Knowledge Management with KCS

The part of my publications on Habré was connected with knowledge management subjects. Once upon a time (for the IT industry 4 years - a lot) 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's users and collect material for publications. A survey was published, the results were collected and small conclusions were made. By the way, the survey is still open and some people even fill out a form.

I stopped studying the subject of knowledge management, but for all this time I received feedback on published articles. This means that the topic has not faded away, and after 4 years I would like to add additional materials to the information field of the runet.

I am planning a small series of articles about KCS - Knowledge Centered Support.

Who is KCS suitable for?

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If simple, then KCS is designed for companies providing customer and / or technical support. If it is more complicated, then the methodology, if desired, adapts to the subject area of ​​any company, in which the question arose of preserving and using accumulated knowledge. However, the third letter is still about Support, so we’ll concentrate on the examples with support orientation.

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

Remember what “knowledge”

Knowledge is not a ruble. Over time, the definition does not change, so I’ll just provide a paragraph from the last article.
Knowledge is the laws of the subject area (principles, relationships, laws) obtained as a result of practical activity 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 aligned processes. The purpose 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. The work of support is built 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 confine ourselves to one picture.

Yes, this is another marketing term!

May be. But KCS is not just another class of systems by type of ECM, EDMS, EIM, etc. This is a methodology developed by the Consortium of Service Innovations . The giants of the industry united and together, without haste, since 1992, they have been grinding and describing the processes, as they should ideally be. And the software - we'll talk about it in the third article - can be anything, even though the links in Google Docs link.

And here are the marketing figures

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

Quick problem solving

• 50-60% reduction in problem solving time
• 30-50% increase in the share of problem solving 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 web self-service)

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

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

Conclusion

As with any methodology, KCS is not a panacea for all problems arising from the work of a support service, but it is a good help for the formalization of processes and more harmonious work.

From readers would like to get feedback. Have you met with KCS? Or maybe with some other methodology? Do you think process formalization is a blessing or controlled chaos is better? In general, I would be glad if you shared your experience.

And finally - a poll, as without him.