Power to the People
Getting Ready for Next-Generation Knowledge Management
You will have to get used to the fact that some contributions will be negative. These should be allowed, though corporate-level response is certainly legitimate. Communities are very good at policing themselves and will quickly identify incorrect or unfair contributions. When a criticism is legitimate, acknowledge it and get the community to help you identify workarounds. We have found that communities are very forgiving of mistakes, but they will not tolerate manipulation. If they perceive you are managing knowledge to support only the corporate view, they will quickly abandon the community—and your products.
The Need for Inclusive Technology
Fundamentally, next-generation knowledge management technology must be inclusive, empowering anyone who wishes to contribute, while effectively managing contributions to ensure their validity and value. This requires several key capabilities:
- A technology focused on simplicity and ease of use. For community-based knowledge management to succeed, it must present a user interface that is as simple, obvious and easy to use as possible. The community at large—not just in-house knowledge experts—must be able to look at the interface and know immediately how to participate. This includes simple ways to make contributions, comment and respond, add tags and create links between content;
- An agnostic technology that can work over any device used to access the Web. Today, we still think mostly of computers as the medium to access knowledgebases. But the rapid growth of personal computing devices and cell phones for Web connectivity requires technology
- A flexible technology capable of handling all types of content. The popularity of digital photos, cell phone movies, mp3 music files and other media means that the technology must support all types of content in addition to traditional documents and files; and
- Collaborative content development methods that enable the traditional in-house content author to move to the role of a community manager who moderates and oversees the development and use of community-generated content.
How to Start Getting Ready
While your organization may not be ready to jump into next-generation knowledge management right away, it is wise to begin exploring how you will respond to the coming world of community-driven knowledge.
A good place to start is by looking at how you fit into your customers’ world, and how you can leverage them, not just as revenue generators but as strategic partners for knowledge that will help you more effectively sell and support your offerings.
Think about how you can cast the widest possible net to find meaningful content and nurture contribution. It may not be enough to simply hang out a "Contributors Welcome" shingle. Consider how to encourage and reward those who participate. Such simple techniques as awarding "expert" status to high quality, repeat contributors have proven surprisingly effective. You may even want to consider rewards, such as coupons or discounts, for on-going, high-value contributions.
Lastly, consider how your organization will need to change to effectively support next-generation knowledge management. How will your current knowledge managers make the shift to an inclusive, welcoming approach to outside contributors? What will be required to help current content authors adapt to the role of content moderator?
This brings us full circle, back to our two essential knowledge management best practices: treating knowledge management as a strategic asset and listening to customers. Next-generation knowledge management will depend on these two guidelines even more than the current generation.
As every business knows, customers are the lifeblood of the corporation, and companies ignore their customers’ interests and needs at their peril. Next-generation knowledge management requires continued focus as a core business function and even greater awareness of the customer voice to ensure the customer experience is always positive, effective and customer-focused.
Next-generation knowledge management presents significant new challenges... and opportunities. By including your customers in the development and delivery of your company’s knowledge, they can become a valuable extension of your business, relieving you of some of the burden of solving problems for customers, helping you to make better products, expanding sales success and increasing the value of your brand to all consumers.
Talisma Corporation, an nGenera company, is a leading provider of customer interaction management (CIM) solutions for delivering an exceptional experience throughout the customer lifecycle. The flexible, self-learning Talisma Knowledgebase captures and presents current, relevant information to customers in a Web self-service mode, and to agents through a flexible portal within the single screen agent interface. For more information, please visit
www.talisma.com.