporate Carbon Disclosures
• Earth’s Seafloor
• Environmental Justice
• Operations and Information Technology
• Organizations
• Sustainability Reporting and Control
• Taking the Pulse of the Planet
• Urban Infrastructure
• Watershed Restoration
• Junior Faculty Workshop on Financial Regulation and Banking
• Ken Singleton Celebration
• Marketing Camp
• Quantitative Marketing PhD Alumni Conference
• Presentations
• Theory and Inference in Accounting Research
• Stanford Closer Look Series
• Quick Guides
• Core Concepts
• Journal Articles
• Glossary of Terms
• Faculty & Staff
• Researchers & Students
• Research Approach
• Charitable Giving
• Financial Health
• Government Services
• Workers & Careers
• Short Course
• Adaptive & Iterative Experimentation
• Incentive Design
• Social Sciences & Behavioral Nudges
• Bandit Experiment Application
• Conferences & Events
• Get Involved
• Reading Materials
• Teaching & Curriculum
• Energy Entrepreneurship
• Faculty & Affiliates
• SOLE Report
• Responsible Supply Chains
• Current Study Usage
• Pre-Registration Information
• Participate in a Study

Knowledge Management at Ernst & Young

• Priorities for the GSB's Future
• See the Current DEI Report
• Supporting Data
• Research & Insights
• Share Your Thoughts
• Search Fund Primer
• Affiliated Faculty
• Faculty Advisors
• Louis W. Foster Resource Center
• Defining Social Innovation
• Impact Compass
• Global Health Innovation Insights
• Faculty Affiliates
• Student Awards & Certificates
• Changemakers
• Dean Jonathan Levin
• Dean Garth Saloner
• Dean Robert Joss
• Dean Michael Spence
• Dean Robert Jaedicke
• Dean Rene McPherson
• Dean Arjay Miller
• Dean Ernest Arbuckle
• Dean Jacob Hugh Jackson
• Dean Willard Hotchkiss
• Faculty in Memoriam
• Stanford GSB Firsts
• Certificate & Award Recipients
• Teaching Approach
• Analysis and Measurement of Impact
• The Corporate Entrepreneur: Startup in a Grown-Up Enterprise
• Data-Driven Impact
• Designing Experiments for Impact
• Digital Business Transformation
• The Founder’s Right Hand
• Marketing for Measurable Change
• Product Management
• Public Policy Lab: Financial Challenges Facing US Cities
• Public Policy Lab: Homelessness in California
• Lab Features
• Curricular Integration
• View From The Top
• Formation of New Ventures
• Managing Growing Enterprises
• Startup Garage
• Explore Beyond the Classroom
• Stanford Venture Studio
• Summer Program
• Workshops & Events
• The Five Lenses of Entrepreneurship
• Leadership Labs
• Executive Challenge
• Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program
• Selection Process
• Training Schedule
• Time Commitment
• Learning Expectations
• Post-Training Opportunities
• Who Should Apply
• Introductory T-Groups
• Leadership for Society Program
• Certificate
• 2023 Awardees
• 2022 Awardees
• 2021 Awardees
• 2020 Awardees
• 2019 Awardees
• 2018 Awardees
• Social Management Immersion Fund
• Stanford Impact Founder Fellowships and Prizes
• Stanford Impact Leader Prizes
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Stanford GSB Impact Fund
• Economic Development
• Energy & Environment
• Stanford GSB Residences
• Environmental Leadership
• Stanford GSB Artwork
• A Closer Look
• California & the Bay Area
• Voices of Stanford GSB
• Business & Beneficial Technology
• Business & Sustainability
• Business & Free Markets
• Business, Government, and Society Forum
• Second Year
• Global Experiences
• JD/MBA Joint Degree
• MA Education/MBA Joint Degree
• MD/MBA Dual Degree
