Conjuring the magic of ServiceNow Knowledge Management

Information is essential to the way your company operates; however, finding the information you need can sometimes be harder than finding a needle in a haystack. If your team can’t find relevant information quickly and efficiently, it doesn’t matter how much data you have—they won’t be able to use it effectively. What’s the point of having all of that information if it doesn’t help you achieve your goals?

Introducing knowledge management: processes that can help you gather, organize, and share information seamlessly across your organization. Knowledge management has become a best practice for driving innovation and collaboration. In fact, with effective knowledge management, over 70 percent of organizations predict that they can improve productivity by at least 20 percent. It is also a critical pillar in any successful digital transformation strategy, ensuring that valuable knowledge and insights can drive digital innovation and adaptation.

You might think of ServiceNow Knowledge Management as your organization's GPS—always directing you to the right piece of information, without the annoying “recalculating.”

Now, let’s explore what ServiceNow Knowledge Management looks like, including what an organized process looks like, the benefits of knowledge management, and best practices and strategies for implementing the solution.

What is ServiceNow Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management aims to seamlessly connect valuable knowledge within an organization with the people who seek it.

ServiceNow Knowledge Management offers a centralized system for capturing, organizing, storing, and disseminating knowledge within an organization to facilitate effective decision-making, problem-solving, and innovation. It includes the systematic management of explicit knowledge (i.e., tangible, codified information such as documents, manuals, and databases) and tacit knowledge (i.e., personal insights, expertise, and experiences) to improve organizational performance and drive continuous improvement. In the realm of IT service management, this becomes particularly crucial as it helps in creating a knowledge-centered culture that encourages continuous learning and improvement.

With ServiceNow Knowledge Management features, organizations can create a single source of truth for their employees, customers, and stakeholders. Knowledge articles can be created, categorized, tagged, and accessed easily, empowering teams with quick and efficient access to information.

As fun as a safari is, you’ll be glad to end the complicated data hunt.

5 benefits of ServiceNow Knowledge Management

When employees have near-instant access to the information they need, it can offer transformative benefits in the way your organization works. Here are just five of the module’s key benefits.

1. Improved efficiency

Because ServiceNow Knowledge Management makes knowledge easily accessible, employees and customers can find information quickly. This access lets them minimize the time spent searching for answers with more time spent on creative and proactive projects, such as those that involve change management. The ease of access also increases productivity and efficiency.

You could instead try freezing time to gather the information you need, but you’re probably not Wanda Maximoff.

2. Enhanced collaboration and communication

Enable team members to contribute to knowledge articles, suggest improvements, and provide feedback. This equipping fosters a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing, leading to improved communication and better-quality solutions.

3. Better user experiences

ServiceNow Knowledge Management also offers self-service capabilities that provide end users like employees and customers with quick access to accurate information, increasing satisfaction, reducing friction, and improving the overall employee experience. Similarly, self-service options empower your teams to find the information they need fast, enabling them to create an excellent experience for your customers—and improve customer satisfaction—quickly and efficiently.

It's like turning a maze into a straight path—the cheese has never been closer.

4. Informed decision-making

With access to relevant and accurate information and insights at all times, employees and managers can leverage the information to understand trends, analyze data, and overall make more data-driven decisions. Similarly, because the information in your knowledge management system remains within your company, it offers a competitive advantage that’s unique to your company alone.

5. Continuous improvement

Measure the effectiveness and usage of knowledge articles. Identify knowledge gaps to curate new content, update outdated content, and empower your users. This will enable you to continuously improve the quality and relevance of knowledge resources, as well as optimize your knowledge management processes.

ServiceNow Knowledge Management empowers organizations to maximize their collective knowledge and enhance collaboration, deliver exceptional customer and employee experiences, empower improved decision-making, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Around your new “virtual campfire,” everyone will be grilling their wisdom burgers, singing their experience ballads, and sharing their knowledge s'mores.

6 best practices and strategies for maximizing ServiceNow Knowledge Management

Although simply implementing ServiceNow Knowledge Management can help you improve the knowledge management processes throughout your organization, best practices can significantly enhance the effectiveness of the module. Here are 6 of our tips for making sure your investment is serving your team well. Think of these tips as the whipped cream for your ice cream sundae—they’ll add the extra substance you need to make the perfect combination of processes.

1. Clearly define objectives first

Start by clearly defining your knowledge management initiatives’ goals. Determine exactly what you want to achieve with your knowledge base. For example, maybe you want to reduce support costs, improve employee satisfaction, or offer more self-service options. Aligning your efforts with your goals will not only help you guide your strategy and implementation but also help you continuously check in throughout the process to ensure you’re on the right track.

Similarly, take this time to engage with stakeholders from across departments and roles within your organization, like IT, customer support, subject matter experts, and end users. By involving them in the process, you can foster a more collaborative approach that offers valuable insights and ensures you’re improving the lives of those who will be most impacted by the change.

