If you work in an enterprise organization, eventually knowledge management must be taken seriously; more than a ‘nice-to-have’, or just another buzzword—enterprise knowledge management involves much more than a simple knowledge base or company intranet site.
If we take a step back, knowledge management is all the people and processes and technology that enable people share, access, and manage helpful information within an organization. The goal of KM is to make sure that the right people have the right information at the right time so they can make better decisions and do their jobs more effectively.
Enterprise knowledge management is how an organization manages the people, processes, and technology involved in maintaining and distributing knowledge to thousands of customers across a variety of support channels.
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To distribute and maintain knowledge at the enterprise level, you need more than simple knowledge base software—you need an enterprise knowledge management platform as the technology foundation of your overall KM system.
All the systems and tools to manage knowledge should ideally be defined in a documented framework. A knowledge management framework (we’ll cover later) contains a description of all components of the knowledge management system; as an organization grows, the right knowledge framework provides the instructions for how all the moving parts work together.
Knowledge management at the enterprise level can get involved, but to keep it simple, below is a simple structure to understand how these knowledge-related terms related to one another.
The overarching structure in any enterprise knowledge management strategy; includes the overall KM system plus governance, knowledge capture, and more.
Your enterprise KM system will consist of the following:
- Knowledge management technology: KM tools like an enterprise knowledge management platform
- People: basically your entire knowledge management team (which can include customers and employees!)
- Defined processes around knowledge maintenance, feedback, and how people work together.
In today’s knowledge-driven economy, enterprises need the right system to make knowledge helpful, they need the right technology to make use of all of the big data related to knowledge.
EKM offers an array of benefits to businesses. For example, it can improve your organization’s:
- Decision making. EKM can help your business make better decisions by ensuring that key actors have access to the latest information and research as well as the collective knowledge within the enterprise.
- Efficiency. EKM systems can automate tasks and processes, saving your company both time and money.
- Customer service. Your company can improve its customer service by giving employees quick and easy access to all the information they need.
- Collaboration. An EKM system can help improve your company’s communication and collaboration by allowing knowledge workers to access and share information from its centralized storage location.
- Competitiveness. Your business can gain a competitive edge by using EKM to ensure that knowledge is captured, stored, shared, and used in the most efficient way possible.
Despite the benefits, there are some challenges businesses face when implementing enterprise KM systems. These challenges include:
- Organizational buy-in. EKM requires organizational buy-in from employees, managers, and executives for the system to function comprehensively.
- User training. Some vendors in the enterprise KM space don’t offer great trained on how to implement KM software. Find a partner, not just a technology vendor.
- Accuracy of information. Some enterprise KM solutions don’t make it easy to keep accurate and up-to-date information in the system.
- Maintenance. Some enterprise KM solutions (especially legacy solutions) don’t leverage AI and require lots of ongoing maintenance.
- Data overload. Data overload is a risk enterprises face when they outgrow a knowledge base. Overload can occur when a system contains too much data, some of which may be outdated, redundant, or otherwise unnecessary to store.
- Security breaches. All businesses face some risk of security breaches. Enterprise KM systems may contain sensitive information vendors must address.
All knowledge management challenges can be overcome with proper planning and execution. In the knowledge economy, businesses that don’t find a way to manage their knowledge effectively will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.