How to Build and Maintain an ITSM Knowledge Base

Creating a well-organized ITSM knowledge base is crucial for effective IT Service Management. An ITSM knowledge base centralizes information, enabling quick access to resources like FAQs, troubleshooting guides, SOPs, and best practices. This guide covers the benefits of knowledge management and foundational steps to build and maintain an ITSM knowledge base, ensuring it remains an asset for IT teams and end-users alike.

First off, some essential definitions...

What is an IT Service Management Knowledge Base?

An ITSM knowledge base is a centralized repository for organized, searchable information essential to IT service management and optimal service delivery. It serves a broad range of users - such as IT staff, customers, and stakeholders - providing quick access to relevant documentation, training materials, procedures and other assets. Key features like search capabilities and user feedback options enhance accessibility and usability, ultimately improving productivity and customer satisfaction.

A knowledge base is typically created to support a specific purpose, such as providing customer support, facilitating employee training, or documenting internal processes. It can be accessed by a variety of stakeholders, including employees, customers, partners, and other users.

What is a Knowledge Asset?

A knowledge asset is any piece of information or data that provides value to an organization and its stakeholders. Knowledge assets can include documentation, training materials, best practices, troubleshooting guides, FAQs, and workflows. These assets are stored in an ITSM knowledge base to be easily accessible, helping teams address recurring issues, improve decision-making, and streamline processes.

Knowledge assets displayed in Alemba Service Manager via Knowledge Search

What is ITSM Knowledge Management?

ITSM knowledge management refers to the process of gathering, organizing, sharing, and maintaining knowledge assets in a knowledge base within an ITSM platform. The goal of ITSM knowledge management is to ensure that valuable insights and solutions are readily available to IT teams and end-users, which helps streamline ITSM processes and reduce the need for repetitive troubleshooting. Knowledge Management is one of the ITSM best practices set out in the ITIL framework.

The Business Benefits of Building an ITSM Knowledge Base

Implementing an effective ITSM knowledge base provides a range of benefits that optimize ITSM solutions:

• Enhanced Efficiency: Rapid access to knowledge articles helps IT teams resolve issues faster and more accurately, leading to reduced costs and higher productivity.
• Assists Self-Serving: By enabling end users or customers to access knowledge assets directly on the Self-service Portal, they can ‘pre-diagnose’ issues that are logged to the Service Desk or even prevent tickets from being logged entirely.
• Streamlined Onboarding and Training: A well-structured knowledge base is an invaluable resource during employee onboarding and training. New team members can refer to the knowledge base to learn about the organization's IT environment, processes, tools, and common issues.
• Knowledge Retention: By capturing and retaining knowledge within an organization, a knowledge base helps to ensure that critical information and expertise are not lost when employees leave or move to other roles.
• Data-Driven Improvements: A well-managed knowledge base can provide insights into usage patterns, popular search queries, and frequently accessed articles. By analyzing these reports, organizations can identify areas where additional documentation or training may be needed, address common pain points, and optimize the knowledge base to better serve the needs of users.

Research backs this up, such as this report from IDC revealing that robust knowledge management systems (KMS), significantly enhances organizational efficiency, improves business performance, and boosts customer satisfaction and productivity, resulting in a strong return on investment across departments.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY

Read how an Australian Government Department implemented a customer-facing knowledge base to help reduce Service Desk calls by up to 18% with Alemba Service Manager

Steps to Build a Robust ITSM Knowledge Base

Building a knowledge base requires careful planning, organization, and ongoing maintenance to ensure that it remains a valuable resource for users. Steps include:

Step 1: Define the purpose and scope

Identify the primary purpose of the ITSM knowledge base - such as customer support or IT documentation - and outline the target audience and key objectives. Clarity on these foundational elements shapes the knowledge base’s structure and content.

Step 2: Identify the core content

Determine which types of content are essential for your ITSM tool. Different types of knowledge content include:

• FAQs
• How-to articles or videos
• White papers
• Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Workflows
• Glossaries
• Case studies
• Service level agreements (SLAs)
• Troubleshooting guides

Identifying the right topics for inclusion may involve reviewing existing documentation, conducting interviews with subject-matter experts, or gathering user feedback.

The easiest way to get started is to look for the most commonly occurring issues - the “low-hanging fruit” - that represents on average about 80% of your total tickets logged to support.

Compose articles that will support this 80% first. By following the 80/20 rule, you can realize instant benefits whilst you refine and prepare more knowledge articles to bolster your knowledge base.

Example of a Knowledge entry in Alemba Service Manager

Step 3: Organise the knowledge structure

Establish a clear hierarchy with topics and subtopics. Use tags and keywords to categorize information, enhancing searchability and helping users navigate the ITSM platform effectively..

Step 4: Develop a content strategy

Designate content owners for specific sections and define a review process for regular updates. Incorporating user feedback also ensures content relevance and quality over time.

Step 5: Choose a ITSM knowledge base tool

Selecting the right ITSM software to build the knowledge base is crucial. Ensure the platform supports access control, content versioning, and analytics to align with your organization's needs.

Alemba Service Manger is PinkVERIFY™ Certified for Knowledge Management as well as 18 other ITSM processes. Find out how Alemba can help your business build an optimal knowledge base by getting in touch today.

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Step 6. Set Up Business Access and Permissions

Establish access permissions based on user roles to secure sensitive information while ensuring essential content is readily accessible to relevant stakeholders.

Step 7. Populate the Knowledge Base

Create and import relevant articles, ensuring content is accurate, clear, and easy to navigate. Maintain a focus on quality to build trust among users of the knowledge base.

Step 8. Test and Refine

Conduct regular testing to ensure all content is accurate and accessible. Collect user feedback to identify and address areas for improvement, ensuring the knowledge base remains a trusted resource.

Step 9. Promote the Knowledge Base

Drive adoption by integrating the knowledge base into service platforms and offering training to users. Promoting awareness and usage enhances the value of your ITSM knowledge base.

Best Practices for ITSM Knowledge Base Management

To keep your ITSM knowledge base effective, you should:

1. Be easily accessible
2. Be organized and easy to navigate
3. Solve common problems
4. Save a customer or agent time
5. Be up-to-date
6. Provide relevant content in a way that will resonate with your customer

By following these best practices, organizations can build a knowledge base that is effective, efficient, and user-friendly. This can lead to improved customer satisfaction, increased productivity, and better decision-making across the organization.

Maintaining Your ITSM Knowledge Base

It is often the case that in the beginning, there is a great deal of enthusiasm around setting up a knowledge base as excitement over the benefits builds.

However, it can sometimes be difficult to maintain a repository due to the sheer size of information or the lack of time employees have, and the enthusiasm begins to wane. Here are some tips and tricks on how to maintain your knowledge base and keep it up-to-date.

• Set articles to expire no more frequently than annually. The longer the space between reviews you can make, the better.
• Incentivize contributors and editors to review or update x articles per week.
• Rotate editor duties so that everyone has a chance to participate and take ownership of the quality and content.
• Encourage users to provide feedback on the content, such as suggesting improvements or pointing out errors. This feedback can help to identify areas that need updating and improve the overall quality of the knowledge base.

For more information, explore our ITSM tools and learn how Alemba Service Manager supports building and maintaining a scalable ITSM knowledge base. You may also find value in reading our guide on knowledge management best practices for further insights.

Find out more about Knowledge Management and building a knowledge base with this useful model and case study.

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