Knowledge Base
What would you do in case of a knowledge blackout?
January 17, 2012 | 
Author Beginning tonight at midnight Wikipedia will be closing down its US site for twenty four hours to protest the federal anti-privacy legislation known as SOPA, warning it is a threat to free speech.
Whether you agree with or oppose the proposed legislation this action raises a lot of issues. Free speech governance concerns aside, an intended consequence is that many who rely on wikipedia for information are going to be disappointed when they cannot get to what they are looking for. Instead visitors will be directed to contact their congressmen to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) legislation.
Knowledge management and ownership is a serious issue that must be addressed. But this kind of action also raises the question “What would happen if you could not get to needed company information”? It brings to light our vulnerability to how we access important ‘knowledge’.
Many times companies and organizations do not think about the value of company knowledge unless it is compromised. A fire or physical disaster can destroy paper documentation or even local PC’s and servers, not to mention undocumented knowledge that is dependent on a person.
A web-based knowledge base is an essential tool for storing valuable knowledge. With the proper credentials it can be retrieved anywhere, anytime. This can make your everyday operations smoother and even save your company in a crisis.
We will have to see what happens with SOPA and PIPA. By all means if you have an opinion please tell your legislators. In the meantime YOU have control over your data. Guard it well!
For information on the Novo Knowledge Base or for a free trial see: http://www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/
Posted in General, Knowledge Base | 
Tags: Knowledge Base Software, knowledge management, knowledge privacy, PIPA, SOPA | 
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Novo Solutions | ANNOUNCING…Version 4.8 – The Best Novo ever!
You spoke….we listened! We are pleased to deliver version 4.8 with many feature enhancements our clients have been asking for!
Here’s what’s new!
Company News: Central area that can be a Home Page +Search hub for your Knowledge Base
Article Comments: Blog style in line comments beneath selected articles so visitors can interact with each other on article content
Enhanced Article Feedback: Article Feedback and Voting enhancement that allows you to better track how well your support documentation is serving your customers
RSS Capability: RSS feeds allow customers to stay informed with the latest article posts.
Other Enhancements:
Core/General:
- Ability to Disable Admin Users
- Ability to reorder Custom Rules
- Ability to run custom timer rules on Date & Date/Time UDF’s
Knowledge Base:
- AJAX style auto complete search field on Home Page and Advanced search pages
- Normalize Cute default font and default.css content styles
- Ability to display Author &/or Editor
- Ability to change Authorship of an article
- Ability to enable a Captcha feature on Article Comments, Feedback and Questions
- Various Custom Rules Enhancements
- New Mailto Variables (Author; Editor; Group; etc.)
- Run Rules based on Editors
Help Desk:
- Memorized Ticket Scheduling Enhancement
- Ability to export viewcase.asp to excel
- Enhanced Assign Due Date and UDF action for custom rules
- Enhanced Ticket Search Enhancement
- Ability to Enable/Disable Automatic New Ticket Notifications
Assets:
- Add Asset UDF setting display on asset search
- Related Articles section on Add/Edit Asset.asp
- Status ordering for Assets
- View Paths for Locations (reports)
Reports:
- Ability to create a Report that shows all users that are subscribed to a particular article
- Ability to create a customer report that includes subscriptions
- Ability to report on Assets with related Articles and Visa-Versa
- Report on Included Articles
- View Paths for Categories and Asset Locations
Contact us for a free trial!
Did you ‘Novo it’ today?
Who would have thought we would be speaking words in the workplace such as “tweet’, ‘wiki’, ‘blog’, and ‘google’? Technology sure does wear a face of humor doesn’t it? I guess they are really no different than words of the past such as ‘Xerox’ and ‘Kleenex’, but they do have silly rings to them.
Take google for example. This company name has become a verb. How often have you heard (or said), “have you tried googling that”? Around here we say that a lot.
Imagine our delight when our customers tell us that they ‘novo’ at their workplaces. When they need to retrieve knowledge they will ask, ‘did you novo that’? That has become the term for looking for something in their Novo Knowledge Base.
Now we are not google, but we are happy that our software has become the mainstay of getting quick information for many organizations. This is what we have dreamed of since we developed our foundation knowledge base application.
So the question is, “have you novo-ed today”? If not please contact us and we will set you up with a free trial so you can try it out for yourself.
Wiki or Managed Knowledge Base – what’s right for you?
All of us know the value of accessible, stored knowledge. Not that long ago few of us used words like wiki or knowledge base, now they have become common words in our workplaces and in everyday life.
