What is a Web-Based Knowledge Management System?
Streamlining information sharing and real-time collaboration are two of the greatest advantages of using a web-based KMS. In a world where employees are increasingly working off-site, online KMS allows for one-click solutions that keep productivity and job satisfaction high.
As they say, everything’s in the details, and that holds doubly true for KMS. A smarter knowledge base means more empowered employees and better service delivery. The right KMS for your business is the one that helps you continuously improve content, evolving with you as your business scales and changes.
Tools of the KMS Trade
As technology delivers more options to get things done, cloud-based solutions are transforming the way businesses interact with their employees and customers. A web-based KMS is loaded with tools designed to make business information readily available and get things done more efficiently.
Web-Based Discussion Board
Collaborative knowledge creation and knowledge sharing is at the core of KMS. Web-based discussion boards or forums make idea exchange easier than ever. Employees gain near-instant access to suggestions and answers that help them resolve interactions quickly, accurately, and consistently.
Discussion board scripts can be customized to seamlessly integrate with your existing website. Separate board sections cover different areas of knowledge sharing and discussions. Board administration, too, is simplified, making it easy for moderators to maintain and ensure the involvement of members and the usefulness of shared information.
Document/Content Publishing Tool
There’s no better way to discover your organization’s full potential than with cloud services that let you easily create and share documents and distribute content across the customer lifecycle. You choose what information is published publicly and what information is enterprise-grade private with secure access for employees.
Authors can post their best practices, lessons learned, research papers, and more while others post feedbacks, comments, and ratings on their content. Multiple versions of the same document can be maintained, classified, and easily tracked. Fast, intelligent search is designed to suggest answers as the user types a query, and system-created features like “Doc of the Month,” “Hot Topic,” and “What’s New” ensure employees stay engaged and committed to keeping up-to-date.
Why Now is the Time to Invest
One of the greatest challenges businesses face today is the transfer of knowledge, particularly from older generations to the next. As aging workers retire, valuable institutional knowledge and wisdom is leaving with them. In a fast-paced business environment, capturing and sharing that knowledge is crucial for your organization’s long-term success.
Did you know that poor and inefficient knowledge sharing costs large businesses $47 million per year? Or that workers waste over 5 hours every week waiting for vital information from their colleagues? Just imagine how much worse it can get as the people who hold much of that knowledge leave without sharing it.
In a newly released survey, nearly 60% of working Baby Boomers say they’ve shared half or less of the knowledge needed to do their job responsibilities.
- A whopping 21% have shared no knowledge
- 16% have shared less than half
- 18% have shared all knowledge
The remaining 46% have shared about or a little over a half. Securing that wisdom now ensures the transfer of knowledge that is so critical to keeping customers and employees happy
In Summary
It’s no longer an option. Organizations must make it a priority to develop a strategy for transferring knowledge, not just from employees poised to retire, but from top-tier talent that will guide the company moving forward.
Investing in web-based knowledge management software today enables your organization to centralize and organize knowledge, helps eliminate information silos, and provides a single information repository where evergreen and updated content can be easily created, managed, and redistributed. Those organizations that develop such a plan to effectively pass on key knowledge are the ones that will have a competitive advantage.