• MPP/MBA Joint Degree
• MS Computer Science/MBA Joint Degree
• MS Electrical Engineering/MBA Joint Degree
• MS Environment and Resources (E-IPER)/MBA Joint Degree
• Academic Calendar
• Clubs & Activities
• LGBTQ+ Students
• Military Veterans
• Minorities & People of Color
• Partners & Families
• Students with Disabilities
• Student Support
• Residential Life
• Student Voices
• MBA Alumni Voices
• A Week in the Life
• Career Support
• Employment Outcomes
• Cost of Attendance
• Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program
• Yellow Ribbon Program
• BOLD Fellows Fund
• Application Process
• Loan Forgiveness
• Contact the Financial Aid Office
• Evaluation Criteria
• GMAT & GRE
• English Language Proficiency
• Personal Information, Activities & Awards
• Professional Experience
• Letters of Recommendation
• Optional Short Answer Questions
• Application Fee
• Reapplication
• Deferred Enrollment
• Joint & Dual Degrees
• Entering Class Profile
• Event Schedule
• Ambassadors
• New & Noteworthy
• Ask a Question
• See Why Stanford MSx
• Is MSx Right for You?
• MSx Stories
• Leadership Development
• Career Advancement
• Career Change
• How You Will Learn
• Admission Events
• Personal Information
• Information for Recommenders
• GMAT, GRE & EA
• English Proficiency Tests
• After You’re Admitted
• Daycare, Schools & Camps
• U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents
• Requirements
• Requirements: Behavioral
• Requirements: Quantitative
• Requirements: Macro
• Requirements: Micro
• Annual Evaluations
• Field Examination
• Research Activities
• Research Papers
• Dissertation
• Oral Examination
• Current Students
• Education & CV
• International Applicants
• Statement of Purpose
• Reapplicants
• Application Fee Waiver
• Deadline & Decisions
• Job Market Candidates
• Academic Placements
• Stay in Touch
• Faculty Mentors
• Current Fellows
• Standard Track
• Fellowship & Benefits
• Group Enrollment
• Program Formats
• Developing a Program
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Strategic Transformation
• Program Experience
• Contact Client Services
• Campus Experience
• Live Online Experience
• Silicon Valley & Bay Area
• Digital Credentials
• Faculty Spotlights
• Participant Spotlights
• Eligibility
• International Participants
• Stanford Ignite
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Founding Donors
• Location Information
• Participant Profile
• Network Membership
• Program Impact
• Collaborators
• Entrepreneur Profiles
• Company Spotlights
• Seed Transformation Network
• Responsibilities
• Current Coaches
• How to Apply
• Meet the Consultants
• Meet the Interns
• Intern Profiles
• Collaborate
• Research Library
• News & Insights
• Program Contacts
• Databases & Datasets
• Research Guides
• Consultations
• Research Workshops
• Career Research
• Research Data Services
• Course Reserves
• Course Research Guides
• Material Loan Periods
• Fines & Other Charges
• Document Delivery
• Interlibrary Loan
• Equipment Checkout
• Print & Scan
• MBA & MSx Students
• PhD Students
• Other Stanford Students
• Faculty Assistants
• Research Assistants
• Stanford GSB Alumni
• Telling Our Story
• Staff Directory
• Site Registration
• Alumni Directory
• Alumni Email
• Privacy Settings & My Profile
• Success Stories
• The Story of Circles
• Support Women’s Circles
• Stanford Women on Boards Initiative
• Alumnae Spotlights
• Insights & Research
• Industry & Professional
• Entrepreneurial Commitment Group
