Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is the process of managing your knowledge base, which is the reserve of reference materials you can use to inform your IT support. Knowledge management software is a key component of an effective, modern help desk—with knowledge management tools available for both employees and technicians. A knowledge base will serve as a living, flexible tool that can accumulate more intelligence as your help desk continues to resolve more tickets.

Knowledge management assists your issue resolution throughout the entire ticketing process. Your knowledge base is available as soon as employees need to request help for an IT issue. Whether submitting an IT service request or an IT incident, a knowledge base can maximize the potential for self-service. Once a ticket is submitted to the help desk portal, a knowledge management system can recommend relevant solutions based on included keywords.

After an employee submits a ticket, your service team can also access a broader knowledge base with searchable information. For streamlined troubleshooting, knowledge management allows you to research tickets quickly and learn from similar solutions already documented in your knowledge base.

Knowledge management aims to make IT service management more efficient and accurate for your technicians and end users alike.

A user-friendly knowledge base allows you to quickly and accurately resolve tickets. With an easily searchable knowledge base, knowledge management can become a fast and intuitive process. For instance, when working on a ticket, you can research similar issues and see how they were successfully resolved in the past.

Self-service is also convenient for end users, as they can discover solutions to basic problems without needing to wait for a technician’s assistance. Self-service features can save time and money by deflecting tickets and eliminating simple tasks from your IT team’s queue.

Ultimately, knowledge management software can help improve efficiency for your team and provide major improvements in your help desk’s overall performance.

The concept of an IT knowledge base often recalls a reserve of information, designed to help technicians resolve IT issues. But the principles of knowledge management can be applied to both technicians and employees to better inform everyone’s understanding of their IT issues. When your knowledge management approach includes an external knowledge base, you can reduce unnecessary tickets and improve employee satisfaction.

External knowledge management involves articles and resources designed for employee self-service. An external knowledge base isn’t inherently different from your internal knowledge base, but the resources available to both knowledge bases will likely be a bit different.

External knowledge management tools allow employees to access information that can help them with self-service. Because external knowledge management is designed with non-experts in mind, the articles and resources available for employees will be designed for this purpose. Internal knowledge bases include resources employees can access in addition to restricted resources for the help desk team.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk helps you optimize knowledge management for an informed and efficient ticket resolution process. Web Help Desk includes a centralized knowledge base, with a user-friendly search to help users access resources based on relevant criteria. In addition to articles, Web Help Desk allows you to include videos and pictures in your knowledge base articles for an intuitive approach to ticket resolution.

With Web Help Desk, knowledge management tools allow you to manage your knowledge bases without hassle. IT managers can easily restrict access to certain articles for internal use only. If an employee is having trouble navigating the external knowledge base, technicians can easily access the ticket and guide end users to relevant information by inserting helpful links directly into their ticket.

Web Help Desk helps ensure the most important IT issues can be addressed with relevant intelligence every time. As you continue to resolve tickets, Web Help Desk allows you to expand your knowledge base, including third-party article imports, to provide the internal and external resources needed to support quicker ticket resolution.