Is SharePoint effective for Knowledge Management and building a Knowledge Base? - KPS

Is SharePoint an effective platform for Knowledge Management?

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To explore this question, the definition of a Knowledge Management System must first be outlined;

A Knowledge Management System (KMS) is a system for applying and using knowledge management principles to typically enable employees and customers to create, share and find relevant information quickly. Typical functionality includes;

  • Content capture/upload and/or leveraging of existing content sources
  • Advanced searching, including natural language, keyword and parameter led
  • The ability to effectively capture tacit knowledge
  • Insights into content use, knowledge gaps and user adoption level

SharePoint can store solutions, but in capturing and capitalizing on
their relevancy, SharePoint fails. Sharepoint typically resides as its own system, without integration with other tools such as CRMs or service desk applications. Without the ability to link solutions to the search query, the usefulness of solutions is not measured.

Search has historically also been a weakness of Sharepoint and continues to present challenges to users. Without manual tagging and knowledge of document titles, it can be difficult to find what you are looking for. Universal Knowledge provides google quality results and will take the user directly to the answer to the query within the document. This is an automatic, admin free function available out of the box.

Capturing tacit knowledge is most effective when this is built into a knowledge management process. Sharepoint does not offer this. Universal Knowledge encourages users to ask questions informally using discussion forums and formally using the ‘Ask the Expert’ function. In either case, alerts and notifications are triggered to the relevant people to make them aware of a potential knowledge gap and the status of this tracked and analysed through reporting functions.

Reporting functions are also lacking within Sharepoint. As is often said, knowing what we don’t know is as important as knowing what we know. Universal Knowledge provides comprehensive reporting to understand user adoption, potential knowledge gaps and document usage and relevancy.

As we have seen, the more rigorous the definition of Knowledge Management, the more gaps there are in SharePoint’s capacity to fulfil the mission. An organization can obtain truly effective Knowledge Management functionality while continuing to leverage its investment in SharePoint, by adopting a purpose-built Knowledge Management software such as Universal Knowledge – and maintaining a shared knowledge repository in SharePoint. The Knowledge Management software would index the content in site collections designated as repositories for knowledge content for the supported business processes, treating those site collections just as it would any other repository in the enterprise.

Complementing your investment in SharePoint with an investment in Knowledge Management solutions would unlock your information and make it accessible exactly where it is required.

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