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

[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.)

[Matthew_13]

@Cristina Silva - This is a great question and one many teams face when moving beyond traditional “publish and push” knowledge. Transitioning to KCS is less about flipping a switch and more about changing how people create, use, and improve knowledge as part of their daily work. With ServiceNow, the platform can support KCS, but success really comes from clear roles, training, and starting small—embedding knowledge into workflows, measuring usage, and improving articles through reuse and feedback rather than upfront perfection. Hope this helpful!