• Recent Alumni
• Half-Century Club
• Fall Reunions
• Spring Reunions
• MBA 25th Reunion
• Half-Century Club Reunion
• Faculty Lectures
• Ernest C. Arbuckle Award
• Alison Elliott Exceptional Achievement Award
• ENCORE Award
• Excellence in Leadership Award
• John W. Gardner Volunteer Leadership Award
• Robert K. Jaedicke Faculty Award
• Jack McDonald Military Service Appreciation Award
• Jerry I. Porras Latino Leadership Award
• Tapestry Award
• Student & Alumni Events
• Executive Recruiters
• Interviewing
• Land the Perfect Job with LinkedIn
• Negotiating
• Elevator Pitch
• Email Best Practices
• Resumes & Cover Letters
• Self-Assessment
• Whitney Birdwell Ball
• Margaret Brooks
• Bryn Panee Burkhart
• Margaret Chan
• Ricki Frankel
• Peter Gandolfo
• Cindy W. Greig
• Natalie Guillen
• Carly Janson
• Sloan Klein
• Sherri Appel Lassila
• Stuart Meyer
• Tanisha Parrish
• Virginia Roberson
• Philippe Taieb
• Michael Takagawa
• Terra Winston
• Johanna Wise
• Debbie Wolter
• Rebecca Zucker
• Complimentary Coaching
• Changing Careers
• Work-Life Integration
• Career Breaks
• Flexible Work
• Encore Careers
• Join a Board
• D&B Hoovers
• Data Axle (ReferenceUSA)
• EBSCO Business Source
• Global Newsstream
• Market Share Reporter
• ProQuest One Business
• Student Clubs
• Entrepreneurial Students
• Stanford GSB Trust
• Alumni Community
• How to Volunteer
• Springboard Sessions
• Consulting Projects
• 2020 – 2029
• 2010 – 2019
• 2000 – 2009
• 1990 – 1999
• 1980 – 1989
• 1970 – 1979
• 1960 – 1969
• 1950 – 1959
• 1940 – 1949
• Service Areas
• ACT History
• ACT Awards Celebration
• ACT Governance Structure
• Building Leadership for ACT
• Individual Leadership Positions
• Leadership Role Overview
• Purpose of the ACT Management Board
• Contact ACT
• Business & Nonprofit Communities
• Reunion Volunteers
• Ways to Give
• Fiscal Year Report
• Business School Fund Leadership Council
• Planned Giving Options
• Planned Giving Benefits
• Planned Gifts and Reunions
• Legacy Partners
• Giving News & Stories
• Giving Deadlines
• Development Staff
• Submit Class Notes
• Class Secretaries
• Board of Directors
• Health Care
• Sustainability
• Class Takeaways
• All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions
• If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society
• Grit & Growth
• Think Fast, Talk Smart
• Spring 2022
• Spring 2021
• Autumn 2020
• Summer 2020
• Winter 2020
• In the Media
• For Journalists
• DCI Fellows
• Other Auditors
• Academic Calendar & Deadlines
• Course Materials
• Entrepreneurial Resources
• Campus Drive Grove
• Campus Drive Lawn
• CEMEX Auditorium
• King Community Court
• Seawell Family Boardroom
• Stanford GSB Bowl
• Stanford Investors Common
• Town Square
• Vidalakis Courtyard
• Vidalakis Dining Hall
• Catering Services
• Policies & Guidelines
• Reservations
• Contact Faculty Recruiting
• Lecturer Positions
• Postdoctoral Positions
• Accommodations
• CMC-Managed Interviews
• Recruiter-Managed Interviews
• Virtual Interviews
• Campus & Virtual
• Search for Candidates
• Think Globally
• Recruiting Calendar
• Recruiting Policies
• Full-Time Employment
• Summer Employment
• Entrepreneurial Summer Program
• Global Management Immersion Experience
• Social-Purpose Summer Internships
• Process Overview
• Project Types
• Client Eligibility Criteria
• Client Screening
• ACT Leadership
• Social Innovation & Nonprofit Management Resources
• Develop Your Organization’s Talent
• Centers & Initiatives
• Student Fellowships

