Knowledge Management with KCS

Some of my publications on Habré were related to the topic of knowledge management . Once upon a time (for IT 4 years - many) I conducted a study on knowledge management. Then I collected information in order to find out the current development of the industry, collect the experience of Habr users and collect material for publications. A survey was published, the results were collected, and small conclusions were drawn . By the way, the survey is still open and sometimes someone even fills out a questionnaire.

I ceased to deal with the issue of knowledge management, but during all this time I received feedback on published articles. This means that the topic has not died out, and after 4 years I would like to add additional materials to the Runet information field.

I plan a short series of articles about KCS - Knowledge Centered Support.

Who is KCS suitable for?

If simple, KCS is designed for companies that provide customer and / or technical support. More complicated, the methodology, if desired, adapts to the subject area of ​​any company in which the question arose of preserving and using the accumulated knowledge. However, the third letter is still about Support, so we will focus and give examples with a focus on support.

A typical example where KCS comes in handy: the technical support employee does not know how to solve the problem when he receives a request from the client, and he has nowhere to see if anyone has solved this problem before him, i.e. he either has to transfer the application to a different level of support, or pull his colleagues / bosses.

Remember what “knowledge” is

Knowledge is not a ruble. Over time, the definition does not change, so I’ll just give a paragraph from a previous article.
Knowledge is the laws of the subject area (principles, relationships, laws) obtained as a result of practical activities and professional experience, allowing specialists to set and solve problems in this area.

What is KCS

In short, KCS is about processes, and about properly built processes. The goal of KCS is to solve the problem once, and then constantly use the solution found. According to KCS, this is achieved through the creation of a “collective experience” or “knowledge base” base. Therefore, Knowledge Centered Support. Support work is structured in such a way that there is maximum user involvement in the knowledge base.

How is this achieved? This is a double cycle process. We will analyze it in more detail in the following articles. In the meantime, we will limit ourselves to one picture.

Yes, this is another marketing term!

May be. But KCS is not the next class of systems such as ECM, EDMS, EIM, etc. It is a methodology developed by the Consortium of Service Innovations . Industry giants united and together, slowly, since 1992, polished and described the processes as they should ideally be. And the software - we will talk about it in the third article - can be anything, at least link to Google Docs.

And here are the marketing numbers

According to the research of the consortium itself, the implementation of KCS gives the following results.

Quick problem solving

• 50-60% reduced problem solving time
• 30-50% increase in the share of solving problems at the first call

Resource Optimization

• 70% reduction in time to reach a high professional level
• 20-35% reduction in staff turnover
• 20-40% increase in employee satisfaction

Electronic service

• 50% reduction in incoming load (problems are solved through self-service web)

Corporate Training Organization

• 10% reduction in incoming load by eliminating the cause in the product
• 20% increase in the share of problem solving at the lower support level

ITIL and KCS

I immediately got acquainted with the principles of KCS question. But what about ITIL, in particular, ITIL incident management? Competitor or not? I found a more or less authoritative work on this subject, which denotes the following thesis: KCS complements ITIL.

Conclusion

Like any methodology, KCS is not a panacea for all the problems that arise as a result of the support service, but it is a good help for formalizing processes and more coordinated work.

I would like to receive feedback from readers. Have you met with KCS? Or maybe with some other methodology? Do you think that formalizing processes is better or controlled chaos? In general, I would be glad if you shared your experience.

And finally - a poll, how could it be without it.