Without defined objectives, you might end up on a wild goose chase, and trust us, those geese can be elusive.

2. Establish guidelines for content creation and maintenance

How will new knowledge articles be created? How will you decide when knowledge articles need to be written or updated? By establishing clear standards for when and how content will be created and shared, you can ensure articles continuously maintain accuracy and relevance. Be sure to follow a consistent format, use clear language, and provide step-by-step instructions as needed to ensure your team knows who’s responsible for what and when. Don’t forget to regularly review user feedback and usage metrics as part of the process.

Similarly, consider developing templates for different types of knowledge articles. For example, you could create a template for best practices, FAQs, or troubleshooting. These templates will provide a consistent format across creators, ensuring they’re readable and usable by every end user. By documenting these guidelines, you can develop a seamless content management process, ensuring articles are regularly reviewed, updated, retired, and always offering accuracy and relevance.

It's like having the script for a play—everyone knows their lines, and nobody accidentally ends up in the orchestra pit.

3. Provide training and adoption support for continuous improvement

As part of your continuous improvement goals, provide ongoing training and resources to employees for how to effectively use and create information in the knowledge base. Host regular training sessions, create user guides, offer ongoing knowledge-centered service (KCS) to promote adoption, and check in to ensure your users maximize their utilization of the knowledge management system.

Along those lines, leverage analytics and data to measure how effective the knowledge articles are. When you consistently analyze patterns, feedback, and ratings, you can identify gaps or areas for improvement and make any necessary changes. By offering continuous support, we ensure everyone is in the same boat and no one has to paddle alone.

4. Remember that less is more

While ServiceNow Knowledge Management will simplify the content-creation process, that doesn’t mean you need to overwhelm yourself by authoring as much information as possible. Having a smaller knowledge base is often preferable over having a large repository filled with irrelevant—or outdated—information. For one, having a streamlined knowledge base frees up more time for producing quality content that is accurate, relevant, and useful. This lean knowledge base improves the user experience and improves the likelihood of finding the right solution quickly.

Additionally, a large and outdated knowledge base can create confusion and clutter, forcing users to spend more time not only sifting through irrelevant content but also reviewing and updating articles and ensuring all content is accurate. In the future, your having started with less will also make it easier to scale and remain agile, as you will have a smaller knowledge base to align with changing business needs, emerging trends, or new technologies.

Picture it like a finely curated museum exhibit, rather than the overstuffed attic of a seasoned hoarder.

5. Make knowledge digestible and diverse

Although you don’t want to create too much content, you also don’t want to make each piece of knowledge too long or time-consuming to read. Instead, present your knowledge in a user-friendly manner. Offer short, actionable guides with consistent formats to make it easier for employees to spot the answers to their questions quickly. This is especially important if you work at a large enterprise that manages vast knowledge resources.

Consider diversifying your documentation beyond text, too. Implement collaboration tools, tutorials, a service portal, live chat, a service desk, help desk, and chatbot support to complement the rest of the ServiceNow Knowledge Management module. This will make it much easier for your team to access the information they need. Remember, it’s not just important to supply the knowledge—you also need to make sure end users can easily find, consume, and apply it to their roles.

It's like being a chef at a gourmet buffet. Variety is key, and the servings should be just enough to entice, not overwhelm.

6. Create a community for knowledge sharing

Finally, utilize ServiceNow Knowledge Management to create a safe space for people to share their knowledge. Who doesn’t appreciate hearing from people who are familiar with the challenges they’re facing? Take the time to develop an online community where your team can share knowledge, address issues, and find solutions together.

Encourage collaboration among subject-matter experts and contributors. Enable them to share their expertise, contribute to knowledge articles, and communicate and work with each other. And don’t forget to implement workflows and approval processes to ensure quality control while facilitating collaboration. When your team can work together seamlessly, there’s no end to the knowledge they can share.

This community we're building won't require any town halls or potluck dinners, but we can't guarantee there won't be any heated debates about Oxford commas.

Optimizing ServiceNow for effective Knowledge Management

ServiceNow Knowledge Management provides organizations with a powerful tool that empowers them to capture, organize, and share knowledge effectively. With enhanced collaboration among team members, a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous improvement is well within reach—especially when businesses implement best practices and strategies. When organizations focus on quality, they can unlock numerous benefits and optimize their knowledge management processes, creating the best end-user experience possible.

At the heart of this optimization lie the critical elements of people, process, and technology. Successful Knowledge Management brings these three together. The people create, share, and use the knowledge. The processes enable effective knowledge management. And the technology, like ServiceNow, facilitates this process.

It’s time to throw a Knowledge Management party. And you’re the DJ playing the mix of information and innovation.