ITSM for high-velocity teams

What is knowledge management.

Knowledge management is the process of creating, curating, sharing, using, and managing knowledge across an organization and even across industries. 

ITIL 4 explains that “knowledge management aims to ensure that stakeholders get the right information, in the proper format, at the right level, and at the correct time, according to their access level and other relevant policies. This requires a procedure for the acquisition of knowledge, including the development, capturing, and harvesting of unstructured knowledge, whether it is formal and documented or informal and tacit knowledge.” (ITIL 4, 5.1.4, Knowledge management). 

A knowledge base is the foundation of a knowledge management practice. In IT, the knowledge base is a self-serve online library of information about a product, service, department, or topic. The data in your knowledge base can be from anywhere, but usually comes from several contributors who are well versed on the relevant subject. The knowledge base can include FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and any other details you may want or need to know.

We’ve all come to depend on search engines, which make knowledge management look effortless. They take advantage of a vast, internationally connected knowledge base (also known as the internet). You just enter a topic and get the information you need. For IT teams, knowledge management can be a complex undertaking, though the rewards are worth it. 

What are the benefits of knowledge management?

With services becoming more complex, IT teams now have to keep up with the broad range of technologies and procedures needed to effectively support customers. This makes knowledge management more important than ever. Effective knowledge management harnesses the knowledge of people throughout your organization, and then easily shares that knowledge. You don’t lose any information when someone goes on vacation, gets sick, or leaves the company. 

From a big-picture standpoint, it enables you to:

Create value . Get the right information to the right people at the right time.

Foster innovation . Use shared knowledge to inspire brainstorming, collaboration and big ideas.

Reach goals . Enable teams to set targets and actually hit them.

For organizations large and small, knowledge management puts content at the fingertips of those who develop and provide your products and services. This is a benefit on its own, but it also helps shorten development cycles for new initiatives; increases connectivity between internal and external personnel; enables more effective management of business environments; and leverages the intellectual capital and assets in your workforce.

Types of knowledge management

Knowledge management is a constant cycle of taking knowledge that's tacit or implicit, and enabling its availability in the form of explicit knowledge. That sounds complicated, so let's take a step back and understand the three different types of knowledge that exist.

Tacit knowledge is knowledge that stems from personal experience, context, or practice. This type of knowledge is stuck in your brain, making it hard to communicate to others. Since tacit knowledge is based on experience and intuition, like speaking another language, it's a huge competitive advantage and a huge challenge when implementing knowledge management systems.

Explicit knowledge is codified knowledge, or knowledge that has been documented and is easily accessible. Given its simple nature, explicit knowledge is much easier to store and retrieve in a knowledge management system. The challenge is ensuring it's reviewed and updated.

Implicit knowledge is embedded in process, routines, or organizational culture. It can exist in a formalized format, like a manual or written guidelines, but the knowledge itself isn't explicit. Instead, it often lives in the way an organization runs.

By understanding these three different types of knowledge, you have a better starting point for understanding how the knowledge within your company should be managed. When done the right way, it can help create value, foster innovation, and make it easier to achieve goals. 

Knowledge management best practices

Knowledge is one of the IT organization's most valuable assets, and open knowledge sharing can help your team stay on the same page, collaborate, and make better, faster decisions.  Open sharing makes knowledge more powerful, making information no longer an individual's knowledge, but the community's knowledge. To promote more open knowledge sharing, here are some best practices we recommend: 

• Aggregate your team’s knowledge in a single repository or system . As workplace technology evolves, knowledge now exists in more and more disparate places—across email, tickets, and in the minds of individual team members. Though choosing the right technology is important, this is just one step in your broader knowledge management strategy. 
• Increase transparency with open and shared information . Instead of keeping documents siloed in emails and folders, or locked behind permissions settings, invest in technology that connects and unifies knowledge. Knowledge should be easy for your entire organization to search, find, and create. Encourage team members to collaboratively edit pages, give feedback through inline comments, or at-mention teammates for peer review. 
• Make work visible with a project poster . For every major initiative, create a project poster to share your goals and progress with the rest of the team and stakeholders. This is a living, accessible document that can help you explore your problem space, define your scope, and get feedback. 
• Focus on brief articles or answers . Shared documentation does not always mean shared understanding. Rather than creating long, expansive documents, tailor your content to your team. Your entire team can learn and absorb information faster when it's quick to consume, uses easy-to-understand language, and published in a timely matter.
• Champion a culture of knowledge sharing . Reward top contributors with an ongoing recognition program that values both quality and quantity. Your leadership team can go a long way in setting a positive example by regularly contributing information like important organizational updates. They can also drive staff to your tool and use your tool to interact with teams directly.

