KM and IT Find Collaboration Productive
KM solutions continue to gain traction, driven by the need to form a cohesive view of an ever-expanding volume of enterprise data that supports collaboration, innovation, and productivity. “Companies choose to implement KM platforms to solve specific business problems,” said Betsy Anderson, director of customer success at Bloomfire. “These include documenting knowledge from employees who are retiring, capturing tacit or undocumented knowledge, and expediting knowledge access to customer service reps in order to provide quick and accurate answers for their customers.” The shift toward self-service drives demand for these platforms but also necessitates well-organized, accurate information.
The broadening reach of KM and the need to connect a wide variety of knowledge sources lead to an interactive relationship with IT, especially during initial implementation. “IT has always had some involvement in KM,” continued Anderson, “and now KM is becoming part of the core infrastructure in many organizations.” The centralized role of IT provides content visibility across the enterprise and across tools. “IT sees the big picture,” she commented, “because [it hears] from stakeholders throughout the company.”
That view allows IT to take a proactive role in unifying content through the use of a KM platform, since IT is in a position to recognize that multiple departments may be trying to solve the same types of problems. The departments have in common the need to verify the accuracy of their data, remove duplication and outdated information, and detect gaps where new information is required to respond to user inquiries.
Changing Practices and Processes
Some changes in practices have reduced the burden on IT, such as the increased use of SaaS applications, since issues such as storage space and software updates are addressed by the SaaS vendor. Gartner predicted that by 2028, more than 50% of companies will use cloud platforms, and these platforms will, in fact, become a business necessity (gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-11-29-gartner-says-cloud-willbecome-a-business-necessity-by-2028). Relieving IT staff of routine tasks allows them to take on more strategic, enterprise-oriented roles, although the cloud applications still need to be managed.
Other changes that will produce value in the long term are disruptors in the near term. The advent of large language models (LLMs), agentic AI, and generative AI have created new capabilities in KM, but, along with them, new obstacles. IT will need to master the use of MCP (Model Context Protocol) and more complex integrations as AI agents interact with data repositories and each other. Legacy data silos may prevent AI agents from accessing the data needed for an action. Plus, AI brings a new set of governance and security issues.
“We connect with IT leaders because they are aware of enterprise-wide problems and are tasked with solving them,” said Anderson. “Ideally, they can partner closely with their KM software provider instead of having to build out solutions internally. It doesn’t make sense for them to develop in-house solutions if their KM system owner plans to build out the same capabilities.”