How Building an Internal Knowledge Base Can Increase Your Company’s Profitability

Simplifying the Research Process Knowledge bases are not new technology. They’ve existed for years—in fact, the internet itself is considered one of the earliest digital knowledge bases, providing ready access to a myriad of information. However, an internal knowledge base, meaning only accessible to an organization, can be more useful because it focuses strictly on information relevant to the organization and task at hand. Companies today are learning to utilize internal knowledge base software to make their research processes as efficient as possible. What are Internal Knowledge Bases? An internal knowledge base is a centralized database of any information employees may need. It may include company resources such as objectives, policies, company values and troubleshooting procedures. When it is effectively managed, this internal knowledge base can serve as the primary resource for most, if not all employees. Internal knowledge bases are flexible, varying in size and complexity to suit your organization’s unique needs. Legal questions, human resources inquiries, training and on-boarding materials, and any other information suited to your company can be made available. All companies can benefit from implementing an internal-facing repository of information. When this database is robust yet streamlined, as well as properly maintained, it can serve as a vital tool for all employees. The Benefits Customer retention is one of the most important factors in an organization’s profitability. According to Harvard Business Review, it’s five times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. With a knowledge base in place for employees to reference as needed—every day in some cases—wait times and uncertainty go down, and customer satisfaction goes up. Satisfied customers stick around. In addition, research suggests that the average office employee spends 20% of their time researching internal information—that’s about 9 hours every week. In a world where technology has streamlined most professional practices in profound measures, it would seem that internal information storage would have evolved beyond this. Without a centralized information repository, employees are forced to spend hours researching information, and even recreating resources that already exist but simply can’t be found. Large corporations lose almost 10 billion dollars a year this way. It can also cause longer wait times for customers, who 60% of the time choose not to give their business to an organization after waiting on hold for just 5 minutes. Having a database of resources that are easily accessible can reduce research time by up to 35%, thus reducing customer wait times and consequent loss-of-business. Building your Knowledge Base When creating your knowledge base, focus on who the content is for and what purpose it should serve. “It’s not enough to throw a bunch of documents into your company knowledge base. Go through your content with a fine-tooth comb. The information you provide your employees needs to be easy to read and support their specific needs.” In other words, less might be more. Once you’ve created a knowledge base, the work isn’t done. It will require a good deal of upkeep to remain effective, including frequent updates and additions of new relevant content. Successful companies are never stagnant for long—as your business evolves, so must your knowledge base. You may wish to conduct polls or surveys and execute other research to provide insight about what types of information to prioritize in your database. Choosing the Right Software There is a variety of software available to help you create an effective internal knowledge base system. Depending on the size of your company, you can even build upon your organization’s preexisting intranet software. For large companies with multiple products, services and clients, you’re better off with an internal knowledge base that operates as a standalone tool. Options for free knowledge base software do exist, but as you may be able to guess, they come with certain limitations compared with paid-for software, such as a cap on the number of users. In either case, ensure you do your research and choose software that offers optimal security. For example, Wiki databases are a useful tool for some purposes, but since they allow anyone to add or edit content as they please, they are not the best choice for a company’s knowledge base software. You could even put your sensitive internal information at risk this way. Another factor to keep in mind when searching for the best software is intuitiveness. Your internal knowledge base should be easy for all employees to navigate—even those who aren’t necessarily tech-savvy. Getting Started As far as streamlining your company’s information research process goes, having an internal knowledge base in place that’s built upon reliable and intuitive software is the most effective thing you can do. Set aside some time to gather a team and explore all the options out there. Evaluate your company’s needs as far as content and information storage go, and start building your knowledge base today to increase productivity and profitability across the board.