Many of us have learned the hard way that with knowledge comes responsibility. In order to be effective one has to build & maintain organizational knowledge to its end goal to be accurate, easy to access, &helpful. Organizing knowledge does not happen by itself – it has to be regularly managed.
Consider the wiki. Someone had the great idea that assembling knowledge could be a shared effort. Why not let people who may be experts contribute their knowledge so it can be shared with others? This would allow experts to play a part, and take the burden off management to be required to compose all of the desired information.
For many a wiki is a good solution, but it is not without its Problems.
Wiki submissions:
- Must be reviewed and/or approved for accuracy
- Must be reviewed and/or approved when edits are made
- May be subjective to the writer’s motivation
- May not provide a thorough answer
So for those who are counting on a wiki to be a big timesaver you may need to think again. There is still a significant time investment to manage a wiki.
For many organizations a knowledge base is still the best solution. Today’s new features, such as workflow automation makes article management easier than ever. Workflow automation:
- Offers the capability of defining workflows with various completion or approval paths.
- Empowers administrators to easily view pending task status, assignments, predecessor relationships & deadlines
- Email notifications can be automatically sent to the appropriate person or group when tasks are completed or rejected.
This flexibility allows management the ability to manage article creation through administrators’ and others as needed.
For information on the Novo Knowledge Base see http://www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/.
Posted in General, Knowledge Base | Tags: customer support, Customer Support Software, knowledge base, knowledge management, Novo Solutions | No Comments »
Knowledge Base Software | Managing Your Company Data
Whether it is the beginning of your fiscal year or you are approaching year end, now is a great time to work towards managing your business goals. Organizing company-wide goals into a searchable, central knowledge repository is a great way to categorize and keep track of essential business data.
Beginning of year: Now is the time to layout goals for the year. From mission and vision statements to business plans to policies and procedures, having important information in an easy to access tool is vital. With a knowledge base you are able to easily add, edit and remove content; workflows allow you to automate reviews and approvals so correct information is always at hand.
End of Year: Managing company knowledge in to a single area is a great way to not only organize data so that everyone can see it, but also allows you bring everyone on board with goals of what needs to be done to finish well. You can review goals to see where you are, set end of year goals, and have valuable data on hand to set goals for next year. Automated review reminders will notify you to clean up outdated content to ensure company data is current and accurate.
Here are some examples of information that can be managed in a knowledge base:
- Mission/vision statements
- Company policies
- Human resource documents
- Business plans
- Security reviews
- Safety regulations
- Images, rss feeds, videos
- Searchable attachments: MS Word, Excel, pdf’s, etc.
For more information on the Novo Knowledge Base see: www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/
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Novo software…your port in the storm!
The past couple weeks have been eventful here in Virginia (our office is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia). First we had an earthquake – the first in our region in decades. Following that we had a hurricane. We are grateful to have fared well throughout the storms and pray our customers did as well.
All of this has us thinking about disaster preparedness. We just never know what sudden events can unexpectedly impact our homes and workplaces. When these events do hit we are grateful for the preparations we have done. In extreme circumstances planning can help to make sure you are able to maintain business continuity and at the very least help you return to ‘normal’ faster.
The Novo Knowledge Base is a great tool for documenting essential business knowledge. For example you may track:
- Emergency procedures
- Emergency contact information
- Ramp up procedures
- Employee information
- Provide a single, common place for employees to reference
The Novo Asset Manager will track your assets in the event of loss:
- Pictures of assets
- Serial numbers, locations, etc.
- Date of purchase, amount paid, etc.
And finally if you have damage and need to manage restoration issues the Novo Help Desk will allow you to:
- Track and organize requests
- Assign requests to the appropriate person/department
- Record status of requests
Best of all the software is web based, so you can access it from anywhere! If you would like more information on one of the modules above please give us a call at 757-687-6590.
Deployment Models – Parallel Deployment
I have spoken often with potential clients who have illustrated a situation where their organization needs what they assume to be several separate solutions. On many occasions, I’ve also spoken with potential clients who are aware of the needs of not only their own department but of other departments as well in terms of support solutions. I have also spoken with many potential clients who assume not only that they must purchase, implement and maintain multiple instances of multiple applications but that they must also pay a hefty premium in order to do so.
When IT requires a Change Manager, the Service Desk must be provided with a modern Help Desk solution and all departments would benefit from having access to a centralized Knowledge Base – the Novo Customer Support Suite renders it completely unnecessary to purchase multiple instances of multiple applications.
User interaction, for instance, may be governed by authentication which has the end effect of Service Desk users seeing a Help Desk application and those users involved with Change Management seeing a Change Manager. This logic also applies to the Knowledge Base where article access may be controlled based upon authentication.
