A knowledge base is defined as a self-serve online database of information about a particular product, solution, or subject. In the IT world, a knowledge base can be integrated with a help desk to provide tips and easy-to-follow guidelines, which admins can use to implement solutions for common IT issues, and end-users can harness for self-help and independent resolution purposes.

Why a knowledge base is important

In today’s fast-paced, digital and connected world, immediacy is the name of the game. End users want their IT issues resolved at lightning speed, with as few touchpoints as possible, and are even willing to take a stab at resolving them themselves if doing so will get them back up and running quicker. And when they do turn to IT help desks for, well, help, they impatiently demand immediate resolution, which admins and support staff would be happy to do if they were equipped with the right toolbox – the knowledge base.

Knowledge in general, and a knowledge base, in particular, is any help desk’s comprehensive and insightful competitive advantage, as it is built to identify and resolve specific knowledge gaps, questions, and issues common to a specific company or offering.

• A single repository of critical information – Designed to streamline daily operations, improve efficiency and drive productivity
• An effective way to store important information – On a company’s product, services, customer base, partners, and more
• Promotes self-service – By support staff and end-users, reducing active tickets, and shortening ticket resolution times
• Fosters workforce collaboration – Information sharing is easier than ever, encouraging support staff to more willingly point others in the right direction
• Enhanced support for greater customer satisfaction – Leading to improved retention, repeat business, increased profits, and a superior company reputation

Building and managing a knowledge base

When done correctly, building a knowledge base can empower your support staff and your customers to use your product or take advantage of your service better. But how do you make a knowledge base from scratch?

At SysAid, we want every ITSM process to run as smoothly as possible, including building and managing your company’s knowledge base. So, we’ve put together an easy to follow, step-by-step guide that will help you build your knowledge base like a pro:

Step 1: Do your due diligence

Thoroughly research your support staff AND end users’ knowledge management needs – the types of issues they may experience and the content they will need to help optimize and streamline any possible resolution processes. This will help ensure that the content you create focuses on the right end-user questions and pain points from multiple relevant perspectives.

Step 2: Start small

First, create only the content that responds to the most commonly reported issues (FAQs, common search words, etc.). These maximize learning and resolution and deliver the highest possible returns with the lowest risk and investment (time and money). Later, you can expand your knowledge base to include other topics as the need arises.

Step 3: Organize your content

Before jumping into execution mode, be sure your knowledge base is as organized as possible to ensure maximum findability in minimum time. Define how your content will be grouped and whether these groupings overlap or are mutually exclusive.

Step 4: Adopt knowledge management software

Use knowledge management software to make your knowledge base content available to all. With SysAid Knowledge Management, knowledge articles can be accessed directly from within a ticket, allowing the service desk agent to either directly help or to suggest a relevant knowledge article to the end-user actively.

Step 5: Monitor knowledge base effectiveness

Your knowledge management software should also be used to analyze the use of your knowledge base, so you can continuously improve upon your content, enhance your service desk’s impact and scale.

How to integrate a knowledge base within your help desk

To enable optimum effectiveness and value to be generated from your IT team’s work, a knowledge base should ideally be integrated into your help desk. SysAid’s knowledge management database seamlessly integrates with the SysAid Help Desk so IT support staff can easily find relevant knowledge articles from within a ticket and actively suggest relevant articles to users. End users can also access the Knowledge Base on their own, enabling superior self-service and self-help 24/7.

With SysAid Knowledge Base, you can:

• Quickly create knowledge base items
• Attach images and media to knowledge base content
• Attach knowledge base articles to entities in SysAid
• Benefit from the auto-suggest capability for better search results
• Provide your users with 24/7 support

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