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2018 Knowledge Management Product and Market Report
This is DMG
Consulting’s inaugural Knowledge Management Product and Market Report. The Report thoroughly analyzes this mature yet reemerging IT sector:
the vendors, their offerings, the functional capabilities of the knowledge
management (KM) solutions, best practices, product pricing, and more. The focus
of the Report is contact center and service-related uses of KM, but it also
covers broader opportunities for knowledge management throughout enterprises.
Knowledge
management, a mature sector, is experiencing a long-overdue resurgence in 2018.
KM has become revitalized because of the convergence of several industry trends,
particularly the growing interest in incorporating artificial intelligence (AI)
into contact center solutions. The primary objective of knowledge management is
to serve as a data repository, providing a “single source of truth” that can
feed an AI solution with the data it needs. In doing so, it helps companies
achieve many of their top servicing goals, including delivering an outstanding
and personalized customer experience, improving productivity, increasing use of
self-service, reducing customer effort, reducing operating costs, improving
cross-departmental cooperation, and enhancing customer and staff engagement.
KM
can play a strategic role by helping to break down departmental silos and
transforming an enterprise into a collaborative, knowledge-driven operating
environment. By providing a central source for data drawn from across an
organization, knowledge management solutions enable the digital transformations
that are happening in many companies.
The new generation of KM solutions is up to the digital challenge, as
the applications are built to run in the cloud and use advanced database and
search technology. The newer and more flexible KM solutions also incorporate
responsive design techniques so that content can be delivered to different
constituents (internal and external) in a variety of channels. Today’s KM
solutions gather information efficiently, with content management capabilities
to collect and prepare data from an unlimited number of sources, and utilize sophisticated
search software to quickly deliver it to users.
Vast
improvements in system usability are changing the value proposition for KM
solutions. Traditionally intended to enhance productivity, reduce agent
training time and reduce operating costs while improving quality and first
contact resolution, KM solutions were not favored by employees because they often
slowed them down. The current generation of KM solutions makes it easier to
locate information and render it in a format appropriate to each group of
users. This is of great benefit for self-service solutions. Customers have
shown a preference for self-service, and the Millennial generation, both
employees and customers, are comfortable with automation and looking up
answers, as long as the system can provide the information that they need
quickly.
The
challenge for KM remains keeping the knowledge base clean, accurate and
up-to-date. Attaining this goal requires an operating environment where all
employees support the concept and practice of KM and all departments
collaborate to achieve success. An enterprise must develop a KM framework,
supported by internal infrastructure, for their knowledge management initiative
to be successful. Knowledge management needs to become an essential, inherent
component of all employees’ activities on a daily basis.
The
KM market is in the early stages of transformation, and a great deal of change
is expected in the next 3 – 5 years, as companies strive to create a single
source of knowledge. The growing interest in KM is attracting new vendors and
driving a major round of investment in some of the existing solutions. Vendors
are entering the KM market from many different IT sectors, and the
opportunities are great for disruptive solutions that are able to transform the
world of knowledge management.
Report
Highlights:
The KM
market has come alive in 2018, driven by growing interest in artificial
intelligence: AI solutions require a source of knowledge, and KM solutions can
address this need by providing a single source of “truth.” The new, more
flexible and responsive generation of knowledge management solutions fill this need
by providing a centralized repository for information gathered from across the
enterprise.
Knowledge
management helps enterprises deliver on many of their top servicing goals: KM solutions
are highly valuable in assisting companies to achieve their top service
objectives, including delivering an outstanding and personalized customer
experience, improving productivity, increasing the use of self-service,
reducing customer effort, reducing operating costs, improving
cross-departmental cooperation and coordination, and enhancing customer and
staff engagement.
The new
generation of KM solutions is ready for the digital transformation: Today’s
knowledge management applications run in the cloud, use the newest database
technology, allow delivery of content to different groups of users in a variety
of channels, embed content management capabilities to gather and prepare data
from unlimited sources, and utilize highly sophisticated and fast search
software to deliver information.
The success
of a KM initiative depends on instituting a knowledge-driven culture: Enterprises
must make KM an inherent and essential component of employees’ daily
activities. All employees must work to support the concept and practice of KM.
Conversely, KM facilitates collaboration among departments; the ability to
break down departmental silos and gather information across the enterprise is a
game changer that will benefit the entire organization.
Click here for more information about the report