When tied into your Microsoft Active Directory, all of this efficiency and power is seamlessly delivered to the appropriate user via a single sign on experience! If you find that these capabilities might have merit for your organization or should you have any questions, comments or concerns, any member of the Novo Sales Staff would be delighted to have a conversation with you!
Flexible Scalable Customizable Intuitive – Novo Customer Support Suite Increases Profits by Enhancing Efficiency – Part Two
Flexibility in an application often engenders fear in the hearts of professionals tasked with managing the initial set up and continued management of a solution. While this anxiety is completely understandable, Novo renders such fears largely baseless. We’ve done so by creating an intuitive interface for administrators and by providing the personal touch of training your core cadre of users. Should assistance be required, our Support Portal enables self help and of course our Support Department is there for you as well.
This same ease of use extends to internal and external users as well. Internal users are able to quickly become proficient in the use of the Novo Customer Support Suite which directly relates to an attractive bottom line for several reasons. Not only will fewer wage-hours utilized learning to utilize the system handsomely impact your Return on Investment Analysis, but enhanced customer satisfaction will directly translate into greater customer retention rates and increased sales due to the positive image of your organization in the marketplace.
All of the power and flexibility in the world amounts to nothing if a solution is not cost effective both in terms of the initial capital expenditure and ongoing cost. With regard to initial expense, you must objectively weigh the cost of continuing to manage the business of your organization as you have been against the cost of managing your business after the efficiencies of a solution have been realized. Novo even makes this daunting task easy – we’ll do it for you! Any member of the Novo Sales Staff are delighted to have a conversation with you to assess the needs of your organization as well as to gather the information required to prepare for you a detailed Return on Investment Analysis.
Flexible Scalable Customizable Intuitive – Novo Customer Support Suite Increases Profits by Enhancing Efficiency – Part One
In today’s business world, all businesses are seeking to not only increase efficiency but to enhance service while doing so. In such a business climate, most organizations find themselves in a situation where more work must be performed by the same or number of employees. If unable to increase staffing to manage workloads, more efficiently managing work through the use of a support application makes sound business sense. Such a solution must be scalable, cost effective, robust, flexible, easily configured and intuitively utilized by both employees and customers alike. These goals may seem mutually exclusive, but I would like to share with you how the Novo Customer Support Suite facilitates the accomplishment of these contradictory aspirations.
No matter the size of your organization or how rapidly it is growing in terms of customers or staff, the Novo Customer Support Suite is scalable to suit your needs. A robust core renders performance or reliability issues due to such variables as the amount of data being managed or the number of licensed users utilizing the system a non-issue. The Novo Customer Support Suite has thrived in as diverse of environments as a small managed services firm and an entire military installation.
Building on this solid foundation, the Novo Customer Support embodies the fundamental flexibility your organization needs in order to both manage existing work but to dynamically change and grow as your business needs require. User defined fields, custom rules, custom workflows, email integration, custom forms and lists and editable templates for request submission and Knowledge Base articles are some but not all of the features of the Novo Customer Support Suite that facilitate this flexibility. Novo also provides your organization with an End User Portal that is fully customizable in terms of appearance and user access based on roles and permissions.
Procedures Management | Knowledge Base Software
Some people only think of Knowledge Base Software as a tool for customer support operations, but if you have a KB system in-house you have an excellent tool for Human Resources.
All kinds’ company information can be placed into a knowledge base for easy access. A quality system will allow you to set permissions so that only management can view restricted data, making it perfect for storing key employee resources. With other features such as article review and workflows, HR can ensure that company information is constantly reviewed & up-to-date.
Let’s take a look at a common HR component – Procedures Management:
Whether documented or not, almost all organizations have ‘procedures’ on how day-to-day business tasks are completed. Some attempt to document as many procedures as possible while others rely on verbal knowledge and training on how tasks are accomplished. Imagine the value of being able to easily retrieve data on how procedures are performed! This would:
- Ensure procedures are current and correct
- Serve as an ideal training tool
- Preserve Knowledge when an employees leaves
Check with your IT dept. and see if they are using a knowledge management system. If they are you could share the software in what is called a Shared Services environment. This environment allows you to share one application across multiple departments. Data is categorized among the various departments, so you only see your information and they only see their information – this ensures data is kept secure!
Typically all that is needed to expand the system is to purchase additional licenses for other departments and make easy configurations. Additional modifications, such as customized templates are easily done to personalize the look and feel for different departments.
For more information on the Novo Knowledge Base see: www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/
Posted in Knowledge Base | Tags: knowledge base, Knowledge Base Software, knowledge management, procedure management, shared services | No Comments »