Building a successful knowledge management strategy

Knowledge management is an ongoing responsibility. Even after you’ve implemented a system, there’s a constant cycle of adding new material and eliminating items that are outdated, as well as the discovery of hidden knowledge.

Here are the key steps to building a successful knowledge management strategy for your organization.

1. Identify your business situation and develop objectives and goals.

By first conducting an internal analysis of your organization, you’ll be able to align the knowledge management system with your goals.

2. Prepare your organization for implementation.

Acknowledge that this is a big deal. It’s going to require cultural changes. 

3. Form a knowledge management team.

Might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often organizations forget this. The first step in implementing any new process is putting someone in charge.

4. Conduct a knowledge audit.

See what knowledge is buried, and where it’s buried. Find out what’s missing, and begin to set the stage for what you want to do. For tacit knowledge, this process requires observation, interviews, or surveying the experts.

5. Determine your technology needs and prioritize those needs.

Figure out what tools you’ll need to implement knowledge management. Plan for the costs now. It’ll be easier to incur them later.

6. Determine the key attributes and features of your knowledge management system.

Figure out what you want your system to look like. Then make a list. Make sure everything lines up internally––that the technology and scope will lead to the results and happy stakeholders you need. Not sure what to look for? Check out the next section for a few ideas.

7. Put everything you know in one place.

You have a lot of knowledge. But it’s everywhere. Aggregate your knowledge with a solution provider that provides a single repository, one that’s simple to use and easy to access. This knowledge base makes it easy for people throughout your organization to learn and to serve your customers. And makes life a lot easier for all involved.

8. Measure and improve your program.

Once you’ve launched your knowledge management practice, take time to step back and review. Measure what’s working and what isn’t. Adjust accordingly and update constantly. This will be an ongoing effort. 

Choosing a knowledge management system

Great software makes knowledge management simple. So before you jump into implementation, ask yourself these questions about your technology:

• Does it promote and foster collaboration and communication?
• Can people label, share, and organize content?
• Can you customize it and add functionality?
• Is it flexible enough to adapt to changes?
• Does it handle migration seamlessly?
• Is it scalable for a growing organization?
• How secure will it keep your system?
• Does it enable measurement?
• Does it make navigation easy?
• How powerful is the search engine?
• Can it segment information into different projects, topics, etc.?
• Can it integrate with your existing software?
• Does it allow flexible permissions?
• Are there social media-style elements such as “liking” and “commenting?”

Aside from functionality, and most importantly, make sure your knowledge management system is needs-driven and solves for things like generating ideas and innovations, fostering a knowledge-sharing culture and community, enabling the discovery and building of expertise, and promoting feedback.

There is something in knowledge management for everyone. Whatever your business or market, people throughout your organization have valuable knowledge worth sharing. That’s true across departments. Whether IT, customer support, HR, legal, and even marketing or finance, all of these departments have knowledge that constantly needs to be shared with a team or a whole organization.  With a plan in place, workers across disciplines and departments can access your company’s knowledge base to solve problems and prevent future ones. 

Get better knowledge management with Jira Service Management.

Atlassian for ITSM

The basics you need to know about ITSM with Atlassian – across IT delivery, operations, and support, plus best practices and tips.

Knowledge base: your solution for improved collaboration

Discover the power of a knowledge base for your business. Boost productivity, enhance customer service, and streamline information management effectively.