Any tips and trix on how to move from traditional knowledge creation and usage to KCS?

[Cristina Silva]

I work as a knowledge manager in a customer service organisation and we are today applying knowledge in the traditional way - from a few to many and we are thinking of how to be able to use and consume knowledge even further and make it more contextual and seamless. We are therefore looking into KCS but I have a couple of questions that I hope you can advice upon: How can we transition to KCS and can you advice on the necessary steps to apply? How does it work to turn on KCS in ServiceNow? Which roles should exist in a KCS environment? Many questions but I hope there are others out there that have gone through the same journey and that have great advice to give. Thanks in advance!

[jenniemiller]

Hi Cristina, 

We use a combination of ways to generate good knowledge for our applications and services.

When we onboard a new service, we have a Project Gate Review, that ensures that we have accounted for various things before the new service is implemented: including that the proper Change Management has taken place, we have appropriate customer-facing and frontline support knowledge articles, that the new service has been reviewed by Information Assurance, etc. This will give us initial documentation to support that service out of the gate and is generated primarily by the SMEs for the service-owning team.

As the service is operationalized, we use the UFFA principles (Use It, Fix It, Flag It, Add It) to further round out our documentation on that service. We empower any member of our organization (customers and staff) to be able to Flag articles to report incorrect or missing information, as well as empower members of our IT departments to create draft knowledge articles for any perceived gaps in knowledge. We have turned on the Approval Publication workflow, so that those drafts will be directed to the Ownership Groups for those services, to examine them for accuracy and comprehension prior to publication.

I hope that helps, but please let me know if I can provide any more details.

-- Jennie

Knowledge Manager

Michigan Medicine

[Per-Kristian BM]

Hello!

I would first of all participate in a KCS V6 practices workshop and get the certification

check here to ask for one for your company https://www.serviceinnovation.org/kcs/kcs-certified-trainers/, or to join a planned one: https://www.serviceinnovation.org/events/category/trainer-led-workshops/kcs-v6-practices-workshop/

you need these plugins in SN:

need to have: knowledge management advanced

Optional: KCS capabilities for roles and some article value field. (I have not used it and I have done 3 KCS implementations in serviceNow. 

ServiceNow is the best tool in the business for KCS, but it is not about the tool, it is about the people. if your agents doesn't use the KB correctly by not updating or creating new content according to the KCS best practices, the output will be limited. 

get the KCS workshop, get certified, this helps you get a good start and make it a whole lot easier.

KCS is a bit like art, you need to know all the rules before you know which one you can to break. You need to design your knowledge process to best your org. needs, KCS does this 🙂

It is important that you spend some time to design the content standard, the template in SN and how you best can integrate knowledge management into the problem solving process. Some developing might be needed to get it exactly how you want it.

ServiceNow and KCS is a match, and done correctly, the KB becomes a lot of fun and it brings the  management into knowledge management.

Good luck 🙂

[David Kay]

I came to answer the question, but now I see Per-Kristian has already said what I was going to say!

ServiceNow supports KCS very well, and KCS processes are not rocket science.  What is challenging is change management: changing how people do their work, and what people think their job is.  So the first step is securing executive sponsorship.  KCS can't be only a grassroots effort.  

Once you have executive sponsorship, all but the smallest teams need a dedicated program manager.  (Maybe that will be you?)

Prior to taking a KCS v6 Practices workshop, if you have access to LinkedIn Learning, here's a less-than-an-hour intro to KCS:  Customer Service: Knowledge Management.  (Disclaimer: I am compensated some number of cents when people take this course.)