Benefits of a Knowledge Management Portal
A knowledge management portal is a centralized repository of documentation for internal or external readers. As knowledge-sharing can advance any type of business, creating a knowledge management portal has so many benefits. Let’s figure out which ones exactly.
Better Team Productivity
Access to company documentation: learning materials, instructions, policies and procedures, legal and technical documents, etc. — will help team members quickly find relevant information, support the decision-making process, and stick to the same standards. It is important to know for sure where the documentation is located, whether it is updated or not, and how to use it correctly. All team members should rely on one and the same source of information to avoid mistakes, misunderstanding, and ambiguity. Apart from that, access to all the knowledge of a company helps employees better understand their company’s goals and mission.
Continuous Improvements
When all the business processes are documented properly, it is always clear where to go next to improve them. It is easy to understand what works well. All the soft sports are obvious, and it is easier to fix them. Optimization, in this case, becomes more enjoyable.
Quick and Cheap Onboarding
New employees need a reliable source of information for self-education. Of course, they need a tutor, but there are a lot of things they can learn themselves. An online knowledge management portal is a perfect solution in this case. It drastically reduces onboarding time. Besides, a tutor won’t have to spend all the working hours explaining things to new employees. The downtime will be reduced, which means the learning cost will be reduced as well.
Better Product Adoption
Many customers prefer to solve their problems themselves, which means that self-service is the best option for them. A knowledge management portal will surely contribute to case deflection and reduce support expenditures. There will be no need to hire more support engineers. Customers will feel that their interaction with the product has moved to a totally new level. Your product will become a clear and convenient solution that meets their needs.
24/7 Access to Information
A knowledge management portal is something that is available at any time and from any device. It means that employees or customers are not tied to their computers, they can use their smartphones to solve their problems. That’s perfect as they can check out some articles even late at night without waiting for tomorrow. The sooner they get information, the less time they will lose.
User Behavior Statistics
A very useful feature of any knowledge management portal is statistics. It is great when you know how users read your documentation, what they are looking for, and which topics are helpful and which are not. All that information will help you improve your documentation.
As you can see, a knowledge management portal is a must for those businesses that are willing to grow. But creating a knowledge base is a continuous process — it needs to be updated regularly as things change in a company. It requires time and effort. But in return, you will get more: improved customer service, quick and easy onboarding, smooth routine for employees. So, if you want to make your product successful, pay more attention to the way you organize documentation for internal and external visitors.
