How ITSM and Knowledge Management are Current Success Levels?
ITSM Knowledge Management
It’s crucial to manage the flow of information within your organization. And Knowledge Management Systems are excellent business tools for that purpose. From helping in educating new employees to help customer support operations, these tools are beneficial in many ways. In this article, learn more about ITSM knowledge management and how you can succeed with it.
Benefits of Knowledge Management for the IT Service Desk
Before learning about the benefits, let's look at what actually it means by Knowledge Management.
Knowledge Management is the process of collecting, storing, analyzing, and finally sharing information within an organization. In most cases, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) create the documentation which contains the information. The documents are then stored in a centralized repository for anyone with permission to access.
The ITSM 4 considers knowledge management as one of the core processes for facilitating the flow of information to other IT service management processes.
Some examples of Knowledge Management Systems include:
- Knowledge base
- Forum/wiki-style documents
- FAQs
- Case studies
- Self-paced and pre-recorded training programs
- Live webinars
Now, let's explore the benefits of Knowledge Management systems for the IT service desk.
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Reduces Repetitive Help Requests :
In a day to day business operation, different employees might be experiencing the same problem. And the new service desk employees that come in will likely face the same issue. So they will be raising the tickets for the same issue.
Instead of resolving it time and time again, you can record the solution and refer them to it.
As mentioned, documents are created by experts. But experts are not the only source of document creation. Every time a technician resolves a ticket, he creates a new solution. It's possible to document the solution and put into the repository for future reference. Thus, it reduces repetitiveness.
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Reduced Average Handling Times :
Average Handling Time AHT is an important metric in IT service desk. It is defined as the average time each service desk agent dedicates to resolve an incident. This includes the time that he/she spends on speaking with the client and gathering necessary resources.
Service desk workers with high AHT are considered unproductive. With a knowledge management system, you'll see an improvement in AHT for all of your IT service desk workers. With the appropriate tools, it can be reduced by as much as 50%. Workers also become more competent and efficient.
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Helps Remote Workers :
With more employees working from home because of gig economy and contract workforce, companies are finding it hard to provide them with the support they need.
But with knowledge management, you can allow them to get the information they need to complete the work. The information can be about the system they're using for work or the work they're supposed to do.
With this implementation, you'd be spending less time supervising and managing your remote workforce.
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Enhances Customer Experience :
Taking care of the customer is a top priority for every business. By equipping your IT service desk workers with the information they need, you ensure quick resolution to problems your employees might be facing.
Furthermore, you can allow customers to self-serve themselves without ever interacting with the support team.
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Improved Productivity :
Last but not least, knowledge management systems increase productivity across the board. As service desk workers spend less time resolving the tickets, they see an immediate increase in productivity.
With the right knowledge bank, companies spend less time training and up skill their employees. This further enhances productivity.
Customers can self-serve themselves without having to wait for a person to help them out. So they can stay productive as well.
As there's productivity for all, knowledge management tools are a must for every company.
How ITSM and Knowledge Management are Current Success Levels?
Organizations are starting to value the benefits offered by IT Service Management and Knowledge Management. The United States, and Northern America, in particular, is a leading adopter of Knowledge Management with other parts of the world catching up.
So why are companies so optimistic about investing in ITSM and Knowledge Management? Besides the aforementioned benefits, there are some statistical benefits as well.
As per HDI Technical Support Practices & Salary Report 2017, Knowledge Management was ranked as the second-most ITSM process among IT support companies. It trailed only behind Incident Management.
As evident from the statistics, IT support companies, whose core responsibility is to assist customers, are finding Knowledge Management tools useful.
The HDI 2017 reports also highlight the fact that over 95% of organizations surveyed were either interested in investing in Knowledge Management or already using it, with only 5% uninterested.
Another interesting fact the report uncovers is that 15% of those organizations saw a significant decline in ticket volume over their previous year. Self-help was the primary reason for this decline, followed by staff competency. And a well-curated and maintained Knowledge Base was the third reason for it.
Knowledge Management is a component. To get the complete results out of digital technology, you must implement ITSM or Information Technology Service Management.
It oversees all kinds of workplace technology which ranges from workstations to sensitive software applications. It's how your IT team can manage the delivery of IT services to customers.
Getting Started with Knowledge Management
If you want to get started with Knowledge Management within your organization, here's a quick four-step guide for you:
1.Centralize Your Knowledge :
First, centralize all of your knowledge and information you've generated up until this point. Knowledge will be scattered all across the organization ranging from emails to paper documents. Your first task is to centralize them in a database.
2.Continuously Update Your Knowledge Documents :
The next step is to update them to the latest versions and keep updating them. Outdated knowledge will do more harm than good. So make emendation a top priority.
3.Adopt Smart Self-Service :
You should make the documents as a reference for self-service. So your customers and IT service desk workers can both benefit from it without raising tickets.
4.Define KPIs and Measure Them :
There are several KPI metrics you can track to conclude whether your Knowledge Management was successful. The metrics will further help you in making improvements.
